Monday, February 07, 2005

Migration... To What?

Okay, here's the next ridiculous step in my procrastination last night. After the Super Bowl, I heard that commercial for Nike Pro Apparel blaring on my TV -- I had heard it a week or so ago, and it freaked me out. Because I realized that this song they used was something in my music collection. Something that I would never, ever guess would be used in an ad. For sports gear????

This has been bugging me on and off. When I first heard it, I did a Google search. All I could find were articles and posts about the ad -- how it was "creepy" (use of masks) and had a "horror movie soundtrack."

Okay, so I had a lot of caffeine and a few cups of decaf green tea while I'd been working. And sat down and really thought about it. And thought. And thought.

I suspected perhaps NIN's "The Fragile." I skipped through that disc. No dice.

Second guess, after more concentration (me inwardly yelling at myself to think really freakin' hard) -- I got it. Cop Shoot Cop's album "Ask Questions Later." It's a song called "Migration." (Awesome album, by the way.)

I was shocked when I heard an Amon Tobin song being used to advertise a car recently. It was easier to deal with "Lust for Life" or "How Soon is Now" being used to advertise stuff.

Anyway, it's weird to hear something as obscure (at least, I thought it would be obscure) as "Migration" used in an ad. Weirder still to think that when HFS was still on the air, touting itself as "alternative," it wouldn't have played that song (it would have 10 years ago, when HFS was still good, of course) -- but a commercial will play it now? Odd, that.

Thanks for reading,

LLB

6 Comments:

Blogger Maktaaq said...

I have no idea what that song is - now I'll have to watch television to find out!

"The Fragile" is a NIN song?

A former coworker uses that for her msn name and I'd always wondered why - I couldn't understand why she'd consider herself "fragile" when she was a big tattooed tank of a gal.

Boy, am I a backwards hillbilly or what?

4:39 AM  
Blogger Hebdomeros said...

Believe it or not, there are a lot of edgy, arty people in advertising. People who are around our age and now use music they liked growing up. I agree, it's odd. The first time I really noticed was about three years ago; it was a Ween song being used to sell jeans. I just hope all these bands still have the rights to the songs, so they're making money off the commercial use.

An odd tangent back to Thirwell/Foetues...to make money he used to write and choose music for Mtv's commercials. I don't think he does it anymore, though. But it goes to show you never know who's in that corporate office.

8:41 AM  
Blogger Maktaaq said...

Yes, all those corporate whores, if they'd just hold hands they could fight their capitalist oppressors. ;)

1:31 PM  
Blogger LadyLitBlitzin said...

"The Fragile" is a NIN album; I think it's also a name of a song or two on the album, too. I am so bad at track names these days... Hee. But that would indeed explain the tattooed tank of a girl, Maktaaq! :)

Hebdomeros, what Ween song was used to sell jeans? I am actually a pretty big Ween fan (how embarrassing that is, I don't know, probably "pretty damn")... I have a bunch of their old CDs and went to see them last summer. So I'm surprised that I missed it. (And I'm assuming it's not the lovely ballad "She F***s Me.") Ween just always make me laugh but the concert made me think they've definitely come around to considering themselves "rockstars." (I had seen them around '97 or '98 and liked them more.) And I also discovered that I'm too old to stay awake for an acoustic set, too. ;)

Yeah, I emailed a similar post to an email list of my friends, and the same theme came up... that lots of the people who listened to "weird" (cool!) music got into advertising (which I also considered "us") and that explains the weird (cool!) songs that suddenly show up in ads these days. Interesting...

What a great factoid on old Jim too... that's wild, I had no idea!

11:08 PM  
Blogger Hebdomeros said...

It was "I Can't Put My Finger On It" from the Chocolate and Cheese album. I only saw it a couple of times, so my guess is it didn't test well. Made me laugh, though.

I saw them probably three times. Twice in the late 80's/early 90's in the old 9:30 club opening for the Dead Milkmen, and once in the late 90's touring for The Mollusk. The first two times they were insane. Climbing on the lights all the way to the ceiling, jumping down and still singing. Throwing in really odd jams i-between each song. I'm pretty sure they were high. The Mollusk tour was much more sedate. They've changed a lot from their The Pod days.

9:12 AM  
Blogger LadyLitBlitzin said...

OMG, "I Can't Put My Finger On It" -- that's hilarious for a commercial! That's a great album too. I have that album, The Pod, and God Ween Satan. And a live CD too... I recently broke out God Ween Satan and realized a lot of it sounds like Adam Sandler if he was on crack.

Wow, opening for the Dead Milkmen.. now THAT is a dream team! That's awesome, and at the old 9:30 Club no less. That's so cool, that must have been such a blast. I definitely saw them before The Mollusk tour (at new 9:30 Club). But probably not very much before it. I definitely liked them the first time better than the last, yeah, the last time they were sedate and like I said, pretty rockstarish.

As for them being high... yeah, I have a funny feeling that drugs pretty much drive their muses. ;)

11:49 PM  

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