That was awesome. No music in that one, but it still was found via the commercial music thread.

This has been a popular request in the commercial music thread. It’s an awesome song. (this isn’t the song from the bobblehead Jeep commercial… that answer is in this comment.)

At least, that’s what I’m learning from TV.

I’m still fascinated by the use of music in films and television commercials. I have been obsessed with this Dawn Landes song called Straight Lines lately which I found through a user request on the Commercial Music thread. It’s a beautiful song and her voice and the guitar just go so well with those lyrics.

Of course, I hate the ad that I found it on, which is part of AXE’s obnoxious Boom Chicka Wah Wah commercial package. Apparently, it’s been playing in movie theaters, though I haven’t seen it yet live. While poking around YouTube for live performance clips of Dawn, I found another commercial that featured Straight Lines. I present them here side by side for your entertainment. Consider how the same song can be used to promote two completely different things.

and then we have this one:

There’s an art to finding music for commercials, and whoever picked this for the AXE ad helped themsevles out. It’s a pretty awful commercial even with that song. Without the song, it would be forgettable.

I’ll leave you with another Dawn Landes video, this one an actual music video where she shows off her mad soccer skillz.

I don’t know why, but I like it.

Update: In case you like her stuff, Straight Lines isn’t available on iTunes in the U.S. yet. I contacted her label and they assured me that it’s coming soon on iTunes. If you’re in the U.K., you’re in luck. It’s available there.

Just for you, some more songs from the musical episode:

So touching…

Update: Here’s more:

How can you not love this episode?

NBC released a behind-the-scenes video on YouTube, too:

too funny…

I’m watching the first season of Numb3rs and noticed that Krumholtz’s love interest/assistant doesn’t get credited in the opening credit roll. Any ideas on why? She has as many lines in most episodes as Peter MacNicol. She’s Navi Rawat, for the record, and she’s decent in her role.

As some of you know, I’m mildly obsessed with the marriage of music and video in commercials, movies, and the like. I spend a lot of time after watching films looking for soundtracks, bands, and songs from the stuff I watch. It’s unhealthy enough that I’m building another site to expand the TV Commercial Music post that has garnered so many comments (If I knew even the least bit about hair dye, I might’ve done that one too). Well, every once in a while you just come across an amazing blend of the music and story in very unlikely places.

Heidi is currently obsessed with Scrubs. She’s been watching reruns on Tivo for weeks, ordered the early seasons in DVD from Netflix and has otherwise been Scrubs obsessed. There was a great set of episodes in Season 5, My Lunch [] and My Fallen Idol []. The end of My Lunch features a song by The Fray called How to Save a Life. The blend of the music with the story here is amazing.

Of course, this being 2007, you don’t need to take my word for it as someone posted the clip to YouTube. Enjoy it (spoiler warning!):

It’s a great scene, especially if you know the characters.

The song has been featured in both Scrubs and Grey’s Anatomy among many other shows. Heidi and I spent half the car ride back to CT from Philly yesterday analyzing and reanalyzing the lyrics [], trying to figure out what the song was about. It’s such a broad song and open to so many interpretations that we bounced from a couple talking about an abortion to a breakup to someone wondering if they could’ve helped a suicide. It turns out that the song was inspired by the writer’s experiences working in a camp for troubled teens. Within that frame, it’s equally powerful.

The song has inspired a PSA campaign catalyzed by the death of a teen in a car accident. The videos on the campaigns YouTube group are touching. Worth a quick look.

The song was also mentioned on an TV show I saw recently (blanking on which show/network) that talked about how these songs make it onto your favorite TV shows. They featured Alexandra Patsavas who is the music supervisor for the O.C. and Grey’s Anatomy. She runs Chop Shop Music Supervision and is behind a bunch of the music you hear on TV. She was recently featured in a NY Post interview. How does one become a music supervisor? Read the interview.

The most recent video for this song is also great.

If you want to know more, there’s even a Wikipedia entry for the song (yes, I’m serious, go look!).

Featured Media

I just saw a goofy Travelocity commercial during Monday Night Football that was set up as a breaking news story about the Travelocity Gnome disappearing. Mildly funny, but unremarkable except for the fact that there was a URL at the end of the commercial pointing to GnomeWatch.com. Being a sucker, I typed it in to see what was there.

I was surprised to be redirected to a Yahoo 360 page for a user called GnomeWatch. The page is highly customized with a ton of external content complete with Yahoo videos and a Flickr photostream. For those that don’t know, 360 is Yahoo’s social networking platform (similar to MySpace, ESPN Fan Profiles, etc.). Just like shows like FX’s It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia have done on MySpace, Yahoo and Travelocity are trying to get people to add GnomeWatch as friends, join the GnomeWatch group (hosted by Yahoo Groups) and watch videos (hosted by, naturally, Yahoo Videos).

I can’t imagine that enough people will care about the Travelocity Gnome to sign up for the Yahoo Group, but anything that gets people to realize that Yahoo even has 360 will probably be a good thing.

Of course, considering the recent rumblings coming out of Yahoo-land, perhaps this is something that should die.

I know I said I would limit my posts about the Path to 9/11, but this is completely horrible. The movie contains a scene where a CIA agent supposedly calls the White House for authorization to kill bin Laden after supposedly having surrounded him Afghanistan. Sandy Berger is portrayed as not answering before the line gets cut.

One problem. The incident never actually happened. It’s a complete fabrication. From CQ:

Berger, reached by phone after the screening, seconded Ben-Veniste’s criticism. “It’s a total fabrication,” he said tersely. “It did not happen.”

That is not likely to prevent the film from being embraced far and wide among Bush supporters.

…

Neither Berger nor Ben-Veniste was consulted on the film. Kean, however, is an official adviser; he says the incident was a fictionalized composite. It was “representative of a series of events compacted into one,” he replied to Ben-Veniste at the time. In a phone interview a few days later, he added, “It’s reasonably accurate.” And he offered a prediction that the show will “get just as many howls from Republicans.”

It’s worth pointing out that Kean has something to gain by kissing up to the Republican establishment: his son is running for office in NJ.

Contrast this account to the comments by Richard Clarke, Larry Johnson, Rand Beers, Paul Pillar, all former NSC or CIA officials who worked in the Bush administration. Take a look at this account of Richard Clarke’s focus during his time in both administrations. Kean simply isn’t credible and this movie is nothing but a rehash of the “blame Clinton” line that Republicans have been peddling since 2000. It may be winning elections, but it’s flushing our country down the drain.

Early reports make the Path to 9/11 a sorry excuse for a docudrama. Mendacious might not be strong enough.

Here are some more blogs, newspapers, and magazines talking about this fictional bit of historical lovemaking to the Bush administration.

Blogs

• ABC Yanks the Movie’s Blog
• Firedoglake examines the marketing and early reviews of the movie. Hint: there’s a bias in the marketing.
• TPM Cafe talks about the movie

Other

• MediaMatters talks about the creators

I’ll keep this updated as I find more. It will probably be the last post on this subject.

(Standard disclaimer applies — see here.)

Just saw on Amazon that the second season DVDs for Lost are coming out on September 5th. I think Josh and some other folks were asking me. You can pre-order today and Amazon will probably deliver by the 6th. Just click on the image to go to Amazon.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

If there’s a statement about what is wrong with the media, especially TV news today, it’s this great comment by Katie Couric.

Found via Atrios.