The 1990s was an interesting period to come of age. Whilst certain aspects of the decade have become fashionable to kick, there was a whole lot of creativity going on, and much of the literature, music, film music and art that emerged have proved they have the staying power. Some of this was easily palatable, other aspects were rather more confrontational and controversial, and not without good reason. But every generation wants something to worry their parents about, right?
The 1995 film Kids was described by Ben Detrick of the New York Times as being ‘Lord Of The Flies‘ with skateboards, nitrous oxide and hip-hop.’ The soundtrack was done by the Folk Implosion, the latest project from one Lou Barlow, who’d started out in the original line-up of Dinosaur Jr, before forming his own band Sebadoh. Folk Implosion had been a comparatively obscure project, set to be distinct from the indie-rock Sebadoh were (brilliantly) making, and the film ended up giving both the band and Barlow their biggest hit. Barlow’s collaborator in Folk Implosion was singer-songwriter John Davis.
It should be noted that this album is distinct from the soundtrack album for the film that Barlow oversaw at the time – which also featured work from the likes of Daniel Johnston and Slint. What it is, is all of the songs the duo wrote for the movie, newly remastered, including B-sides and previously unreleased tracks.
During the Kids soundtrack sessions, the band had two TV/VCR set-ups in the studio, so they could tailor the music to specific scenes from the film. Davis explained later that ‘Natural One’ which opens the album started out as a jam. The working title of the instrumental was originally going to be ‘Dr. Dre’s House’ as he was obsessed with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and N.W.A. Despite not actually appearing in the film, the hypnotic groove of the song clearly became the defining sound of the Kids soundtrack, and did remarkably well commercially as well as peaking at no.29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and no.45 in the UK (it’s perhaps strange to think I heard the song one Sunday mid-morning on Radio 1 but those were truly different times).
However, a soundtrack on its own can seem without context, and this was more than simply a way to get Lou Barlow commercial success. Sure, tracks like ‘Cabride‘ and ‘Raise The Bells‘ may seem like daft throwaways on initial encounter. But there are also some incredible pieces here like ‘Nothing Gonna Stop‘ which proves that alternative bands really could embrace hip-hop sounds rather than just name-checking for credibility (I’ll leave the Judgment Night soundtrack out of this for now), and the dark and broody ‘Wet Stuff‘ could easily have appeared on DJ Shadow‘s …Entroducing which was also being made around the same time. It’s perhaps fitting that UNKLE‘s remix of ‘Natural One’ also appears here.
Whilst not containing dialogue snippets of the film as many soundtracks of the era did (see: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Natural Born Killers et al..) as an album on its own it’s interesting and largely successful, and proves that there is far more to the music produced than the aforementioned hit. It may not get the coverage of some of Barlow’s other work of what is now nearly a forty year career, but this should be investigated by those seeking a wider appreciation of what he has achieved, and those in search of wider thrills.
