That band… from that ad… with the cute singer… you know the one…
Right now, I’m watching this 1-800-OK-CABLE ad playing during the noon news. In it is a band called Future86, singing a ska-lite tune extolling the virtues of various cable providers’ “Triple Play” service. The singer is this adorable young woman wearing a spangly dress and knee-high boots. She seems to have a decent voice, but I was more interested in… uh, other things.
Anyway, every time I’ve seen this commercial, I think the same thing: “That can’t be a real band.” They just seemed too slick to me, like what an ad agency’s idea of a struggling pop-rock band from, say, Long Island would look like. Maybe they were dressed to nicely to seem like a real band; where are the too-small, ironic t-shirts? The hair in the eyes? The so-retro-it’s-hip aviator glasses? The dirty Chuck Taylors? This group looked like a nice bunch of IT guys and a cute suburban chick who wouldn’t look out of place wandering the tony Short Hills Mall (oops, I’m sorry, it’s “The Mall at Short Hills”).
But out of sheer boredom and journalistic curiosity, I decided to Google the band’s name the other day. Turns out they’re a real band, based out of Queens. The song used on the cable ad, “I Want It All,” is adapted from a song the band released three years ago (you’ll hear it as soon as you pop onto their MySpace page).
I clicked on the song samples on their site, and I have to say, they’re not bad. They remind me a lot of what No Doubt was doing in the mid-90s; poppy rock tinged with some world melodies here and there. Their two new songs seem to evoke the ghosts of CBGB-era Blondie, but only in passing. They seem to be a band that you might hear on Z100 or some other station that plays rock that’s more on the light and airy side.
Which makes me wonder why they’re still playing in suburban bars (at least judging by their current live schedule, that’s where they’re playing). I mean, this ad has been on the air for months; you’d think someone of influence would have seen it and booked them at better venues by now, promoting them as “that band from the cable commercial!” I mean, jeez, you’d think the cute lead singer would have had record companies and radio stations falling all over themselves to promote the band.
Maybe viewers are thinking the same thing I thought at first, that they’re not a real band. They need to get grittier, I guess; perhaps the singer, Courtney, should shave her head or something. Nah, that would be a shame…
Not bad Jole, I think they have a future if they can keep it together.
July 12th, 2007 at 11:04 amamazingly, the actual song is worse than the one on the ad. this is horrible, horrible music. is that even the same girl in those pics on myspace?
August 11th, 2007 at 9:11 amI wondered that, too. I was really thinking of interviewing them until the New York Observer ESPed the idea right out from under me.
Their stuff is too light and harmless to call it “horrible.” But what I do think is a problem is that, unlike many other known and unknown bands who have used their songs in advertising, these guys changed their song lyrics to directly shill for the cable industry. It just tells their fans (and non-fans) that they have no respect for their own songs. Basically, by changing the lyrics like they did, they turned a song into a jingle, and no serious band wants to be known for writing jingles.
Contrast these guys with the unknown band that had their song picked up for those BP commercials. The song doesn’t directly sell the product, making it perfect for people to download without thinking they’re downloading a crappy ad jingle.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:22 am