There’s a long July 4 holiday weekend coming up fast here in our part of the world, and usually, Independence Day is one where most American folx take it outside. So the new MGMT video for “People In The Streets” caught our eye after it dropped yesterday (July 2), and while we don’t think it’s necessarily about chillin’, grillin’, and shooting Roman candles off into the neighbor’s yard, we can appreciate the portal into something more urgent.
The track is the latest taken from the Connecticut alt-pop duo’s February album Loss of Life, and the “People In The Streets” visual was directed by Christina Marie Karr. The psychedelic clip puts a swirling color of static into our headspaces — and way more than just red, white and blue.
“Here it is,” MGMT declare, “the last visual stop for Loss Of Life. The caboose is loose. The brain waves goodbye, components start breaking down. The smoke dissipates. Now the streets are empty. Now the streets are full. What is meant by all of this? When all is not and everything is still, everything moves… Life is bizarre combinations of impossible, framed by the mundane.”
The band has also supplied a Samuel Beckett quote to drive it all home: “The tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops. The same is true of the laugh.”
Think about that shit when you eat another hot dog.