I was watching the Arsenal v Stoke game on Sunday (no digs, please) and one of the ads that followed the half-time analysis was a Jaguar commercial featuring ‘Pot Kettle Black’ by Tilly & the Wall.
Jaguar & Gossip Girl - BFFs
I recognised it straight away as it has really distinctive riff and, more to the point, was used on ITV2 about a year ago to soundtrack a multiple-promo ad for US teen drama Gossip Girl, Celebrity Juice and Paris Hilton’s New Best Friend. Thanks to nifty little iPhone app Shazam, I was able to tag it that time around and figure out what it was within seconds.
It got me thinking about double-syncs in general. It’s more than likely the creatives behind the Jaguar ad did their research, knew the track had been used before but made a conscious decision to use it anyway – perhaps on the basis that the people watching at the time a teen drama/reality TV promo would be aired were unlikely to be the same demographic who would be watching during a slot appropriate for a Jaguar commercial – an FA Cup game – bar the occasional anomaly like myself!
So in this case, it was probably of little consequence. For a more musically visible brand, however…Read More
I feel genuinely lucky to have been present at the Roundhouse this Sunday night for a live show from composer Nico Muhly, performing with and directing Britton Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra.
Not only was the performance from Nico himself magical and enthralling, especially his solo opening piece, ‘Mad Rush’ by Philip Glass, we were also audience to 4 beautiful American folk songs with vocals provided by the lovely Sam Admidon (who I saw last year at the Monto) and what, for me at least, was a surprise cameo from Beth Orton.
Beth Orton - Trailer Park
Sam and Beth performed a duet of a song from Sam’s forthcoming album, I See The Sign, due for release on Bedroom Community in March.
Spirited folk melodies etched by strings and given definition by the sturdy vocal provide a subtle cloak for some lively beats and blips in my favourite track from her 2000 album, Trailer Park.
I first heard it on an episode of Roswell (2.17 – Cry Your Name), a show that did the *right* thing and ended on an extremely high note after 3, nicely wrapped up seasons, containing only a single episode I feel the need to skip when re-watching the DVD box set.
A little delayed but – I was at The Luminaire last week for a long-awaited London show. It was… very strange.
Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
It took me a while to warm to the sound as he started with an instrumental electronic number, I tend to be more about the vocal, but as soon as Dayve “Memory Tapes” Hawk opened his mouth, I was dancing.
I half feel that the venue wasn’t entirely appropriate to the sound. Not meaning to criticise The Luminaire as it’s a wonderfully obscure and intimate little venue but the last show I went to there was Chris Garneau and at that one the majority of the audience was sitting cross-legged in pin-drop silence on the “dancefloor”.
Memory Tapes requires movement. If not full-on rave glowstick dancing (which might be a little over the top) then at least a trance-like sway with a raised arm every now and then. Dreamy and almost hypnotic at times.
My favourite track of the set was Plain Material, which is on his debut full-length release, Seek Magic (available from Rough Trade UK as a double CD) and he’s doing a run of further live shows over the couple of months – 4 in the UK in March. Last week was fantastic – I’d highly recommend trying to catch one of them.
Nothing too strange there really…except that he ran off the stage at the end of his set without saying anything. Literally… nothing. We weren’t sure whether he was coming back, whether to applaud, whether he was done. Hung about for 5 or so and then left… so I really hope there wasn’t an encore.
I don’t think I’m the only person who’s read all four of the Twilight novels and watched the two available movies – I couldn’t help myself, despite no longer being a target-market angst-ridden teenage girl. I can’t say I’m a huge fan, but I did enjoy them all on one level or another (though I am firmly of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer generation), be it story, or melodrama, or… comedy value.
I recently re-watched the first film and discovered that this song is on the soundtrack:
It’s fairly dreamy electronica… but a dark and curious dream with a cinematic, other-worldly feel to it – so fairly apt for the Twilight soundtrack then :p
The Danish electro-group’s 2007 album, Life of A Ghost, from which this track was taken, is available to stream in full on last.fm and on spotify but this, for me, is the standout track.
Just a quick note before the post – as well as my personal Musings up here, I also regularly post on the Tonic Music blog and thought some of those might be of interest. Rather than reproducing them here every time, I’ll try and include short excerpts so if anyone does want to read on, they can click through to the full post. They’ll all be tagged ‘Tonic’.
Free doughnuts for all!
The “&” band phenomenon of the late Noughties has raised some questions for me recently. Why did it happen? How do they come up with the “&” collective? Does there always have to be an actual “&”? Don’t the “&”s mind that they may come across as an afterthought, or a support for the main event?
Perhaps it came about as a protest against the loss of individual identity arising from its precursor – the “The” band phenomenon in the late 90s that spilled over into the start of this millennium – with the lead singer demanding separate recognition. Or perhaps the rest of the band wanted it made clear that…Read more
Yet another fantastic track from an Apple-related ad, this time for the Macbook Air in 2008 – although that isn’t where I grabbed it from this weekend (can’t be 100% sure what I was watching but Shazam says I tagged it just after 9pm on Sunday so I think it may have been Canada’s Next Top Model…?)
It’s very floaty, and “air”-ey (ahem)…and a bit playful – but, fairly oddly I think, it actually reminds me of the song used in a Surf ad a while back by Lisa Mitchell, Neopolitan Dreams, which has a similarly tinkly and playful feel to it.
New Soul is from Yaël Naïm’s self-titled album, which was released on French label tôt ou tard in October 2007.
Here’s the Macbook Air ad on YouTube if you didn’t see it when it aired (ha ha…)
The two-ish months of overlap Alex and I had at Tonic were rammed with multiple references to this currently-living-between-Buenos-Aires-and-Paris-born-in-Chile DJ/Music Creator.
Matias Aguayo - Ay Ay Ay
He featured in Alex’s Top 10 tracks of 2009 (Desde Rusia), Alex’s Top 5 live shows of 2009 (Fabric) and was Alex’s Top album of 2009 (Ay Ay Ay) and yet it’s only now, after Alex has left us in pursuit of adventures in South America, that I fully appreciate the genius that is Matias Aguayo.
I think I can honestly say I’m addicted to this track:
Maybe it’s the unrelenting pace..the pulsating beats…the simple repetition…or the combination of an almost doo-wop bass vocal and brightly caricature-ish top line – but it’s been the soundtrack to my walk to work more than a few times this month and I can feel my face light up and my stride lengthen just a little whenever my iPhone on ‘shuffle’ decides to surprise me with it.
http://bit.ly/nishajl - All the Musings-related tracks available on Spotify. Updated as I post (tagged 'spotify')
http://bit.ly/the10 - The "master list" is getting a bit long so...these are the 10 tracks I can't get enough of right now. Tracklisting on the Spotify page.
When fellow pedestrians overtake you surely the goal should be to walk faster than you..., no? 2 days ago
RT @spicefm: Engrezi 80s... Tiffany - I think we're alone now... LOVE IT!!!! <- Makes me feel about 6 years old again! Give or take... tune. 2 days ago
Posted by nishajl 
