commercials...

[satcho]

i don't watch tv, but i was walking past a TV in the restaurant i work at...and lo-and-behold, there was a car commercial with modest mouse- gravity rides everything, playing. i was mildly surprised. it started me thinking about indie music and mainstream commercials. has there ever really been a connection between the two? has a matador artist ever been on a commercial(while they were on matador)? granted, modest mouse isn't independent any more, but hey, they're close...they act indie...whatever that means...

[romanp]

I know Cat Power's cover of "Sea of Love" was used in a Prudential insurance ad a few years ago. Here's an often linked-to article that details indie acts in mainstream advertisements, it's from 2001 but the info is relevant to your query.
http://www.elephant6.com/press/NYtimes.html

[Paul]

JSBX's "Bellbottoms" was in a Nissan XTerra (am I right?) ad a year or two ago...

[Paul Davis]

While not indie, but somewhat related and timely, "Do You Realize?" by the Flaming Lips is on a car commercial right now. I'm not sure if this is the case in the U.S., but here in Canada the track is now beginning to get regular airplay on a couple of *GASP* Adult Contemporary stations!

[earl grey]

i remember the "bellbottoms" intro from a more recent american express commercial, but we might both be right. that intro is irresistably badass.

[Lyle]

Actually Jon Spener did a Subaru commercial as well as a American Express commercial.....but w'ever.... bands do commercials, some bands don't. It doesn't seem to have the stigma it had a few years ago though.....

-Lyle

[Miss Tasty Princess]

I've bought music by two different bands as a result of being exposed to their music via a commercial.

The first was Bend Me, Shape Me: The Best of The American Breed which I bought after hearing the title track in a Gap commercial. I ended up loving it and the track from the ad was actually one of the weaker ones. They sound sort of like Reg Presley of The Troggs singing for The Box Tops with more muscle.

The second was The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree. I thought the song in the VW commercial sounded cool so I bought the CD a few weeks ago when Best Buy had it on sale for $6.99. I like it but don't love it. I'd definitely go see them live but they've canceled the last two Atlanta gigs they were supposed to play.

[Paul]

Originally posted by Lyle
Actually Jon Spener did a Subaru commercial...
Ack! That's right. I meant to say Subaru...

Originally posted by Lyle
...bands do commercials, some bands don't. It doesn't seem to have the stigma it had a few years ago though.....

-Lyle
And, for that, I'm thankful. "Sellout" should be stricken from the lexicon.

[cant see over]

I saw a Helium video on Beavis and Butthead last night... does that count?

It seems to me, and this is just an idea, that the best music on TV is background music. We've already established Cat Power, Modest Mouse, the Flaming Lips and then some, and I constantly recognize good music in the background of MTV (Im sorry I said it...) shows, bands like Interpol and Zwan.

[Susan Kirk]

Those wacky record-collecting Lynnfield Pioneers had a song play for a whole month on a Nike commercial during the NBA playoffs....

[SlangKing]

Wasn't "Stereo" by Pavement used on one of the original commercials for the New Bug back in 1998 or so? I seem to remember hearing that along with Stereolab and a few others...

A very bizzarre pairing was the appearance of Galaxy 500's "Instrumental" track off of Today as the music to a Lexus commercial.

[Lyle]

No Pavement for BUG!

not yet at least....

-lyle

[serpico]

i don't watch tv, but i was walking past a TV in the restaurant i work at...

Why do you feel it necessary to tell us "I don't watch TV"?

[Paul]

Originally posted by serpico
i don't watch tv, but i was walking past a TV in the restaurant i work at...

Why do you feel it necessary to tell us "I don't watch TV"?
Some people think saying that makes them appear smarter. I don't subscribe to that philosophy.

[johansen smith]

watching TV is fantastic.

[satcho]

uh...i just don't. its not that that makes me smarter or anything, it's just i haven't found anything interesting on TV except for some movies, so i just find other(more interesting) things to do, like reading.
i don't know why i said that. i guess it just surprised me that the two minutes i watched that day included a modest mouse song.

[9000]

tv is totally underrated. i need to watch more of it.

[johansen smith]

Originally posted by 9000
tv is totally underrated. i need to watch more of it.
I like TV's early stuff, before it hit big.

[serpico]

It may be too much to ask for a pretentiousness-free zone on a Matador BB (a bit like asking everybody to check their irony at the door) but we can make an effort to root out the worst offenders.
The Anti-PC Police.

New Motto:

Matador BB: A place for thick necks and skinny wallets. A continuation of the strong, American, robust, bold tradition of Stephen Crane, NC Wyeth and Joe Carducci.

[satcho]

Originally posted by johansen smith
I like TV's early stuff, before it hit big.

yeah...i'm surprised TV put out their new crappy release, "Reality". it's just such a contradiction. too mainstream for me, but it still has influences from TV's earlier days, so i'm sure many TV fans still like it.

irony? what irony...

[9000]

Originally posted by johansen smith
I like TV's early stuff, before it hit big.

yeah, i was totally watching a lot of stuff on my 13" technicolor with tuning knob and rabbit ears, but then like everyone starting watching a lot of television too, so i had to go underground for a while.

[vesper]

MBB counter-cool to thread!
Egos deflated/replaced here!

Please. I think he was trying to contextualize or explain why this may be old news to some. I doubt satcho typed "I don't watch TV..." with the impression that we would sit at the other end of the monitor mouthing, "Dude is baaad!"

[serpico]

Vesper, I wish I had your rose coloured glasses.

You think "The Passion of The Christ" was evenhanded too?

[vesper]

Thanks! I got'um from Elton John.

And I haven't seen, and have no intention of seeing, the Passion..., though I don't see what relevance this really has to the thread. Aw fuck it, I'm going to see Rahzel, kiddies.

[bitterfruit]

Originally posted by Paul
Some people think saying that makes them appear smarter. I don't subscribe to that philosophy.

I didn't own a TV for 4-5 years....not a single TV in the house. Then I discovered digital cable and "On Demand." Life has not been the same since.

[serpico]

The relevance is that Gibson took an extremely literal-minded, surface level, ahistorical view (as have many others) of The Bible when he wrote/directed the movie.

I think you might be taking a similar view of satchmo's motives...

Anyway, enough of this. We've all been underhandedly pretentious in the past...

[Funk]

Originally posted by Mr.HCI

The first was Bend Me, Shape Me: The Best of The American Breed which I bought after hearing the title track in a Gap commercial. I ended up loving it and the track from the ad was actually one of the weaker ones. They sound sort of like Reg Presley of The Troggs singing for The Box Tops with more muscle.

The second was The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree. I thought the song in the VW commercial sounded cool so I bought the CD a few weeks ago when Best Buy had it on sale for $6.99. I like it but don't love it. I'd definitely go see them live but they've canceled the last two Atlanta gigs they were supposed to play.

1) You'd never heard that song before? That track's like a staple of oldies radio here in Canada.

2) They're currently opening for David Bowie, but a quick Pollstar search shows that that's probably only the Canadian shows, as the Stereophonics are opening when he's in yr neck of the woods. Oh the other hand, you get a show by Bedhead* (http://www.pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?By=Artist&Content=BEDHEA&PSKey=Y)






*Relax indie nerds, I don't think it's the same one.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Originally posted by Funk
1) You'd never heard ["Bend Me, Shape Me"] before? That track's like a staple of oldies radio here in Canada.Well . . . I live pretty damn far away from Canada, though I've been there a few times. Beyond that, the band was from Chicago and were more of a regional than national phenomenon (or so I gather from the liner notes) so it makes sense that they'd be better known in Canada than the Deep South.

[satcho]

radio? what's radio? isn't that the only place anyone ever hears "Smells Like Teen Spirit"?

(that's a joke. please laugh.)