#360 Kylie Minogue and Lexus

Kylie Minogue just became an endorser for Lexus. That's two things I want to ride in one picture.

#352 Deaf Preachers Interactive Promo

French band Deaf Preachers play RAWK music. They made a pretty awesome promo-online-video-viral-thingie that I strongly suggest you watch by clicking here.

#345 Members Of Vampire Weekend And The Black Keys Goof Off On "The Colbert Report"

Colbert Report Full Episodes
By having a sell out showdown. Via my friend Niels Christaan Post. Thanks Niels Christiaan Post.

#325 Smells Like The Ting Things

His and Her fragrance by Tommy Hilfiger co-created by your favorite British indie pop duo The Ting Tings.

As from spring 2011 you as well
can smell
like you're in a band.

The tune by the way is “We Are Not The Same” and previously unreleased.

#297 The Rolling Stones and the Black Ops

Via my friend Niels Post in ran into an article this weekend on Alternet.org called "7 Rock Songs Exploited for Commerce and Conservatism". As the title suggests, an article written from a "corporations are bad and so are the bands that are involved with them" point of view.
As a person working in an industry that helps evil corporations connect with bands that are willing to be evil's minions, I mainly noticed a lot of strange song-with-commercial match ups.

Most notably there's the recent Call of Duty - Black Ops commercial. The commercial uses the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, a song based on the despair of Vietnam. That song is now being used to sell a game that glorifies war. In bad taste? Probably. Strange choice? Most definitely.

Meanwhile the band, that has never shied away from any corporate cooperation, working on commercials in the 60's for Rice Krispies and licensing in the 90's for Microsoft, is laughing all the way to the bank not only making a nice buck from the commercial but also seeing a huge spurt in general sales.

#287 Henry Rollins On Selling Your Music To Car Commercials

Staying on the Punk Rock Friday tip. Here's the ever angry Henry Rollins on the topic of selling out to "The Man". "The Man" being advertising agencies and I guess... me.

#276 I'm With The Brand, A Post About Dr. Martens The Music Patron

Interesting article on the Mojo magazine website called I'm With The Brand, a headline so smart I wish I had though of it... but decided to steal nonetheless.
They talk about the patron-artist relation ship I mentioned a little while ago, in my post about Converse and there fully equipped, free for all studio.
What they mention, and I neglected, is the deal Converse makes with these artists. Most importantly: Converse has no say over the music, the artist will retain full ownership rights and the songs won't be used in any Converse ads.
Converse is simply giving back to a community that helped them build their brand through the likes of The Strokes and The Ramones, hoping in return for the good will of a new generation of consumers.

What I didn't know just yet, is that Dr. Martens did a similar thing earlier this year.
Celebrating their 50th anniversary, Dr. Martens created a free sampler of current bands doing covers of older bands and combined them with various up and coming directors. Those directors shot music videos and behind the scenes footage (that all look like fashion shoots). All for the cost of... your email address.

Watch MC5's Michael Davis and D.O.A. cover Cold War Kids' Something Is Not Right With Me below.

#265 BBC2 NewsNight On The Fiat / Faithless Deal

I informed you all about the Fiat / Faithless team-up from earlier this year. Fiat payed for a full on high production value music video to promote the Faithless' new single but in return claimed part of that video as their own, extensively showing both interior as well as exterior of a new car their were launching.

BBC2's Newsnight is discussing this whole "Bands and Brands" phenomenon, trying to figure out whether this is the beginning of a new era or the end of musical creativity as we know it.

#263 Jack White Is The Best Shoe Salesman In The World

Jack White has been doing well this week in terms of extra money rolling in. Not one but two commercials went on air that feature his music.

The new Converse "Join the Procession" spot, starring legendary basketball player Dr. J, dug up The White Stripes' 'Hello Operator' from their year 2000 record De Stijl. Around the same time, Converse mother company Nike, figured it'd be a swell idea to use The Raconteurs' 'Salute Your Solution' from 2000 and 8's 'Consolers of the Lonely' for their new campaign entitles 'Boom'.

I obviously wasn't there to make either of the deals, but I'm thinking that for 1 year USA on all media platform Jack might have made a cool 250K... a commercial.

Boom!

#260 Lemmy Jamming Out In Kronebourg Commercial

The manliest of man, Lemmy Kilmister is starring in a new commercial for Kronenbourg Beer.

Situated in a French Brasserie type setting, Lemmy and what I think are some other Motörhead guys, are slowing down the pace of The Ace Of Spades.

#259 Doritos' Late Night 360 Degrees Music Videos

Via Wilbert "Six Flags" Leering

Doritos "Late Night" I'm lead to believe is the ultimate bag of potato chips you can have after a long night of partying. To have you believe that as well, the people at AMV/BBDO and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners came up with a campaign that features five relatively unknown bands and a global music event featuring Rihanna and her new video, "Who's That Chick".

Since you have to login with an empty Doritos action pack, I don't know what Rihanna's content is all about. But the five relatively unknown bands all shot a 360 degrees video that you can control. What that means?
Go have a look at the Doritos Late Night website. I promise you won't regret it.

#254 Awesome Campers / Awesome Music

What you're about to see is not, I repeat is NOT, the next Ok-Go video. What you're about to see is in fact a shoe commercial that just happens to look like it could be the next Ok-Go video.

To celebrate the release of a new line of shoes that feature a cushioning system called P87, Spanish shoe brand Camper (now you get the joke with picture) shot a video with the co-Spanierds / the band Klein.
The band is performing their track "Thread Over It", whilst walking over a brightly colored series of oversized paper instruments that from above look like a giant microchip... Just go watch.

#239 Rubber Tracks, The Converse Recording Studio

I've been saying it for a while now. Advertising agencies and brands could very well and should very well be the new record labels.
In a day and age where the recording music industry needs to look for new ways of generating income and the traditional music labels can't seem to keep up, it only seems logical that more dynamic and creative companies step up.

Say hello to shoe manufacturer Converse. They're about to open a recording studio, called Rubber Tracks, in Brooklyn. The studio will allow emerging artists the opportunity to work with state-of-the-art equipment... for free.
Apart from giving bands the opportunity to record, Converse will also help out in getting that music heard. What does that mean? Well a quick look in my little crystal reveals new shoes will include free CD's and MP3 downloads, branded events featuring the Converse bands, band video's will heavily be provided with Converse materials as well and mucho mucho more.

All authentic and original content, made from the heart by aspiring musicians and made possible by the kind people at Converse. It's like being a musician in 1600-something France, with Converse playing the part of the French nobels.
I guess that makes the Rubber Tracks studio the Versailles of our time... kinda.



The studio is now open for applications from interested musicians. More information can be found at converse.com/rubbertracks.

#220 Rick Ross in Nike "Boom" Commercial

Prison guard / Drug Trafficker Rick Ross a.k.a. The Teflon Don becomes Nike's spokesperson.

#219 Animal Collective and Keep Shoes

Once unlistenable, but not so unlistenable anymore, geniuses Animal Collective are hooking up with a shoe brand. The band has announced that they are releasing previously unreleased music on cassette along with an upcoming charity shoe range for Keep.
Due out in March 2011, proceeds from the shoes are going to support the Socorro Island conservation fund. First shoe (and cassette) can be found en pre-ordered right here.

Quite an interesting band / brand hookup if you as me.