From Brighten the Corners to a newfound home raking in the cash for Malkmus and company. Foreign shilling supplementing the career, via Korea, Korea, Korea...

Pavement - "Stereo"

Posted by Merry Swankster at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

2008 Ford Focus

Three things: 1- I always figured Apple would think of this for the iPod first, but Ford gets it done. Hopefully it works well. 2- Shouting artist requests to a voice recognition radio in a packed car is fuel for incredible hilarity, like forever. 3- The car is awful looking.

Posted by Merry Swankster at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Stephin Merritt + Volvo =

Via AdFreak

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I try to keep from mixing my politics nerdiness and my music geekery on this site, so I haven't had much cause to link to the New Republic's blog, the Plank. They have now however shown us a vision of a horrible past that falls under our steez. Well, Keith's steez anyway.

I've borrowed Keith's steez.

This ad shows clips from the gritty pre-Guiliani Manhattan, the one lusted after by James Murphy in "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." As various hustlers and hard cases skitter about, you hear the familiar strains of Transformer's classic "Walk on the Wild Side." All that unpleasantness about "giving head" and such is left mute, but the omission almost works, giving the dark scenes sort of a subtle in the know hip quality. As with only the briefest glimpses of the song's singer on posters and once quickly on the street, you'd have to be familiar with the material for that to mean anything to you. So clearly they are targeting the hip, gritty, city sort who listens to the Velvet Underground and wouldn't dream of leaving the city grime or no grime. The sort of people who look to underground cultural icons like Lou Reed for guidance towards fine motor vehicles. So what blindingly hip cause has St. Lou left the after hours club to endorse? A tough muscle car? A hot rod? A hearse?

What could make him bark out the line "Why settle fer waawkin'?" in his suitably intimidating downtown snarl?

Honda ad, circa 1985

Scooters?

So it follows from his line and the song in question that he thinks we should SCOOT on the wild side?

That's unspeakably weak.

The full destructive impact of this campaign was initially thought to be minor, but you have to remember that though not many people bought the first Lou Reed scooter, everyone who did later formed a band.

A scooter band.

Posted by Jeff Klingman at 06:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

On "Galang" being used for Honda commercials:

M.I.A.: "I think Honda is a real immigrant, refugee car. Every Sri Lankan I know has one. My mum had a Honda for 15 years."

SPIN: If Ford had asked to use the track, you would've said no?

M.I.A.: "Probably, yeah!"

End quote.

[From 8.07 issue of SPIN]

Previously:
Pitchfork prefers Britney to the Strokes

Posted by Merry Swankster at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[Before I start, do you know that you can vote on all of the second round matchups of the Radiohead song tournament here]

Watching the Shield (yeah, that's how I roll) on Tuesday, I encountered an ad for one of the many shows that I do not watch on FX. The tagline for the ad was "McNamara/Troy Office." I knew the song, but not the show.

The fans of Nip/Tuck knew the show, but not the song.

It was "Wicked Game," the Chris Isaak cover by the late, lamented Giant Drag.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 01:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Bob Dylan isn't the only musician to appear in the ads that license his songs (meta note, WTF!). Straight out of A-town (or Hotlanta, if you're nasty), comes a Chevy Impala SS ad with T.I.

The ad, brimming with rims, scantily clad women, and stuntin, would not look out of place on 106th & Park.

And for good reason. Not only does T.I. shill for Chevy, he lets them cut the ad from his music video for Top Back (remix).

Here's the funny thing! This doubly-promotorific video (for T.I.'s album and for the Impala) was removed from YouTube for copyright violations. This intellectual property makes no sense. Tell the people!

But, it's at Bebo (for now, at least). Congratulations Bebo for not selling to Google for $1.6 billion.

Judging from this forum, some people are a) culturally prejudiced and b) don't understand the concept of niche marketing.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm a little late to this game, but much snarky ado about the Postal Service licensing a song to a new UPS campaign. Ardent students of indie rock/marketing symbiosis already know that the Postal Service and the USPS had a dust up in the past over the bands name. Settlement included the Postal Service helping the USPS with promotional efforts. USPS.com now sells Postal Service recordings. That alone proves the shillest's worth.

Apologies for failing to provide a YouTube clip so early into the campaign (It will show up eventually). Here's the thing - UPS may take its share of snark from people like us, but, how many Joe Sixpacks will hear the Postal Service and make that connection? One in six? Fifteen? Thirty-three thousand? (Apologies redux in advance for the following comparison) Pretty much every song from the Such Great Heights, like Moby's Play, have the right mix of accessibility, pathos, and mood that makes marketers salivate. Kudos, I guess, to United Parcel Service for not worrying about what 6,000 bloggers will write.

Elsewhere

Band: Go Team! (voiceover: Kevin Spacey, apparently)
Song: Huddle Formation
Car: Honda Civic

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 08:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

An occasional MS.com contributor back from London marveled at the Venn diagram of indie rock and crass commercialism that is today's 30-second spot. Royksopp scoring car insurance commercials (and its label promoting it)! Of Montreal providing song and steakalicious lyric alterations for national restaurant chain! Tres passe, if you've been living her for some time. But, even the jaded get knocked silly by the choices some artists make.

Now we know all you kids out there have the DVRs, but, fortunately for you, one of your very own MS.com writers makes a living by obsessing about marketing. And thus watches more commercials than he'd like to admit. So we introduce "The shillest", an occassional head's up/commentary on how corporate brands just can't get enough of the artists you wish remained pure.

Artists like, say, Cat Power.

Posted by Keith O'Brien at 02:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)