This month, needle-in-the-haystack buzz band Black Kids released an absolutely brilliant single, a re-recorded version of their lone EP’s stand-out “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You.” That this track is going to be a hit isn’t in question—the song is too damn catchy not to be, and its release is well timed for summer. I’m predicting it’ll be big—like, Peter, Bjorn and John “Young Folks” big.
But the single could prove more important than “Young Folks.” That track was an oddity, a whistled diddy from a Swedish band. But with “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend,” Black Kids have captured a larger movement, perfectly distilling everything novel and alluring about modern indie-rock: the “hey, let’s have a party” giddiness, the ’80s undertones, the boy/girl flirtatiousness. Think of Black Kids as Los Campesinos!, only marketable.
Like a smaller scale version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “I’m Not Gonna Teach” could be a gateway song, a track that introduces the masses to a once-underground movement. The song’s synths provide a point of entrance for outsiders, bridging the gap between the indie-rock idiosyncrasies and the Killers-ish New Wave of popular modern-rock.
That Black Kids don’t have an album out yet could stall their rise, but the hypnotic, imaginative video for “I’m Not Gonna Teach” should ensure they’re one of the big stars at Lollapalooza by the time the festival roles around this August:
