While watching the tube this weekend, I was horrified to see the following commercial:
Hang on a minute.
Ok. I had to give myself a second to breathe and collect myself, let my rage settle just a bit. You know why I'm so furious? The song in that XBOX 360 commercial is Gang of Four's "Natural's Not In It".
The top commenter on the video nails it: "Jon and Andy: I'm going to kick you in the shins really hard for this."
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Here are the lyrics (which have been scrubbed from the advert):
The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
Ideal love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the bourgeois life
This heaven gives me migraine
Look, I get that times are tough, especially for musicians, but seeing this makes me pretty depressed. I guess even bands with anti-corporate sensibility can be bought. Just show 'em enough zeroes.
In ten years, can we expect Rage Against the Machine to license "Freedom" to an airline that wants to convey the feeling 'freedom' to their potential customers? I sure as hell hope not... but...
What does the billboard say?
Come and play!, come and play!
Hmmm... that might actually work for some sort of video game company...
But getting back to Gang of Four, you could always make the argument that their sellout moment was in 1983 when they put out this piece of shit:
Yep, it's the same band... but I guess the difference is if they used this track in a commercial my heart sure as hell wouldn't be broken.
See also:
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rant. Show all posts
2011-01-31
2010-12-29
The A-pop-alypse and other thoughts
As described by Patton Oswalt. Excellent read here.
This touches on something I've been thinking about lately, as sort of a New Year's Resolution (the concept of which is utter bullshit, but bear with me). We recently went through the great year-end pop culture holiday known as Listmas. Every publication puts out a list of their favourite whatever of the past year. So what inevitably ends up happening in December is that we experience a whole year's worth of stuff in one month.
For me, I'm exposed to more new music in December than in any other month, just because everywhere you go you're shown something you missed back in April or May that everyone else has been digging since then. This replaying of the entire year makes me a bit depressed about my music consumption for a couple reasons. One is that I feel like I missed out on so much great stuff. The other is that in the time I spend sifting through all the new music, I could be listening to music that's really great that I love and music that's really great that I already know I don't spend enough time with.
So for my New Year's Resolution, I'm going to make an effort to listen to less new music... there's a concept I never thought I'd be buying into... if only so I can take the time to really enjoy music that I already have in my collection.
One of the ways I might do this is to sign up for a service like emusic. I think that a service like that would cause me to be more selective with my music choices, and I'd be able to enjoy more music because I'm getting rid of all the fat. CDs are still a viable option to me. Though I loathe to pay $17.99 for a god damned plastic disc, the sound quality is far superior to what you can find on the web, and by giving myself a CD budget, I'll probably pick nothing but 'the best' music.
The library is a great way to get your hands on CDs you might never listen to, except that it may take you a few months to get stuff. For example, back during the Polaris Prize buzz in the summer, I put pretty much every album that I didn't have on the short list on hold. The copies finally came in, and I picked two of the albums up yesterday. You can get great stuff for personal use, but you have to be patient. That's the trade off.
Like most 'resolutions' this one also has a chance to evaporate a bit by the spring, and almost certainly in its entirely by next Listmas.
This touches on something I've been thinking about lately, as sort of a New Year's Resolution (the concept of which is utter bullshit, but bear with me). We recently went through the great year-end pop culture holiday known as Listmas. Every publication puts out a list of their favourite whatever of the past year. So what inevitably ends up happening in December is that we experience a whole year's worth of stuff in one month.
For me, I'm exposed to more new music in December than in any other month, just because everywhere you go you're shown something you missed back in April or May that everyone else has been digging since then. This replaying of the entire year makes me a bit depressed about my music consumption for a couple reasons. One is that I feel like I missed out on so much great stuff. The other is that in the time I spend sifting through all the new music, I could be listening to music that's really great that I love and music that's really great that I already know I don't spend enough time with.
So for my New Year's Resolution, I'm going to make an effort to listen to less new music... there's a concept I never thought I'd be buying into... if only so I can take the time to really enjoy music that I already have in my collection.
One of the ways I might do this is to sign up for a service like emusic. I think that a service like that would cause me to be more selective with my music choices, and I'd be able to enjoy more music because I'm getting rid of all the fat. CDs are still a viable option to me. Though I loathe to pay $17.99 for a god damned plastic disc, the sound quality is far superior to what you can find on the web, and by giving myself a CD budget, I'll probably pick nothing but 'the best' music.
The library is a great way to get your hands on CDs you might never listen to, except that it may take you a few months to get stuff. For example, back during the Polaris Prize buzz in the summer, I put pretty much every album that I didn't have on the short list on hold. The copies finally came in, and I picked two of the albums up yesterday. You can get great stuff for personal use, but you have to be patient. That's the trade off.
Like most 'resolutions' this one also has a chance to evaporate a bit by the spring, and almost certainly in its entirely by next Listmas.
2010-06-08
So that's it for FM radio
I've been meaning to post about this for a little while, cause I'm pissed.
Toronto's Edge 102 has replaced their only show worth listening to, Saigon Sunday aka Retro Sundays aka the only reason I have 102.1 still programmed on my radio presets, with a fucking Dr. Drew show. A part of me is officially dead inside.
Of course the show hasn't been the same since the late great Martin Streek (RIP), a guy who always had time to chat at the venues and had an inspiring passion and knowledge for music. I'll always remember the days at the old 'Joe' club (now home to CHUM radio), tearing up the dance floor and not always leaving the place under my own power.
The show was basically alternative 'club-type music' aka upbeat, rockin', danceable tunes, from 1976-1993 (the last couple years they pushed it to 98-99) The radio broadcast would go from 9-2 on Sunday nights while the doors to the actual club would open at 10 and wouldn't shut down to nearly 3 on some nights.
As for the tunes, luckily for me (and for you) I've been compiling the playlist to end all Saigon Sunday playlists over the last four years, and I have decided I will officially take up the torch of keeping the 'spirit' of that music alive. I intend to make it a point to post songs and videos on Sundays, and I have thoughts of eventually doing it in podcast form. Wouldn't that be sweet.
So here it is, a nice big first installment of Saigon Sunday (yah yah, on a Tuesday):
Toronto's Edge 102 has replaced their only show worth listening to, Saigon Sunday aka Retro Sundays aka the only reason I have 102.1 still programmed on my radio presets, with a fucking Dr. Drew show. A part of me is officially dead inside.
Of course the show hasn't been the same since the late great Martin Streek (RIP), a guy who always had time to chat at the venues and had an inspiring passion and knowledge for music. I'll always remember the days at the old 'Joe' club (now home to CHUM radio), tearing up the dance floor and not always leaving the place under my own power.
The show was basically alternative 'club-type music' aka upbeat, rockin', danceable tunes, from 1976-1993 (the last couple years they pushed it to 98-99) The radio broadcast would go from 9-2 on Sunday nights while the doors to the actual club would open at 10 and wouldn't shut down to nearly 3 on some nights.
As for the tunes, luckily for me (and for you) I've been compiling the playlist to end all Saigon Sunday playlists over the last four years, and I have decided I will officially take up the torch of keeping the 'spirit' of that music alive. I intend to make it a point to post songs and videos on Sundays, and I have thoughts of eventually doing it in podcast form. Wouldn't that be sweet.
So here it is, a nice big first installment of Saigon Sunday (yah yah, on a Tuesday):
Labels:
radio,
rant,
saigon sunday,
tracks,
video
2008-07-21
Bloggers are idiots
Just needed to vent: I hate mp3 blogs that brand the files they post. Images, album titles, genres... what's wrong with you people? Not only are you giving away someone's hard work for free, you're re-purposing it for your own slimy schemes. Drives me nuts. URL in the comment section will do just fine, thanks.
Oh, and another thing: what's with mp3 files that don't have the right info tags? The person pirating obviously has Internet access, otherwise the files wouldn't get anywhere - so why is the info incorrect? Is the person ripping the file by the byte? Even worse is when the info is wrong! How does that even happen? You'd have to go out of your way to change the info, what, to make someone's life less enjoyable? More irritating to perform the act of pirating?
Bah.
Oh, and another thing: what's with mp3 files that don't have the right info tags? The person pirating obviously has Internet access, otherwise the files wouldn't get anywhere - so why is the info incorrect? Is the person ripping the file by the byte? Even worse is when the info is wrong! How does that even happen? You'd have to go out of your way to change the info, what, to make someone's life less enjoyable? More irritating to perform the act of pirating?
Bah.
Labels:
people are idiots,
rant
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