Hair dye product Touch of Gray — a dye that promises to enhance your silver foxiness — has a commercial out that uses Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" in the background (click the above link to see the commercial).
Man, rock and roll has never been so ... banal. The commercial's context kind of suggests the title, "Sunset of Your Relevance." At least they didn't go the super literal route. They must figure that Deadheads don't uses hair dye.
In the course of research for my last post, I found this old ad for the Apple IIe. Remember those? I don't. I was three when they rolled out.
The song used here, of course, is a slightly reworded version of Crosby, Still and Nash's "Teach Your Children Well." Sellouts. Young wouldn't have gone for that nonsense.
If you're interested in more vintage Apple ads, this guy has compiled a bunch, including the legendary 1984 ad.
It's a good thing we're no longer owned by Tribune, so I can no longer be accused of being a shill for my fanatical love of the "Gossip Girl," the abovewhich commercial for features everyone's favorite Plastic Bertrand song, "Ca Plane Pour Moi."
This other commercial from the season 2 premiere campaign uses Billy Boy on Poison's "On My Way." And this entity, who is either a fan far more obsessed than I or an actual employee of the CW, has way more music from "Gossip Girl" than I could ever hope to catalog.
• Here's Blue Oyster Cult's "Godzilla" shilling for Autotrader.com. Is it me, or does it seem like commercial music supervisors are playing a lot of Guitar Hero lately. (Speaking of, check out this list of songs that should never be on Guitar Hero at Pink Godzilla.)
• OK, Videogum is making me eat my words right away. They've dug up a commercial for Atlantis Resorts that totally bastardizes the Moldy Peaches "Anyone Else But You," aka that song from "Juno." Like the Peaches or not, this commercial is terrible.
• Fortunately, Idolator has the word on a study about which wines to pair with what type of music. "Unfortunately, Boone's Farm wasn't mentioned in the study's findings, perhaps because any classic rock automatically makes it taste 'totally freaking awesome' to all the college students embarking on long, dark nights of the soul who were surveyed."
This Garmin commercial aired during the Super Bowl this year, but I was among the five people in the U.S. who didn't watch (I don't like football OR commercials, so it seemed the telecast had nothing to offer). Anyway, this song sounds a heck of a lot like Plastic Bertrand's "Ça Plane Pour Moi" ... but it isn't.
The Garmin song, I believe, is a jingle written especially for the commercial. Full lyrics here.
(Also, the horn part sounds like an inversion of "March of the Swivelheads" from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (Listen), which itself is a remix of The English Beat's "Rotating Head.")
I love this! Paradise by the GoPhone Light, starring Meatloaf. And, um, Tiffany.
This is the short version, which I like better, but you can see the long version here. I especially enjoy the part where the son starts grooving while papa Loaf is singing.
The above is The Go! Team in a Mitsubishi commercial. I love blondie's hair.
Here's the actual video (the song is "Doing it Right.")
And here's Brendan Benson in the new iPhone Touch commercial.
That's the second time in recent memory that Benson's "What I'm Looking For" has been used in a commercial. You know, advertisers, he has other songs. But maybe the Apple connection will be his ticket to the big time. I interviewed Benson like two or three years ago, and he was very gracious, despite the fact that I was a complete nitwit. And his publicist at the time said that he's done very well in England, but has had a hard time cracking the States (he's American, BTW).
Even with The Raconteurs, to the people familiar with the band, he's just Jack White's second fiddle. Poor guy.
Other bands visually referenced in the commercial (in order of appearance):
• Beck "The Information"
• Brendan Benson "The Alternative to Love"
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•
•
•
(A little help on these, please. There'll be a prize. OK, there is no prize.)
• The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"
• Jack Johnson "In Between Dreams"
• LDC Soundsystem "Sounds of Silver"
Am I easily won over by heavily hyped advances in stylistic achievement related to gadgets? Yes. Do I want one of these quite badly? Yes.
Anyway, the song is charming. It's "New Soul" by Israeli/Parisian singer Yael Naim.
I think part of the song's charm comes from the fact that English is clearly not her first language. It lends weight to the claim that she's trying to navigate a new world, otherwise, the lyrics are a bit insipid. The sentiment reminds me of nothing so much as the thoughts of the whale in this video.
ETA:
On her MySpace page (linked above), she also has a deliciously creepy cover of Britney Spears' "Toxic." And a few songs in Hebrew which sound really cool. According to this article, they're about her break up with a boyfriend.
This is a two-fer. First we have Sara Bareilles singing "Love Song." It's kind of cheesey, but I really like this song. I guess I'm a sucker for a singer/pianist.
No amount of punk rock is going to make Payless cool, but they are fer darn sure trying. Their latest commercial, which can be seen here, employs Helen Love's "Does Your Heart Go Boom," which can be heard here.
Helen Love herself claims only to listen to the Ramones, and her music sort of bears that out, although that elctro-disco influence must come from somewhere.
Neither the commercial nor "Does Your Heart Go Boom" is on YouTube, but this equally good chestnut, "Joey Loves Debbie," is. I really enjoy that the entire video is just a shot of the album spinning on a turntable. But the brilliant part is: the camera is obviously handheld and not on a tripod.
Again, a post that would have been a bit more topical a week ago, but pre-Christmas was a busy time.
This little gem is "Stars" by the Weepies. It's been featured in some Old Navy commercials for the past couple of months. It's a really beautiful song, and I always took that away from the ad, even if I never ever remembered what the commercial was for. Now I know.
The song:
The ad:
The same band also had another song in a JC Penny Christmas commercial. Cliptreats breaks it down.
I've been meaning to put this up for a while now, but Brooklyn kid rockers Care Bears on Fire scored a Converse commercial.
Sell out factor? Kinda high, since everyone and their dad has had at least one pair of All-Stars in their life (I'm on at least 6 in my lifetime count), but the kid's, like, 12. It's pretty awesome to get a national commercial when you're 12.
The song is "Lake Michigan" by Rogue Wave. Hear the whole thing here. The song in this commercial immediately resonated with me when I heard it Thursday night. I now realize, its probably because I've heard it before; I've had it in my iTunes since August. Hmm ... maybe I should give the new Rogue Wave another listen or five. I really liked their last album, I don't know why I've slept on this one.
In searching for this commercial, I looked for the song based on the lyrics I thought I heard: "Get off of my star." That is not, as I have in fact learned, what they are saying. I don't think that it's a lyric to any song. Which is too bad. It's kind of poetic ... maybe I'll write a song ...
Also in the course of my research, I found this fun animation
and this Helio Sequence song is featured in another commercial.
I watched a good amount of TV while I was home sick last Tuesday, and one thing that caught my ear was a spot for FX show "Nip/Tuck." But I don't think that it was this one:
Which features Anne of Giant Drag singing a cover of "Wicked Games." It's still pretty cool, but I don't think that this is the spot I meant to point out. But it's the only one I could find on YouTube. Oh well. If I remember, I'll let you know.
UPDATE: Saw the "Nip/Tuck" commercial again last night. I can't find it on YouTube, but their spot uses Weezer's "Beverly Hills." It just seems fitting that the band sold out with a song about selling out that everyone saw as a sellout (on an album almost universally panned) from the beginning. That's all.
K. This is from last summer, but it's still pretty mesmerizing.
And we've been talking a lot about Jose Gonzalez recently, who sings the song in the spot, "Heartbeats," which is originally by The Knife. The full Gonzalez version is here.
Oh, yeah, and the commercial itself is for some sort of TV, in case you didn't get that.
Thanks to LJ for the tip. I'll let her present this clip:
in the latest case of "what's that song in the commericial" -- i have become obessessed with that old navy song that's like "if you feel chilly, here take my sweater."
it's ingrid michaelson -- an NYC singer/songwriter chick -- here's her link: http://www.ingridmichaelson.com/music.html
The song is called "the way i am" off 2007 album called "girls and boys"
I'm pretty sure that this is not Jack White singing, but this is "Conquest" off of the White Stripes' latest album.
ETA: Oops. I got told in the comments. "Conquest" is covered on the Stripes' latest, though.
And, if you go here, you can watch JC Penny's commercial that uses Regina Spektor's "Music Box," which is pretty crazy. She's the last voice I expected to hear shilling sensible clothes from my television.
Warning: This song will get stuck in your head and you will hate me.
So I was watching some TV last night, and this commercial came on for the 12 billionth time. I thought to myself, "Who are these guys? Are they even a real band? I bet they're from Long Island."
Actually, they're from New Jersey and Queens. This article in the Observer answered all my questions. And ensured that the freaking 1-800-OK-Cable song will be in my head for the rest of the day.
It's been a while, but Feist's "My Moon My Man" is scoring a commercial for Verizon, so I thought we'd bring this feature back.
I've looked on a couple of message boards, and there's a lot of "Oh, who's that lady singing that song." The commercial ends with a close up on the phone screen saying: "Now Playing: Feist, "My Moon My Man." People are dumb, I guess.
On a mildly related note, a while ago, I saw a commercial for The Smart Spot — some campaign to get people to eat healthier; or at least think that they're eating healthier, one of the products labeled "smart" was a bottle of Pepsi, if I recall correctly. The song, a major key rendition of OK Go's "A Million Ways." And the lyrics were changed to "there's a million ways to be cool" (emphasis mine). I've only seen it the one time, and I cannot find any evidence online that it ever existed, so, if you remember seeing it, let me know I'm not crazy.
Last night, I caught this Brendan Benson song on a commercial for Sears.com: "What I'm Looking For". (The commercial itself is nothing special, so, unsurprisingly, there's no YouTube footage.)
Benson is allegedly huge in the U.K., but not so big over here, sadly, even though he is American. He achieved a little more recognition with The Raconteurs, but Jack White is the above-the-title name, there. Here's hoping Sears boosts his profile — although, do you really want to be "the guy from the Sears commercial"?
Bruce Campbell covers Duran Duran in this Old Spice commercial. Flippin' awesome! Although my all time favorite version of this song has to be Reel Big Fish's cover. It's a little embarrassing to listen to now, but they were seriously my favorite band for a long while. I think they were one of the first concerts I ever saw.
These guys are (obviously?) not RBF, but just some kids, kickin' it OK Go style.
Gothamist has up a delightful interview with Andrew Bird.
Some highlights:
On chickens:
Yeah, I had 26 chickens and now I have zero chickens. I wasn’t able to keep the raccoons away from the chickens. And then for a year after that happened the chicken feathers are still around from the massacre. There’s just hundreds and hundreds of sparrows around my barn and they were taking the chicken feathers and stuffing my chimney with them to make nests. And then I would have a fire and I would see the smoke coming out and I would see little feathers reminding me of how I let down the chickens.
On commercial licensing:
I’ve never said this publicly but when that car commercial comes around I’m going to have to say no. That’s where I’m going to have to draw the line. But Italian chewing gum? I’m okay with that. But car culture? I don’t to really contribute to that.
On socks:
Sometimes people give them to me, which is nice. Who doesn’t need a new pair of socks? We’re actually working on making our own socks instead of T-shirts.
He also talks about the band's recent Letterman appearance, which is below.
Bird plays Webster Hall tomorrow. The show is sold out, but those who look may find what they need.
This was going to be a simple shout out to my friends Adam and Brandi; I promised them I would post this track that I told them about last night, a mashup of Golddigger and Mahna Mahna by Lenlow. But there are some interesting details to the story behind the song, so I figured I'd do a full on entry about it.
The video above, obviously, is the classic Muppet skit. But the original version of that song — yeah, surprise!, it's a real song — was written in 1968 by Piero Umiliani for an Italian soft core porn, "Svezia, Inferno e Paradiso". By all accounts, Jim Henson was aware of the connection when he Muppetized it. There's also a version recorded in French by Henri Salvador in 1969, called "Mais Non, Mais Non."
Come with me, then, to almost 40 years later. Guitarist Joe Pisapia records a version that ends up in a (commercial watch!) Saturn commercial (it's the video called "Other Dealerships"), which is what reminded me of the Kanye mashup. How this came up last night, I don't recall. But A and B, this one's for you.
Apparently, reporting on music used in commercials is not actually that original idea; Stereogum has also made it a regular feature on their blog. But so anyway, they've got a great one up today on the New Pornographers' song used in a University of Phoenix commercial. Check it.
So Teddybears is another group that I've heard a lot about, but I haven't actually listened to .. well, except if you count hearing this song in a Cadillac commercial. Thing is, although I kind of registered the presence of Iggy Pop, I didn't even realize this was a real song. I thought it was just some sort of jingle (one that didn't make too much sense, because Cadillac and Iggy? Really?) Today, though, preparing the listings for tomorrow's paper, I went to Teddybears' site , 'cause they're playing Hiro Ballroom on Thursday and Studio B on Friday.
This video is streaming on their site, and I realized that I quite like this song. I always kind of absentmindedly tapped my foot along to the commercial, while doing whatever it is I'm doing to distract myself from commercials (usually a crossword puzzle). Now I'm dying to hear the whole album, but my desk is a crazy mess, and I just don't have the energy to sift through 100 CDs right now to find it. So I'll keep you posted.
