Wednesday, March 5, 2008

The Today Show: Indie as F***

Anyone catch the Today Show this morning? Due to, umm, living arrangement diplomacy, I typically flip back and forth between Matt, Meredith, Al, and the Gang and Sportscenter or Mike and Mike (should I not be sharing this?).

But this morning, I encountered a pleasant, but odd surprise. During a segment on the increase in traffic congestion and commute times in America, they used both the Arcade Fire's apocalyptic-turned-utopian anthem "No Cars Go" and Wilco's Big Pink-style rocker, "Walken" as background music. Both somewhat clever tunes to use given the subject matter. Of course, both bands have something of a relationship with NBC, having done Saturday Night Live in the past year (Wilco just last weekend, where they actually did "Walken").


Still, kind of a surprising choice, don't you think? Anybody have any other instances of this -- besides Wilco's now ubiquitous presence in automobile advertising? By the same token, has anyone noticed that one of Fox NFL's producers seems to throw a healthy dose of indie rock into their coverage. Last year I swear they played Pavement and the Pixies back-to-back. If you have any knowledge of this, please, let us know.

Arcade Fire - "No Cars Go" (Live at Judson Memorial)
Wilco - "Walken" (Live at the Pines Theater)

Also, just because I've been playing these a lot of late:
Arcade Fire - "Ocean of Noise" (Live at Judson Memorial)
Wilco - "ELT" (Live at the Riviera)

6 comments:

Pave the Whales said...

"No Cars Go" is a bit of a surprise to me..."Walken" isn't after being in a VW commercial. I'm not shocked to hear Wilco at all anymore. I mean, I heard "Impossibly Germany" coming from the ceiling at Shoppers.

G.H. said...

you heard "Impossible Germany" there too? In between the Sixties Megahits Revue, they throw in a bizarre Wilco track.

rob said...

yo, indie is the new black

Jimbromski said...

Way back in the early 90s I was watching an Orioles game on HTS and they played 808 State's "Pacific State" as they went to commercial. And then later in the same game it was New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle."

I remember thinking, man, have the interns taken over the station tonight?

Hatfielder said...

The Fire track is much more surprising to me too. Cool that they did it though.

Anyone know why Walken is spelled with the "e". Anything to do with "THE Bruce Dickinson"? This has to be the most misspelled song title on the web right now.

G.H. said...

no idea, but my guess is just one of those dumb rock song title things (jesus, etc, etc.)