CD Reviews

Matt and Kim

Matt and Kim | iheartcomix

By MIKAEL WOOD | July 17, 2007

3.0 Stars

Matt & Kim are Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino, two Brooklyn-based indie-pop believers who on their MySpace page describe their act as “an on-stage pizza party.” This is high self-praise, but it’s a description the duo live up to in their enthusiastic live show, which regularly inspires kids who wear sports-team T-shirts because it’s funny to pump their fists like guys who wear sports-team T-shirts because they like sports. Not unlike a bottled Frappuccino, Matt & Kim’s homonymous debut is better than no Matt & Kim at all, but it pales next to seeing the band in their true element (a steamy basement with enough oxygen for 10 percent of the people present). The problem, believe it or not, is money: capturing the scrappy intensity of the duo’s live attack is virtually impossible without the sort of

Matt & Kim, "Yea Yeah" (mp3)

high-end studio magic that’s prohibitively expensive for a DIY band like Matt & Kim. They sound like a thin(ner) and feeble(r) version of Mates of State here, but they’re not. Go see ’em play and find out for yourself.

Matt & Kim + Magic People + Howarewehawaii? | Middle East upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | July 19 | 617.864.EAST

Topics: CD Reviews , Mates of State, Kim Schifino, Matt Johnson, More

| More

See more deals

view all

[ 05/26 ] "A Natural Order," photographs by Lucas Foglia @ David Winton Bell Gallery

[ 05/26 ] George Orwell's 1984, adapted by Nick Lane @ Gamm Theatre

[ 05/26 ] "2012 RISD Graduate Thesis Exhibition" @ Rhode Island Convention Center

ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER | July 07, 2010
Astralwerks (2010)

DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY | July 01, 2010
Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.

TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR | June 24, 2010
When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.

THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS | June 16, 2010
"I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.

BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK | June 01, 2010
Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.