Kids opens with a pre-pubescent Leo Fitzpatrick in a sweaty, awkward sex scene where he takes a young girl’s virginity. As Leo’s character, Telly, is in mid-thrust, the scene abruptly cuts to the opening credits with a bombastic, hardcore shock to the ears: Deluxx Folk Implosion’s “Daddy Never Understood.” Within the first four minutes of the film, the music sets up the 86-minute ride of a film.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Larry Clark’s iconic and controversial movie, which focused on the all-too-true lives of teenage New Yorkers in the early ‘90s. Written by Harmony Korine and starring a then-unknown cast of OC family (shout-out to Chloë and Rosario!), the film also featured diverse music that would define the hardcore/alt-rock/hip-hop cassettes of our adolescence. Only in a world like Harmony and Larry’s could hip-hop beats such as Artifacts’ “Wrong Side of Da Tracks” live in the same music credits as Daniel Johnston’s chord organ-driven song, “Casper The Friendly Ghost.” Iconic alt-rock musician Lou Barlow, of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, curated the soundtrack, which featured music from his own separate project, The Folk Implosion. We caught up with the musician, who still remembers coming to New York to hang out with Harmony and sleep at Larry’s apartment.
CHLOE DEWBERRY: Can you give us a bit of background as to how you became involved with the project?
LOU BARLOW: Harmony [Korine] actually contacted me via letter. He sent me, I guess it would amount to a fan letter, at least a year before Kids even came into the picture. He really liked my lo-fi 4trak home recordings and would send me these long letters. He was like, “I’m going to make movies” and I was like, “Interesting.” I didn’t know anything would come of it. But sure enough, I was contacted [and told] that he was working on a film with Larry Clark, whose photography books I’d actually seen. Harmony wanted me to come to New York and hang out with him and Larry to talk about what they wanted to do with the film. So Harmony kind of involved me very early on. I was from Boston, so they imagined me as this intellectual and they wanted me to give musical impressions of this sort of urban landscape as an outsider. They had a concept and I was very lucky to be a part of it.
Was that why you were so eager to get involved? Because the process was so organic with Harmony and Larry?
To be honest, I would have done it no matter what because it was an experience. When I actually met them, I went to New York and stayed overnight at Larry’s apartment and went out to eat with them and followed them around. They were really funny, like a comedy duo. It was this older guy and then Harmony was incredibly young and totally precocious. Like, he was throwing those little poppers on the street at people, like old ladies and cops, and then he would come up with these really elaborate lies about things and then you realized he was lying in a funny way. And then Larry, being this practically Vietnam veteran in comparison, was with this young and very intelligent kid. I was just following them around New York City and it was crazy. And then I involved my friend John D
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Larry Clark’s iconic and controversial movie, which focused on the all-too-true lives of teenage New Yorkers in the early ‘90s. Written by Harmony Korine and starring a then-unknown cast of OC family (shout-out to Chloë and Rosario!), the film also featured diverse music that would define the hardcore/alt-rock/hip-hop cassettes of our adolescence. Only in a world like Harmony and Larry’s could hip-hop beats such as Artifacts’ “Wrong Side of Da Tracks” live in the same music credits as Daniel Johnston’s chord organ-driven song, “Casper The Friendly Ghost.” Iconic alt-rock musician Lou Barlow, of Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh, curated the soundtrack, which featured music from his own separate project, The Folk Implosion. We caught up with the musician, who still remembers coming to New York to hang out with Harmony and sleep at Larry’s apartment.
CHLOE DEWBERRY: Can you give us a bit of background as to how you became involved with the project?
LOU BARLOW: Harmony [Korine] actually contacted me via letter. He sent me, I guess it would amount to a fan letter, at least a year before Kids even came into the picture. He really liked my lo-fi 4trak home recordings and would send me these long letters. He was like, “I’m going to make movies” and I was like, “Interesting.” I didn’t know anything would come of it. But sure enough, I was contacted [and told] that he was working on a film with Larry Clark, whose photography books I’d actually seen. Harmony wanted me to come to New York and hang out with him and Larry to talk about what they wanted to do with the film. So Harmony kind of involved me very early on. I was from Boston, so they imagined me as this intellectual and they wanted me to give musical impressions of this sort of urban landscape as an outsider. They had a concept and I was very lucky to be a part of it.
Was that why you were so eager to get involved? Because the process was so organic with Harmony and Larry?
To be honest, I would have done it no matter what because it was an experience. When I actually met them, I went to New York and stayed overnight at Larry’s apartment and went out to eat with them and followed them around. They were really funny, like a comedy duo. It was this older guy and then Harmony was incredibly young and totally precocious. Like, he was throwing those little poppers on the street at people, like old ladies and cops, and then he would come up with these really elaborate lies about things and then you realized he was lying in a funny way. And then Larry, being this practically Vietnam veteran in comparison, was with this young and very intelligent kid. I was just following them around New York City and it was crazy. And then I involved my friend John D