IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Ten years ago television commercials started to use some really cool music. I’m not sure if that was because marketing departments became more hip or because artists began to cash in, no longer fretting over the “sell out” label. HP used The Kinks “Picture Book” to advertise a line of printers. (It was named “Campaign of the Year” in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.) Apple used The Vines’ garage rock influenced “Ride” and U2’s “Vertigo” (their last great rocker) in their iPod campaign.
Today’s SotW, of Montreal’s “Everyday Feel Like Sunday”, was even used in an ad for NASDAQ. NASDAQ!?!
This wasn’t the first, or last, time that of Montreal licensed a song for a commercial. “Wraith Pinned to the Mist” was used earlier for a popular Outback Steakhouse ad. Later Comcast used “A Sentence of Sort in Kongsvinger” and T-Mobile used “Gronlandic Edit” in their campaigns.
Athens, Georgia based of Montreal is the main creative outlet for Kevin Barnes. Describing their style is very difficult because it has changed and evolved so many times since the band formed in 1996.
Beside their repertoire of eclectic songs, the band also has a very unique stage presence. I was able to see the once in San Diego in 2009 and the show lived up to expectations. Much like The Flaming Lips, their show is an extravaganza of music, costumes, lights, props, etc. In a word – bizarre. There are plenty of examples to check out on YouTube.
Enjoy… until next week.
Music in commercials fascinates me to some extent. Compare the stuff that used to play in commercials when we were kids to semi-recent T.Rex “20th Century Boy” for Volkswagon, Led Zep “Rock ‘n’ Roll” for Cadillac (!), and The Misfits “Where Eagles Dare” for some upstart whiskey, etc. (A friend told me he’s even heard Angry Samoans “Right Side Of My Mind” in some NFL lead-in.)
Of course, this is because folks our age, who think that music is super-cool, are the ones with (or supposed to be with) the money these days.
I was on business with a salesman friend of mine a few years ago and I noticed Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” blaring in some Mickey Mouse store in Downtown Disney. My friend said, “You know why that’s playing? So the parents don’t mind hanging around while the kids spend money.”
Everything happens for a reason. At least in advertising.
I find of Montreal too busy and misogynist and pretentious, but I like the song The Past Is A Grotesque Animal a lot, though it is busy and misogynist and pretentious.
http://youtu.be/f3RAI8Ntamw