Commercial Watch: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Anathallo, YACHT + more
June 4, 2010
It’s time for another edition of Commercial Watch, where I highlight the songs that play during those annoying parts that you never watch in between LOST and The Daily Show. Click the links to watch the commercials / download the MP3s.
Apple: What is iPad?The first iPad commercial was soundtracked by Danish indie rock band The Blue Van, this one by another slightly more well-known indie rockers, Yeah Yeahs Yeahs. If you thought Apple was going to stop using indie music now that it’s surpassed Microsoft as the #1 tech company, no dice.
MP3 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Gold Lion
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2010 Cadillac SRX CrossoverLast year’s most valuable commercial featuring an indie song was the 2009 Cadillac SRX Crossover ad which made a huge hit out of the Phoenix song “1901″ (which tied for my #1 song of ’09). This year’s model’s commercial features another fab song by Portland electronic duo YACHT.
MP3 YACHT – Psychic City (Rory Phillips Remix)
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American Express: Members Project
Unfortunately I recently read that Anathallo have decided to go on permanent hiatus, which means it’ll probably be a while if ever before we hear another album from the band. Still it’s nice to see that one of my favorite of their songs, “Dokkoise House” made it onto this AT&T commercial.
MP3 Anathallo – Dokkoise House (With Face Covered)
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2010 Jaguar XFNot much to say about this one. It’s a typical car commercial soundtracked by everyone’s favorite tap-dancing indie pop crew, Omaha’s Tilly and the Wall.
MP3 Tilly and the Wall – Pot Kettle Black
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AT&T: Rethink PossibleNick Drake, the English folk singer who died tragically in 1974, famously had “Pink Moon” used in this wonderful VW commercial from 2000 which has been called by some the best commercial of the decade. “From the Morning” is another track from the singer’s legendary Pink Moon album this time played in the background of AT&T’s newest commercial.
MP3 Nick Drake – From the Morning
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2010 Kia Soul – HamstersThis ad is interesting because it actually has six versions with six different songs. The one I’m highlighting here features Scottish electropop wiz Calvin Harris, but search youtube for versions with MSTRKRFT, Goldfish, and Rick Atsley.
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Target: Pink PeptoThis commercial is a bit of an older one, but it’s a pretty good use of the track and you have to give Target props for using an artist with a F-bomb in their name. Suck it Walmart!
MP3 Starfucker – Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second
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2011 Ford MustangThis is very eye-catching car commercial for Ford’s new (and I must admit, pretty sweet looking) Mustang. British garage rockers Band of Skulls set a great tone for the ad with a heavy bluesy guitar riff.
MP3 Band of Skulls – Light of the Morning
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Let me know if there’s any other good commercials out there I’m missing.
Tags: Anathallo, band of skulls, Calvin Harris, Commercial Watch, nick drake, starfucker, Tilly and the Wall, YACHT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
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June 4th, 2010 at 9:43 am
YACHT is not a british band….
June 4th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Ah yes, that would be Yachts. Damn wikipedia.
June 4th, 2010 at 11:35 am
Heard last night, for the first time, a Cadillac commercial with a Say Hi To Your Mom (I refuse to just call them “Say H!”) song. One off their new album . . . my iPod is dead, otherwise I’d give you the name of the song.
June 4th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Sara, the name of the song is One, Two … One. That’s a good one.
June 4th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
“Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is used on a Ford commercial. I was not happy about it.
June 5th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Oh man. I figured Anathallo had called it quits because they’d been quiet so long, but I hadn’t seen that post by Bret. Having it officially confirmed is a bit rough.
They were/are my favorite band…
June 5th, 2010 at 1:07 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7E1xcGgRzU
Sia covers Under The Milky Way (originally by The Church), recorded especially for this Lincoln car commercial.
June 5th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I covered the Lincoln commercial with Sia here: http://musicforants.com/blog/?p=3592
June 6th, 2010 at 11:53 am
The Starfucker commercial cracks me up everytime it comes on TV. I agree, total props to Target for having the balls to put such a huge commercial on with a band named ‘Starfucker’. I wonder what people think when they search for “that song playing in pink pepto” and it comes up with ‘Starfucker’… Lol, just too great!
Additionally YACHT is from portland or somewhere in the PNW. He’s from the duo ‘The Blow’ with his fuckbuddy, oh, whats her name. Well, who cares he was obviously all the creatively/talent that group had since I can’t even remember her name… (I looked it up, her name is Mikhaela Yvonne Maricich, so point proven.)
June 6th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
I always wonder what songs commercials use. But it me or do songs sound different when they are in a commercial rather than just listening to the song itself?
June 7th, 2010 at 2:35 am
some really awesome tv moments here
June 7th, 2010 at 8:35 am
@ Ger – Agreed, I think a lot of the companies have remixes or edits done, it’s probably part of how they lease the rights. I think that is supported by looking at the list above, a lot of them are covers, edits or mixes and not the original song.
It makes sense as an artist, to keep your originals out of commercials. but still getting your sound out there. Although, one example to the contrary is Aqueduct (a band). He had a lot of his original songs in Cadillac commercials and such. And they were his big songs, too.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Good call, Ger / downtrodd. A good example is The xx’s “intro” which was sped up quite a bit for that Apollo Ohno AT&T commercial that ran during the Winter Olympics. The Nick Drake song above also was edited slightly to fit with the commercial. Plus I think the version of Gold Lion in the iPad commercial is a remix.
June 7th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Whoa, whoa, WHOA. Wher and when did they announce they were taking a break?
June 8th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Late last year at Matt’s wedding apparantly. There’s a link in the post to Brett’s blog about it. Unfortunately it sounds more like a break-up then a break. RIP Anathallo.
June 12th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Yes! I discovered Nick Drake through that AT&T commercial : ) They usually pick good music.
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:49 am
In the commercial for the C4 Picasso there’s the song Hey There Delilah of Plain White T’s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrDJrkoBl6M
October 18th, 2010 at 11:40 am
I love how emmy mistakes janglin for home. If you’re going to take the indie kid route you might as well get your shit right.