Despite what you’ve heard, Matt & Kim do not write songs about “swing sets and lollipops.” Brooklyn vocalist/keyboardist Matt Johnson had to clear that up after his indie-pop duo was criticized for being way too upbeat thanks to its effervescent sound and even bouncier live shows. Throw in the fact that Johnson and drummer Kim Schifino are a real-life couple, and the result is something ridiculously sugary. To combat that perception, Matt & Kim’s music videos tap into the daring and the subversive. Their debut video, “5K,” features knives being brandished and then happily digging into body parts, leaving a bloody mess at the end. “Yea Yeah” depicts a one-take shot where all manner of edibles — rice, beans, ketchup, spaghetti, popcorn, cereal, flour — were chucked at the band while it tried to play. Most noteworthy of all, however, is “Lessons Learned,” in which the two hop out of a van in Times Square and strip as they walk along. During the shoot, strangers whipped out cameras and wore shocked expressions, but the pair stood its ground, eventually stopping naked to gaze at the city. (It was a great hook for a video — so good that Erykah Badu later did the same thing in “Window Seat.”) In their latest, “Cameras” from last November’s Sidewalks, Matt & Kim full-out brawl, using a maraca, a tambourine, a guitar, and Chinese take-out as weapons. The duo stops by Culture Room Sunday for a show alongside the Thermals and Flosstradamus’s Autobot
Sun., June 5, 7:30 p.m., 2011