Subject: Indy Music in Commercials
Date: Thu Nov 23 23:34:47 2017
User: BuzzClik
Message:Yet another of my neglected threads -- not for the lack of potential entries.
I believe this one was released yesterday: Sam Smith provides the background music for a seasonal fantasy ad. Nicely done, IMO.
Link: New Apple ad: Sam Smith's "Palace"
Date: Thu Nov 23 23:50:51 2017
User: BuzzClik
Message:This is is a very brief spot from Capital One, hawking their Venture credit cards.
Either Cap One is very savvy and is laughing at their consumers, or they managed to let their ad production team really pull one off: "Stare with me into the abyss..."
This is a great song, and Capital One apparently sees their Venture cards as a form of addiction.
Link: Phantograms "You Don't Get Me High Anymore"
Date: Sat Sep 8 15:59:00 2018
User: BuzzClik
Message:It's been awhile since I posted on this thread. There's no shortage of examples, but I have to be watching TV with the sound on to detect the songs. (Funny how that works.)
Caught this one today as the "fade out" music for Fox's college football game as they went to commercial.
Link: Decembrists, "Severed"
Date: Sat Sep 8 20:43:24 2018
User: TNmountainman
Message:I actually 'discovered' this band back in the spring, and like them quite a bit. In fact...…..I thought "this is probably what many would call "indie" - I wonder if BuzzClik has included them in the "New Music" or "Indie Music" threads?" Well, no, but now he brings them up in this thread. They're innovative, original-sounding, and got some panache, too. Good call.
Link: How I discovered The Decemberists
Date: Sun Sep 9 08:22:12 2018
User: BuzzClik
Message:Decembrists are a solid, iconic indie band that have go back nearly 20 years. I finally got to opportunity to see them in Portland ME, but Colin Meloy had some sort of issue with his throat/voice, and they canceled at the last second. Interestingly, I ran into Meloy and his wingman (Moen) on the street that evening.
Date: Sun Sep 9 10:47:03 2018
User: TNmountainman
Message:Wow. I'm shocked they go back (nearly) 20 years. I have to say that actually, I had heard their name a time or two or three, but had not been exposed to their music. See...…..that's the problem with commercial radio. They pump out garbage (for the most part), and leave the good stuff out there harder to find. I know there's good public radio that probably played the Decemberists, etc., but when I go to public radio, the Americana is just so good that it's hard to explore more deeply. I know there must be mechanisms to find this stuff, but it's not as easy as it should be. Or - the more I think about it - my time is just too limited, priorities, etc., etc......
So once again, thank you for your ideas, and as time permits (LOL), I want to dig more into them.
Date: Sun Sep 9 12:02:54 2018
User: BuzzClik
Message:You have an email where I can contact you? I can help you in your quest....
Date: Sun Sep 9 12:09:15 2018
User: BuzzClik
Message:Better yet -- let's do this (no risk to you, and burner email I seldom use): buzzclik at yahoo dot com
Date: Fri Jun 21 07:24:59 2019
User: BuzzClik
Message:During a lengthy drive yesterday, I heard a promo for an NPR podcast called Up First. They used the riff from Parquet Courts's "Wide Awake" to fade out.
Link: "Wide Awake" on Ellen
Date: Sat Dec 14 14:07:14 2019
User: BuzzClik
Message:I listen to so few commercials (thank you, Tivo), that this thread tends to languish. However, while watching Full Frontal (Samantha Bee's scathing political commentary on TBS), the last few seconds of a commercial struck a familiar note. It was a trailer for Miracle Workers: Dark Ages featuring the Ezra Koenig's guitar riff from Vampire Weekend's "This Life." [I enjoyed listening to that in concert earlier this fall... :) ]
Link: "Dark Ages" trailer (Daniel Radcliffe)
Date: Sun Apr 12 21:51:38 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:There is so little new content on the tube these days (that I will watch) that I no longer fast forward through commercials. This is a weak attempt to make the shows last as long as possible.
So, I discovered this little gem: a Sonic commercial with Sufjan Stevens's "Feel the Illinoise" in the background.
Link: https://youtu.be/9d4dRX5yjIk
Date: Mon Apr 13 14:27:31 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:I truly don't believe a woman "picks up Sonic to celebrate 1 full year without a parking ticket". Just don't buy it. Not to mention, that was NOT real snow or ice on that windshield. Amazing that commercials would "bend the truth", isn't it?
Besides that........I've always wondered, despite avoiding commercials about like the plague, why on Sonic commercials (the main ones - not some of the more recent ones) those two guys sit in the car *talking* about Sonic, but NEVER taking a single bite of what they're holding. Bizarre.
Date: Mon Apr 13 15:17:20 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:Well, I suppose so. But why do they just keep holding the food, *about* to put it in their jabbering mouths just centimeters away, but never get that far. One wonders if they'd die of starvation if the commercial went on for two weeks or so.
Date: Mon Apr 13 15:22:58 2020
User: outskirts
Message:Idk I don't watch that sh!t
But why do the Charmin bears have underwear in an ad when everyone knows they never wear underwear?
And what does Reeses have to be sorry about?
burning questions
Date: Fri Oct 2 00:01:15 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:I can thank Thursday Night Football and a couple of rotten teams for this one. I was pretty much ignoring the game when this commercial popped up. According to YouTube, it's a Cadillac commercial called "No Barriers." The opening is a catchy and recognizable lick from Run the Jewels' "Nobody Speak." Catchy for sure, but the lyrics are probably not what Cadillac would prefer. I heard the opening three seconds, snickered, and reached for my keyboard.
You'll need to Google the lyrics...not quite suitable for the family conversation.
Link: https://youtu.be/zbZlX9mbPk4
Date: Fri Oct 2 01:26:41 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:Nothing, and I mean *nothing*, has made me want to run thru glass and jump off balconies for a Cadillac like that just did.
Date: Sun Oct 4 13:22:50 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:Do you think this is Cadillac's subliminal message?
It would be interesting to climb inside the mind of these ad agenices to see if they really are trying to convey the message of the songs they use, or if they simply grab a snippet of a vaguely familiar song with a catchy riff under the assumption that the consumers will be oblivious.
Considering the popularity of the Escalade outside the realm of the upper class business types, the former is a real possibility in this instance.
In the case upthread where Capital One used a Phantogram song, I'm betting on the latter.
Date: Sun Oct 4 15:21:42 2020
User: lauradoom
Message:I'd agree with that assessment, though it can only be regarded as subliminal for consumers who fail to recognise and/or acknowledge that intention. I guess both scenarios require the potential purchaser to be oblivious, assuming the target audience comprises 'floating' purchasers.
I guess there are others who want to be immersed, submerged and inundated by something they can identify as 'subcultural', which offers a certain irony, in that advertising renders it conventional.
Date: Sun Oct 4 16:12:55 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:That makes me sound merely pedestrian (mild pun intended) and plebian - implying I was not the only one ready to jump off balconies and crash through glass for a Caddy. And.............I guess that's quite valid.........as I most definitely still am (a) pedestrian - at least as far as Caddies go.
And, for the record.............is this the first time in recorded history in which Cadillacs can be identified as being "subcultural"? I suspect not, but I just don't have that flavor of oeuvre anywhere in my internal database (so he says), thus, I wouldn't know.
[But wait! ......Is there a pic somewhere of dede driving a pink Caddy somewhere around Memphis??]
Date: Sun Oct 4 17:12:55 2020
User: ix
Message:every time a prevnar commercial comes on i think of beldar
Date: Mon Oct 5 15:24:08 2020
User: lauradoom
Message:@TN Maybe I expressed that ineptly - I usually aim for ambiguity, or at least a degree of nebulous triviality.
The 'subcultural' reference was in relation to the track (original lyric version), the Caddy indirectly by association. I'll stop there, as I've just realised that a dissertation would be required to unravel my thoughts around this issue.
The abridged version describes a basic perspective regarding cognitive dissonance where materialism is involved.
I read back through the above and am now wondering why I just don't say "Yeah, exactly" more often. This is why I love swimming - it's simple, relatively painless and quiet.
Now I have to go research 'prevnar' and 'Coneheads' - somehow I don't think it will be as engrossing as 'Eraserhead'...
Date: Mon Oct 5 15:53:11 2020
User: TNmountainman
Message:I've noticed that you wear ambiguity quite well. Altho I don't consider myself near 'that' on "the spectrum".........I guess I can appreciate it for it's own sake - not necessarily in furtherance of necessary dialogue - whatever that may encompass.
I get the materialism/advertising "subcultural" bent, and it's something I used to rail (gently) about, but long ago quit worrying about it. Sometimes it's even apropos.
That said.............I did *not* know your "subcultural" was in reference to the (c)rap lyrics instead of the Caddy stuff, so thanks for clearing that up, despite your native ambiguity setting. I did click on, and watch for awhile, your link. And as you say, it reeks of PlaygroundTrashTalk. Worse..................I self-predicted (very quickly) that there would be violence involved, which was of course sadly confirmed. While there were tidbits of originality there, and even mildly 'catchy'(??) beats, it's ultimately more (c)rap music demonstrating why it's (c)rap.
I earlier almost posted that ix has spent time in France - and I *think* including the "south of France" - so he's been further twisted in that (Beldar) direction. Not that there's anything wrong with that. All the Coneheads have always been a favorite of mine. "Engrossing"? Hmmmm.......... "Engrossing *as*"? I wouldn't know, since I've never seen "Eraserhead".
Date: Mon Oct 5 20:28:58 2020
User: mrbuck
Message:What's wrong with the Cadillacs?
mrbuck
Link: Mr Earl
Date: Tue Oct 6 15:38:01 2020
User: lauradoom
Message:@TN Yeah, exactly (dry training run) - there was little ambiguity in the portrayal of a stereotypical institutional setting as a forum for childlike behaviour - unlike our own decorous platform for distinctly mature debate...
I listen to music whilst doing other stuff, which means I know relatively little about accompanying videos. When I do see them, I'm tempted to ask why the content frequently bears no relation to the music & lyrics - it seems like pure indulgence to me, or maybe I lack the imagination to make the necessary associations. I can't believe that artists, producers and promotors would deliberately create video material whose sole purpose was to sell the product, regardless of its relevance to the musical 'concept'. [puerile giggle]
I've never seen 'Coneheads', so I'm probably crawling out of my depth here.
Date: Tue Oct 6 17:44:49 2020
User: BuzzClik
Message:@lauradoom: "why the content frequently bears no relation to the music & lyrics"
No idea if videos for high-grossing music are still a big deal ... I don't pay much attention. But, for the music on the fringes and particularly for truly indie artists, the videos attached to songs are often just happenstance: the video exists, the song exists, a little bit of video editing, and it's a match made somewhere short of heaven. (No shortage of these on another thread)
===================
Back to the Cadillac commercial: they put out another version with "Nobody Speaks", but this one is not so vomit-inducing (link below).
Link: Escalade: taking it up a notch...
Date: Tue Oct 6 18:12:45 2020
User: lauradoom
Message:Buzz - I find commercials vomit-inducing almost without exception, so "not so vomit-inducing" is essentially an irrelevant attribution - but I am grateful for the opportunity to embark upon another all-consuming emetic adventure, whether or not that constitutes a contradiction in credit terms.
To be honest, that was relatively painless - I've just watched excerpts from two press conferences - one each from leaders of our brave and weird new world; I wish I could laugh, but find I'm too busy serving up pavement pizzas (box-set of sidewalk psychedelia). Someday I hope to get back to sleep and take solace in knowing that 'the present' was just a bad case of diminished reality.
Date: Mon Apr 18 11:17:07 2022
User: BuzzClik
Message:As explained a time or two in this thread, I avoid watching commercials. All programming I consume is either recorded (and I fast forward through the ads) or I watch with no sound. So, this thread gets almost no chance for me to contribute with any frequency. I will occasionally drop in some commercial venture by an indie group. Case in point:
Son Lux is a group of experimental artists who have covered a lot of ground. The founder, Ryan Lott, started it as a solo project after he had a very successful career in the commercial world. (His creative dabblings can be seen in this razor tv commercial: https://youtu.be/9THeGzzHvBA). He ended up in Indianapolis/Bloomington for a bit, recording for Joyful Noise. He also did a project called Sisyphus with Sufjan Stevens and Chicago's Serengeti. Lott added a couple of members to the group, and Lott's commercial past found him once again. He left Joyful Noise to sign a fat contract with Glassnote.
With that background....
We had just finished watching the movie, "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once," and I was still trying to sort out the complexity of that show during the credits. While staring at the screen, I was semi-stunned to see that Sun Lux had written the score. Wow.
He has quite the group of all stars contributing. You can listen to the soundtrack below.
Link: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once soundtrack
Date: Sat Jul 2 15:35:49 2022
User: BuzzClik
Message:Hotels.com has a series of commercials that play like a video dating app. The narrator (the hotel) describes their attributes, likes, dislikes, etc. The ad linked below has a few bars of Toro y Moi's "Mr. Postman" looping in the background (https://youtu.be/xI0alDWn2tM)
(Toro y Moi has been referenced a couple time on the Interesting New Music thread. His birth name is Chaz Bundick (now Chaz Bear) and has many outside endeavors that allow him to compose whatever music he likes and tour whenever it pleases him.)
Link: https://youtu.be/60tGfT3hDo0
Date: Mon Jul 4 07:26:27 2022
User: JackK
Message:Age is catching up. I thought you meant music from Indianapolis
Date: Mon Jul 4 07:32:53 2022
User: outskirts
Message:Buzz gets schooled by his kids.
Date: Mon Mar 13 09:33:37 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:Not exactly an Indie band, but it's a fun commercial.
Link: Verizon
Date: Tue Mar 21 10:16:41 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:Tkay Maidza covered the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" a couple of years ago. Now, Apple AirPods has picked it up for their new commercial. It's a nice bit, altogether...
Link: "Where Is My Mind", Apple AirPods
Date: Wed Mar 29 10:25:29 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:I actually saw this commercial before the young ladies responsible for the music popped up on my radar...
Taco Bell's strange drone commercial featuring Meet Me @ The Altar's, "Say It to My Face."
Link: Taco Bell/Meet Me @ The Altar
Date: Sun Apr 9 03:42:21 2023
User: 2.71828
Message:Hey BuzzClik, I just discovered this thread tonight, just shy of 11 years late to the party, which is about right for me. Discovering Lykke Li's Get Some was totally worthwhile, and I'm also enjoying Nobody Speak by DJ Shadow and Run the Jewels. Based on your posts, I think my musical taste might actually have substantial overlap with your musical taste, which is pretty unusual for me. Thanks for everything you shared!
Have you ever seen the Spike Jonze Adidas commercial featuring Karen O?
https://youtu.be/Ef86BET9pho
And while we're on the subject, have you ever heard the Yeah Yeah Yeah's cover of Sonic Youth's Diamond Sea? (nothing to do with advertising)
https://youtu.be/-dlGxkfNbIs
Recent musical discoveries I am enjoying:
Blu DeTiger - Figure It Out
Hotline - Paradise
Emily Wolfe - Holy Roller, No Man
Maddie Medley - Coming of Age
K.Flay - cover of Offspring's Self Esteem
Thanks again for this thread...
Date: Sun Apr 9 13:22:26 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:I'm a big fan of Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. That was a very cool commercial, and the music was a great match.
I am not very familiar with the other artists/songs you referenced, but I will check them all out soon.
This thread is a bit unique in that my intent was only to link commercials featuring indie artists. It's a challenge for me to find them because I watch live tv with the sound down.
A more in-depth exploration of new music is the Interesting New Music thread, now near the top of the discussion board. I bumped it up with a post about Nation of Language.
So much great music, so little time to discover the good stuff. Welcome to the fold, e^1 !! I look forward to learning more about you and your tunes.
Date: Tue May 2 15:03:14 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:This encounter was quite accidental. I was listening to a lengthy discussion of Caroline Polacheck's career (see "Interesting New Music" thread, and this iPod commercial was discussed. The existence of this old commercial is interesting to me for two reasons. First, I had no idea that Polachek was in Chair Lift until today, even though I have known "Bruises" for a long time. Second, she demonstrates an early version of her vocal slides toward the end of the of the commercial. This point is relevant to a discussion in the aforementioned thread.
Link: Chair Lift in iPod commercial, "Bruises"
Date: Wed May 3 21:01:40 2023
User: 2.71828
Message:That is super fun, nice and light and breezy.
I'm going to follow that and listen more to chair lift.
Date: Wed Jun 14 08:16:42 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:I was listening to the recap of the Stanley Cup finals when a truck commercial came on. I recognized the song immediately as "Red Eyes" from War on Drugs.
The original: https://youtu.be/1LmX5c7HoUw
Link: GMC Truck commercial, "Welcome to Nowhere"
Date: Sat Nov 4 14:43:39 2023
User: BuzzClik
Message:Well, I had the sound up on a football game. The song in the background of a commercial caught my ear. It was “Edge of the Edge” by Sonic Boom/Panda Bear on Honda’s Power of Dreams ad.
Here’s the ad: Honda, “Power of Dreams”
and the original song: “Edge of the Edge”
Post follow-up