today in NYC
* Dayna Kurtz @ Barbes
* Slavic Soul Party @ Barbes
* Richard Thompson @ City Winery
* Wyatt Cenac & other comedians @ Union Hall
* Degreaser, Dead Boomers, Modra @ Zebulon
* Williamsburg Salsa Orchestra @ Cameo Gallery
* Gabriel and the Hounds, A>G>E @ Mercury Lounge
* The Sons & Heirs (Smiths tribute) @ The Bell House
* MNDR, Make Out, Psychobuildings @ Pianos
* Devin, St. Lucia, Tiny Victories @ Pianos
* Dave Hill & many others @ Littlefield's Rejection Show
* Lily & The Parlour Tricks, The Squaws @ Bowery Electric
* Dust Angel, Dirty Fences, Youth Quake, Threats @ Cake Shop
* Explosions in the Sky, Grouper, Ducky @ NYU Skirball Center
* Oberhofer, Slowdance, Night Manager, Bear Ceuse, DJ Marty McSorely @ 285 Kent
* "Babes In Toyland, Hole, X, Discount, Spitboy, Mika Miko, Heavens To Betsy, Frumpies" @ Death By Audio

Death By Audio's annual Anti V-Day Riot Grrrl Cover Bands Show is set to channel the likes of X and Hole to show folks exactly what love is good for.

Fiona Apple is playing a church at SXSW.
Thurston Moore played an Austin church over the weekend.

Thanks Heartless Bastards for the site sponsorship today. Grab their new album at iTunes. They play Chicago tonight and will soon bring their tour to Webster Hall in NYC.

Devin opens their Webster Hall show and plays a free show at Pianos tonight!

RIP Chicago jazz artist Jodie Christian.

Aside from rekindling old flames of their own making, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala began streaming their slinky new single as The Mars Volta, "The Malkin Jewel," yesterday (2/13). The band's new album, Noctourniquet, will be released on March 27 via Warner Bros. Listen below.

Watch St. Vincent play a Valentine's Day Party on Gossip Girl, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday? (Valentine's Day)"

St. Vincent @ Portlandia @ Bowery Ballroom (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Look for St. Vincent "on a special Valentine's Day episode of Gossip Girl, Feb 13, performing "Cruel" and "Cheerleader." The show airs Monday, February 13, at 8pm/7pmc on The CW." I honestly didn't even realize Gossip Girl was still a thing until I heard this news. I do however religiously watch Portlandia which featured a guest spot by Annie this week, about two weeks after she was Fred & Carrie's guest at Bowery Ballroom. You can watch her clip from the TV show (Isaac Brock was on the episode too), with a bunch of tour dates and other stuff, below...

Continue reading "St. Vincent was on Portlandia (video), will be on Gossip Girl"

photos by Chris La Putt

Brooklyn duo Matt and Kim, dressed as Andy Warhol and his It Girl Edie Sedgewick, took the stage to Fat Joe shouting "Where Brooklyn At?" over the sinister beat of his hit "Lean Back", while they threw out candy to the crowd before beginning a fun-filled set that included their infectious smash hit "Daylight" and short nods to Europe's "Final Countdown" and Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part Two."

As for Weezer, they were dressed in various insect costumes, which vocalist Rivers Cuomo had audience members remove for himself his fellow band members while they continued to play "Undone (The Sweater Song)" early on in the set. The sold out house danced along to all the bouncy music Weezer had to offer (literally bouncy, as the band had a trampoline set up on stage), including hits such as "Perfect Situation", "Island in the Sun", "Surf Wax America", "Buddy Holly", "Pork and Beans", "Dope Nose", and new ones "I Can't Stop Partying", and "I'm Your Daddy." They also played an absolutely awesome cover of MGMT's "Kids", which took a detour to Lady GaGa's massive hit "Poker Face" in the middle. But as usual, it was "My Name is Jonas" that brought the house down.

The biggest surprise of the night, other than the cool cover, was an appearance by Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester. The TV star came out in nude pants splashed with random bursts of color and a 60's style beehive to sing a duet with vocalist Rivers Cuomo on "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To." She sang very well, and later Tweeted that Rivers was "perfection in a bottle." [Examiner]

Weezer maybe had the bug costumes left over from a taping for on an upcoming episode of Yo Gabba Gabba!. More pictures from their Saturday night Halloween show at Hammerstein Ballrooom, including many crowd members in costume, below...

Continue reading "Weezer, Matt & Kim, Leighton Meester & PT Walkley on Halloween @ Hammerstein Ballroom - pics "

Heavy Trash @ Mercury Lounge in June (more by Tim Griffin)

tonight in NYC
* Iggy Pop @ Barnes & Noble
* The Raveonettes @ Maxwell's
* Nick Lowe, Bill Kirchen @ City Winery
* Digable Planets members @ Southpaw
* Kylie Minogue @ Hammerstein Ballroom
* Former Ghost, Silk Flowers @ Monkey Town
* Lucky Dragons, Rose Lowder @ Light Industry
* Heavy Trash, Bad Girlfriend @ Bowery Electric
* Indian Jewelry, Led Er Est, Living Days @ Glasslands
* The Dodos, The Ruby Suns @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* Om, Six Organs of Admittance, Lichens @ Bowery Ballroom
* Built to Spill, Disco Doom, Violent Soho @ Webster Hall
* Ladybug Transistor, The Parson Red Heads, Hymns @ Union Hall
* Ravens & Chimes, Hollands, Wires In the Walls, The Royalties @ Pianos
* Youth Group, The Static Jacks, Terminal Reynaldo, Don Lennon @ Maxwell's
* Clem Snide, Yourself & The Air, The Republic Tigers, Eleanor Whitmore with Chris Masterson @ Mercury Lounge

Two-thirds of Digable Planets reunite for a gig at Southpaw.

Iggy Pop talks with author Robert Matheu at Barnes & Noble Tribeca.

Kylie Minogue wraps up her Hammerstein Ballroom run.

Neon Indian is coming for CMJ. Indian Jewelry plays Glasslands tonight.

The Raveonettes' tour starts at Maxwell's tonight, Webster Hall tomorrow and MHOW Sunday.

Om, Six Organs of Admittance and Lichens played Europa on Sunday. Tonight they're at Bowery Ballroom.

West Coast indie-pop band The Dodos have a new-ish record out and are on tour with The Ruby Suns. They both play Music Hall of Williamsburg tonight and Bowery tomorrow.

Lucky Dragons recently opened some shows for Thom Yorke. Tonight they're in Brooklyn.

Built to Spill, Disco Doom and Violent Soho have three more NYC shows to play counting tonight at Webster Hall.

Former Ghost, at Monkey Town with Silk Flowers tonight, is Freddy Ruppert from This Song Is a Mess but So Am I, Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, and Nika Roza of Zola Jesus.

Heavy Trash play a record release show for Midnight Soul Serenade, out now, at Bowery Electric.

The Roots aren't playing Highline Ballroom tonight.

Nick Lowe and Bill Kirchen play City Winery tonight and tomorrow.

Grizzly Bear and Sonic Youth both made (very different) appearances on TV last night. Those clips are below.

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Tuesday?"

by Ryan Barkan

10. CLOUD CULT: "LUCKY TODAY" - ESURANCE.COM
It's a music video! It's an ad! It's a music videad! It's the band Cloud Cult, fully animated in a TV spot for Esurance, but there isn't a sales pitch to be found. The Minneapolis psychedelic-pop band had traditionally shunned marketers, but the DTC insurance company won them over with some hard-fought green credentials. The result is a charming spot that not only fits in with the visual style of the band, but also features one of Cloud Cult's best songs.
[Ad Age Ad Songs of the Year]

This commercial came out late in 2008...though I think I only saw it one or two times. But thanks to an increase in rotation (January is the busiest month for car insurance!) partially influenced by the above placement in Ad Age, Esurance's Cloud Cult cartoon commercial has been on TV heavily over the past few weeks. The band shows up as animated characters in what comes off more as a music video for their 2005 song "Lucky Today", than as a sales pitch for insurance. A quick jump to Esurance's website and you can find a special Cloud Cult microsite where you can watch the commercial, stream/download a few songs, read why the band finds similarities in their and Esurance's love for being green, and learn how to be more eco-friendly.

According to SoundScan, the band sold more individual digital downloads of "Lucky Today" (1,400) in the last week than they usually sell in a month from all albums...combined.

Other Notable Licensing News:

Radiohead gave gratis (aka free) permission to the National Coalition For The Homeless to use the song "MK1" in a spot that attempts to show homelessness can happen to anyone. (via Songs For Soap). This was their first commercial license ever. Watch the spot below.

Michael Stipe was cool with giving a gratis license for Amnesty International to use REM's "Until the Day Is Done" in a powerful new spot. Watch that below as well.

"In fact, it seems like the one thriving corner of the music business is ad placement. The only people making any money are the artists landing their songs in TV commercials and the royalties that come along with that, so the most successful bands this year will be the ones whose songs are most conducive to selling shit. Which means that Santogold is your Artist of the Year for 2009. Once the shampoo companies find out about 'I'm a Lady', forget about it. It's a wrap." [Tom Breihan in the new L Magazine]

Santogold says 'aha' a lot in the new commercial for the Samsung Pixon phone with her song, "Say Aha". Watch it here.

Audi goes old school in the new spot for the Q5, breaking out Woodie Guthrie's fun "Car Song."

Another car manufacturer went NOT-old school - Volkswagen stayed local (German) with the Berlin electro-group Team on their new (clearly inspired by the movie The Matrix) spot for the Golf. Watch below.

Vancouver band, Readymade, has a song used by Unilever in their new Sun spot, highlighting "Human Potential."

I'm addicted to Diet Pepsi. It's my friend-mesis. Pepsi has rebranded my favorite drink and its overall image with a new "smile" logo. The brand launched its commercial campaign with a spot featuring the music of The Apples In Stereo (Via YANPicasso).

Papa John's sponsored an NCAA football bowl game last month. During said bowl game, the pizza maker debuted a commercial celebrating their 25th anniversary featuring Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight".

John Lennon may not be alive, but that didn't stop Yoko Ono from lending his voice to a good cause. Watch the OLPC PSA below.

Walmart promotes the football season with a commercial using Queen's anthem "We Will Rock You".

Fashionista Kanye West is teaming up with one of his favorite designers, Luis Vuitton, to create six shoes for the brand. You may have also noticed Kanye's song "Flashing Lights" in the Season 6 promo to the F/X channel's show "Nip/Tuck". Commercial below.

continued, with videos, below...

Continue reading "This week in Music Licensing"

by Ryan Barkan

When it comes to licensing, Tom Waits has a strong reputation..

Waits has steadfastly refused to allow the use of his songs in commercials and has joked about other artists who do. ("If Michael Jackson wants to work for Pepsi, why doesn't he just get himself a suit and an office in their headquarters and be done with it?") He has filed several lawsuits against advertisers who used his material without permission. He has been quoted as saying, "Apparently, the highest compliment our culture grants artists nowadays is to be in an ad -- ideally, naked and purring on the hood of a new car," he said in a statement, referring to the Mercury Cougar. "I have adamantly and repeatedly refused this dubious honor....

...In 2005, Waits sued Adam Opel AG, claiming that, after having failed to sign him to sing in their Scandinavian commercials, they had hired a soundalike singer. In 2007, the suit was settled, and Waits gave the sum to charity." [Wikipedia]

Speaking in an interview in 2005 to NPR's All Things Considered, Waits bluntly says "I'd rather have a hot lead enema" than have a song in a commercial. At the time he was referring to products like Doritos, cars and diapers. His stance isn't as strong when it comes to a good cause. His song "Never Let Go" is the soundtrack to a new PSA by the Ad Council for Feeding America.

The campaign, shot by American History X director Tony Kaye, launched November 25th and is intended to raise awareness and drive action to fight hunger in America.

Created pro bono by Ogilvy NY, the new TV, radio, print, and web advertising aims to change the way Americans look at this critical issue affecting our country and to understand the fact that many people they interact with on a daily basis may not know where their next meal will come from...

"We are thrilled to partner with Feeding America to educate Americans about just how close hunger is to each one of us," according to Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of The Advertising Council. "I believe that the 1 in 8 campaign will inspire Americans to become involved in this critical issue."

"This work uses simple visual imagery to demonstrate the reality of the fact that everyone today knows someone who is hungry," said Antonio Navas and Chris Bradley, creative directors at Ogilvy who developed the campaign. "We were very fortunate to get musician Tom Waits to contribute a beautiful piece of music - "Never Let Go" off of 2006's Orphans -- that helps bring the work to life and connect with the public in a tangible way. We believe it will have great impact on this important cause."

Per the Ad Council model, the PSAs will be distributed to media outlets nationwide this week and will run and air in advertising time and space that is donated by the media.

Waits says of the project: "We all need to be reminded that the folks who need help getting back on their feet are all members of our family." Watch the two different PSAs below.

Other Notable Licensing News:

Another band that usually passes on licensing requests for its music is Arcade Fire. The Canadian band decided to let its song "My Body Is A Cage" be used in the trailer for the new Brad Pitt movie, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

According to the Arcade Fire's management, "This is the first time the band have used their music in this way. David Fincher asked them to look at the trailer. They all thought it was a good use of the music. They have no issue with licensing music when it's used in a creative way. It rarely happens." [Pitchfork]

Watch the trailer below.

The soundtrack to Juno continues to inspire advertising creatives. One of Barry Louis Polisar's songs from that soundtrack, "All I Want Is You", gives it a go in a spot for the National Lottery in the UK. The commercial can be seen below.

I've seen the commercial for Ubisoft's new Prince Of Persia game on air this past week. Just like the trailer (watch it below), the spot features the song "Saeglopur" by Sigur Ros. This is the second video game featuring Sigur Ros music - EA's trailer for Dead Space (released in October 2008) uses "Track 7" as the soundtrack.

The Shins' "Sleeping Lessons" provides a cool soundtrack to Statkraft Energy's new European commercial. Watch it at Boards Mag.

Sony has released quite a few new commercials recently for both the PS3 and PSP that have good musical soundtracks. The "Mural" spot features "Everybody Ona Move" by Michael Franti & Spearhead, "LA Plays PSP" has The Grouch featuring MURS' "The Bay To LA", and "NYC Plays PSP" uses Chromeo's "Fancy Footwork". Watch the last one below.

continued below...

Continue reading "This week in Music Licensing"

This weekly post was really just meant to be an (arguably) interesting news roundup of where (mostly BV-covered) music and musicians are showing up besides in our stereos/computers/headphones/players/etc. Like all news, it might be positive, negative or neither depending on your point of view. Whether or not an artist is "selling out" by licensing their song to a particular product advertisement and/or TV show is always going to be a valid issue/argument/debate, but I removed "It's Not Selling Out Anymore" from the post title because, lighthearted or not, I think it was making this post into something it's not. Most importantly, I didn't want the title to be misconstrued as an official BrooklynVegan position on anything. There will always be (arguably) cringe-worthy examples of licensing (see Of Montreal + Outback Steakhouse) and licensing-related broken (fan's) hearts (see The Moldy Peaches + Atlantis resorts), but a lot of licensing news (as you can see below), is (arguably) pretty neutral. Are there any Modest Mouse fans offended that a Modest Mouse song appears in a snowboarding video game? I doubt it. Does it bother anyone that Stars of the Lid gave a song to the Environmental Defense Fund? Probably only people that are anti-polar bear... That's all I wanted to say.... I won't write intros to these posts after this week (please try to keep the conspiracy theories to a minimum!), so without further ado... it's "This Week in Music Licensing"...

by Ryan Barkan

Battles @ Irving Plaza (more by Bao Nguyen)

42 Below likes to do things because they can, like make Vodka and wear white suits. The New Zealand spirit maker just launched a campaign and website around the brand's mantra, "Because We Can" - living by your own rules and following your dreams. Pretty deep. The web-based campaign consists of five short films and a user-generated video contest.

Each of the five short films have a few things in common - men in all white suits, left-of-center creative, art installations, cool music, and no relation whatsoever to Vodka. Carpet Cupcake uses Battles' 2007 jam "Atlas". Two different Boards Of Canada songs are used in Beach Dolls and Car Wrap. Domino artist Four Tet provides the sonic background to Mountain Rainbow, a spot where the white suit men create a huge arch of colored plastic chairs on top of a snowy mountain. South African electronic artist Felix Laband is used in Crate UFO.

Do you have a "because I can attitude"? Do you also like to make your own videos? Do you want to win some money for doing those things ($4200)? If so, you can head to the campaign's website to find out more about the contest.

Other Notable Licensing News:

Tokyo Police Club think it is "really cool and really awesome" that they made a cameo on Sunday night's (11/16) episode of Desperate Housewives. They entered a "battle of the bands" contest, performed "In A Cave", and had two of their song titles ("Shoulders And Arms" and "Cut Cut Paste") featured on the club walls as faux band posters. Even more, two band members have lines in the dialogue. Stereogum has the video. In semi-related news, TPC's Graham Wright just released a solo EP online as a free and/or pay download.

On the tube, Gossip Girl featured three tracks from the new Kings Of Leon album, Only By The Night; One Tree Hill for the second week in a row used a song by Margot & the Nuclear So-So's and also had a song by Earlimart; 90210 went with Kanye West, and Stereolab; CSI Miami used both Jenny Lewis and Bloc Party; NUMB3RS had Cold War Kids; Privileged used CSS; Grey's Anatomy had The Coral Sea. All this week Letterman is featuring cover bands.

Nissan'snew Canadian commercial "Morning Light" goes singer-songwriter with Alexi Murdoch's "Breathe". Nice song but I think they could have found a similar style track with a better lyrical match. Watch the video here.

Toshiba's UK agency breaks the broadcast mold a bit with a commercial featuring Matrix-esque cinematography while using the Crystal Castles song "Air War". Watch the video below.

Stars Of The Lid hit NYC's (le) Poisson Rouge on Friday 11/21; I wonder if they will play the serenely spatial "A Meaningful Moment Through A Meaningless Process", a song used by the Environmental Defense Fund to help fight global warming. The web commercial was released at the end of August. The powerful Polar Bear spot can be seen below.

What do 2008 Mercury Prize winning band Elbow and Electronic Arts have to do with each other? Elbow's song "Grounds For Divorce" is the soundtrack to the commercial announcing EA's new first person shooter, Left 4 Dead; the game hits shelves this upcoming week. Video is below.

Ubisoft Montreal just released Shaun White Snowboarding in North America. The game's soundtrack is a good mix of classic (Bob Dylan, Heart, Blue Öyster Cult, Living Colour, Run DMC, Harry Nilsson) and modern (Modest Mouse, MGMT, The Ting Tings, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) bands. Check out the full soundtrack at Wikipedia. Bob Dylan plays NYC this Friday night (11/21).

Interesting downloadable content (DLC) was made available this week via Xbox Live and Playstation Network for both Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2: GH got both a Jimi Hendrix and Smashing Pumpkins three song pack and RB2 fans can now play the entire Foo Fighters album The Colour and the Shape.

Videos below...

Continue reading "This Week in Music Licensing (Crystal Castles, Stars of the Lid, Elbow, Battles, Tokyo Police Club, and more) "

by Ryan Barkan

Gogol Bordello @ Irving Plaza (more by Jefferson)

The second edition of this controversial new feature is back. "It's Not Selling Out Anymore" (or is it?)...

Aggressive racing game, Motorstorm, was one of the most successful titles for the Playstation 3 in 2007 (selling over three million copies world wide). It was only natural then, that Sony Computer Entertainment would get a sequel out in 2008. Enter Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. The game recently hit shelves in the US at end of October and in the UK this past week. The TV spot announcing the new game brilliantly matched Motorstorm's crazy, edgy style of racing on tracks in exotic locations with the "authentic energy" of Gogol Bordello's "Wonderlust King." Watch the video of the commercial below. Gogol Bordello tour dates are HERE.

While Gogol did not make the in-game soundrack, David Bowie, Clutch, Megadeth, The Hives, Simian Mobile Disco, Death From Above 1979, and more all made the cut. Eight of the forty-five songs are exclusive to the game including a remix by Diplo of Nirvana's "Swap Meet" *.

Speaking of exclusives, The Ramones' classic jam "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker" was covered by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and singer Jemina Pearl (from the now defunct Be Your Own Pet). Their version exclusively premiered in this past week's episode of Gossip Girl. Love & Rockets made the episode too...though not as an exclusive.

Other Notable Licensing News:

On the tube, One Tree Hill had songs by Ra Ra Riot and Margot & the Nuclear So-So's; 90210 had Florence & The Machine, The Raconteurs, and The Bravery; Grey's Anatomy had The Bird And The Bee, Whitest Boy Alive, and Brett Dennon.

M83's "You, Appearing" provides a solemn background to a French commercial for Douleurs' "Pain Without Borders" commercial. Watch the video below. M83 is currently on a tour of the US (and in NYC this week).

Cadbury's new "Favourites" commercial features the song "Stars and Sons" by Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene. Watch the video below. Pics from the band's recent show at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple can be seen HERE.

Supreme continues its love for musical collaborations with the announcement of a Bad Brains x Supreme collection. The line consists of a couple hoodies, a t-shirt, and two different styles of Vans shoes. Bad Brains have been busy lately playing shows in Austin, NYC and elsewhere.

Vans recently released its fourth Iron Maiden tribute shoe, this time featuring the artwork from the Powerslave album. The Sk8-Hi and slip on models are available at the vans online store as well as local distributors.

Videos below...

Continue reading "It's Not Selling Out Anymore -- This Week in Music Licensing"

Love it or hate it, licensing songs seems to be the new reality for "indie" bands (or any bands) looking to make money and gain exposure. As an avid music fan and Senior Director of Advertising & Video Games at Primary Wave Music Publishing, Ryan Barkan makes sure to stay on top of news related to artists getting their songs in ads, on TV, in movies, in video games and just about anywhere else a band would get paid to put a song. As someone who never pays attention to any of that, I thought the site could use a weekly column to identify who sold out this week help fill in what I'm missing (think M.I.A. in the Pineapple Express commercial, Nick & Norah, Santogold shilling Bud Light, Chairlift & CSS for Apple, etc..). For that...please welcome Ryan (who also goes by the blog and photographer name "Fresh Bread")....

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by Ryan Barkan

Microsoft's Halo 3 video game commercial was so amazing that it won the Grand Prix (i.e. best of show) at this past year's Cannes Advertising Awards, in June, in the "Film" ad category. The spot, titled "Believe", was created by San Francisco advertising agency T.A.G. and featured the dramatically delicate "Raindrop Prelude No 15" by Chopin against a violent and disturbing war scene.

Another huge 2008 release for Microsoft is the upcoming sequel to the game Gears of War, creatively called....wait for it...Gears Of War 2 (available November 7th exclusively on Xbox360). What works once should work again right? T.A.G. thought so and took the same approach with the music as they did with the "Believe" spot, juxtaposing the hard war visuals against a beautiful song, but this time with a more contemporary artist, Devotchka. The beautiful song they used by the Colorado band is called "How It Ends" and the trailer will debut on network television this Sunday, November 2, during NFL Sunday Night Football. You can also watch it right now. The video for that, and of the full version of "Believe", are below.

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Other Notable Licensing News:

The Walmart-exclusive AC/DC edition of Rock Band is out November 2nd and now MTV/Harmonix have announced a Beatles video game that will be based on the "Rock Band" engine, but not branded "Rock Band". "The Best Of The Who" edition of Rock Band was released in July as DLC (downloadable content).

Hypebeast has the info on a new line of Miles Davis-inspired T-shirts by urban boutique and shoe company, Supreme.

Flaming Lips, the B-52's, BB King and others were commissioned by NBC to create their own interpretation of the network's classic "Chime In"...

You may not know that the notes to NBC's famous chimes are G, E, and C, but chances are you'd recognize the Peacock jingle in an instant. With that in mind, executives at the network decided to have some fun with their famous chimes and launched a national campaign calling for a 21st century reinvention of the 75-year-old television staple. [Hollywood Insider]

Wayne Coyne talks about it in an interview to EW you can watch HERE.

What do Friendly Fires, The Duke Spirit, The Submarines, The Black Keys, Black Kids, The Virgins, and Robyn have in common? They've all had songs featured in an episode of Gossip Girl this month.

What about Lykke Li, Passion Pit and The Kooks? Well, as you may have read earlier, they'll all be appearing in future episodes of Gossip Girl/OC-creator Josh Schwartz's new "music-themed scripted web series" Rockville, CA.

I really dig the new spot for the Google Android Phone. The commercial features a song by The Black Angels called "Black Grease" - not sure if it'll convince me to switch from the iPhone but it's a nice placement nonetheless. Video below...

Continue reading "It's Not Selling Out Anymore -- This Week in Music Licensing"

Cloud Cult sort of acoustic @ Pianos in 2006 (more)

Who would've thought? Cloud Cult's song "Please Remain Calm" (video below) was played on the TV show Gossip Girl on September 22nd. They also have three songs in MTV's Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Island this week and were featured on the Weather Channel. On October 21st they return to NYC, sort of... Craig, Connie and Sarah (three members of the band) will be playing a Cloud Cult show acoustic at Knitting Factory in Tribeca as part of the Homespun CMJ showcase. Paramount Styles (stripped down set featuring Scott McCloud from Girls Against Boys with special guests Paul Cantelon and Angela McCluskey), Sister Suvi (featuring Patrick Gregoire of Islands) and The King Left (also playing acoustic) are also on the bill. Tickets are on sale. All CC dates below...

Continue reading "Cloud Cult - 2008 Tour Dates (CMJ acoustic), Gossip Girl "

The Kills kick off their tour with Telepathe in Boston tonight (April 30). Thursday night they play Webster Hall in NYC. Last night they played Conan O'Brien and that video is below....

Continue reading "the KILLS kick off their NA tour tonight, played Conan (video)"