Brooklyn Mutt

daverosado:

Let’s take a look at TV ads today, shall we? They introduce you to new products which, that’s the point, but they can also introduce you to bands that you’d end up highly enjoying. Sometimes, they feature remakes of songs by bands you love, which only serve to enrage you (probably), but also burrow themselves into your brain. The effect of this ensures that you never forget the accompanying ad when you hear that song again. But we’ll get to that later.

I’ll be brief in talking about these songs, because Holy YouTube Batman! This post will take a lot of space on its own.

First, let’s watch this NFL kids program advertising, featuring The Go! Team’s The Power is On. This is a pretty perfect pairing of image and music: the rallying cry accompanies the images of NFL players - The Falcons, namely - on the bus, presumably on the way to another big game except no! They’re on their way to horse around with children for the NFL Play 60 program. Good stuff.

The first of two Christmas adverts this week comes from Honda, accompanied by that lousy, infectious Vampire Weekend song Holiday. I don’t like Vampire Weekend in theory: I saw them perform on SNL and decided I’d never listen to them. Then I heard their music by accident, bobbing my head, wondering who it was by. When I looked it up and saw Vampire Weekend, I couldn’t help but chuckle, shake my head, and say “You magnificent bastards… you got me! I guess I kind of like you.”

In looking for a commercial featuring The Weepies, I stumbled upon this JC Penney commercial featuring Regina Spektor’s Music Box, which is a lightning quick, pleasant little piano ditty that I just had to add. The commercial’s a little bit trippy, as well.

And here’s that aforementioned commercial, the other Christmas-themed ad. The Weepies All That I Want soundtracks people getting gifts from perfect strangers on the street in a version of the world that would, let’s face it, be pretty awesome. “Hey, this subway ride kinda blows, but hey is that a pair of front row tickets to a Jets game on the seat next to me, with a bow on top?! AWESOME!”

The Ford Edge is a car that brings you wonder, I guess. Look through the sunroof at the surrounding urban buildings and realize that your life’s changed, or whatever. Forget that you’re in a car and think, for just a second, that you’re riding on a cloud. Sure, let’s pretend all that’s true. But the song, as depressing as it really is, works in this ad.

In looking for this commercial, I bumped into one that I forgot all about featuring Mustang and Band of Skulls’ Light of the Morning. I’m a big fan of this song so once again, here’s a late add.

Let’s face it: Los Campesinos wrote the perfect “commercial song.” You can pretty much apply the opening itself to just about any scene where the action is coming… wait for it… wait for it… and just like the song, any commercial featuring the track You! Me! Dancing! explodes with energy. Here, see what I mean:

This next commercial angers me. I hate it with the passion of at least 4,100 suns. That’s a lot of suns. Not really, but if I cared about such things, I’d be pretty mad, and here’s why. I love the fare of Outback steakhouse, and I make no bones about it. The Bloomin’ Onion alone is worth the trip. But when they make a commercial using a remake of a classic of Montreal song, that becomes so ubiquitous in their other advertising that most people will only think of steak, much like Pavlov’s dog or something whenever they hear Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games, well… there’s something wrong with that. Kevin Barnes once said in an interview that he did it because he thought it’d be funny. What I heard in my head when I read that was “Hey money money money money CASH money money money.” Granted, that’s totally his prerogative, and God knows that I love Coke Classic. Buy a Coke Classic today, and enjoy that smooth flavor. Still, when you hear the of Montreal song, please don’t say “Hey, it’s that Outback song!” It grinds the gears of insufferable snobs like myself. Damnitall, now I want a Bloomin’ Onion. For the love of everything that is good in this world, one of the “related videos” at the end is “The Outback Song!” which is literally just a picture of the Outback Steakhouse logo with Wraith playing over it. The RAGE!

Moving on… this last one is just so much fun. I don’t know much about The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, but I do know that I enjoy the hell out of The Golden Age. This Heineken commercial isn’t so bad either, and makes me a little thirsty for the mediocre, near-flavorless beer.

I will ensure that I learn the moves of the badass who makes the grand entrance to the party that doesn’t deserve him, and use them at every future party that I attend. Look out everybody.

To listen to these songs (and yes, the actual of Montreal song) on Spotify, click here. The Weepies’ song is not on there, so the playlist is minus that one, and the Band of Skulls song is a live version, because their studio album is also not available on the usually awesome streaming service.

And just below is the usual Grooveshark widget, with all the songs intact. Enjoy.

Next week: It’s looking like I’ll be scrapping my Outsourced Playlist idea because it isn’t working the way I’d hoped. That’s OK, because my backup plan is to do something a little weird. Hopefully it’s not too weird, and hopefully I don’t chicken out of doing it.

Great idea for a post, Dave. A recent fav of mine is a Kingsford Match Light ad. The song is an acoustic version of a 80s hit by The Human League - “(Keep Feeling) Fascination.”  Watch/listen here. I’d purchase it but I don’t think it’s available.