9.28.05
The Concretes
[Astralwerks]
[Target Commercial]
You might have noticed that over the past few years, Target has hired some snazzy marketeers to help them update and modernize their image. It seems to have worked in some respect, not the least of which is the music. I’ve been trying for the longest time to figure out who did the music to one of their commercials. The music in question, made my “indie pop” alert go off right away… a strange combination of 60s reverbed girl band (Ronettes?), the Aislers Set, and Hope Sandoval.
The song on the commercial is “Say Something New” by a band from Sweden called The Concretes. Though they’re on a pretty big label (Astralwerks), I haven’t heard of them before. For some reason, I was thinking Concrete BLONDE for awhile which definitely isn’t the same thing!
I’ve heard some people comparing them to Bettie Serveert but I didn’t get as much of a vibe from that angle. I definitely did think In any case, the melodies were really catchy and it definitely made me look up at the TV and pay attention to the commercial.
The only strange thing for me is that there didn’t seem to be ANY mention of them providing music for the Target commercial on their website, which in itself was a bit difficult to find. I would have thought that they might want to play that angle up a bit since many people would be curious who did the music. Unless of course they’re unhappy with the deal or a bit embarrassed to be associated with Target. I don’t see why they would, because The Concrete’s song really fit well with that commercial and makes the formerly stodgy retailer seem more hip and fresh if anything.
Get it on: Amazon | Insound
Sudden Ensemble
Annabella
Sera Cahoone
Citified
October 15th, 2005 at 11:52 am
thanks for the pointer. i KNEW i’d heard them before, but couldn’t place it. grooving to it now…
October 21st, 2005 at 7:48 pm
Thanks as well. I’ve been trying to place that song and that style for a while. I kept landing just to the left of Maureen Tucker, especially with the prominence of pronounced VU type drumming in the last spot (interestingly tied to an image of a Germanic–read Nicoesque–model, a virtual venus in furs)
On a related note, the hipping of Target reminds me of those ultra cool Levis 501 blues ads from the eighties, or the honda scooter ads that brings it all back to Lou Reed (& thus VU).
October 22nd, 2005 at 10:44 am
jeff - you’re welcome!
daniel - oh yes, it does have that VU vibe. I sort of like it when the companies decide to get hip. I forget if Gap was already hip, but there was a short period in 1999(?) when they played an immense amount of good indie music in their commercials including: Low, Dandy Warhols, Badly Drawn Boy and Sigur Ros. I think it was nearly all in one holiday season too, pretty cool. I’ve been meaning to write about that.
October 30th, 2005 at 6:48 pm
You know, it’s funny that you said The Concretes as I’d heard them before and thought the singer sounded familiar, however it must be a remix because the astralwerks samplers I’ve gotten have a couple quirky little songs on them that while “nice”, certainly don’t sound as sleekly produced as the music used in the ad.
I guess I’ll have to look more thoroughly into them… thanks for the heads up. I loved that ELO VU spot.
Rock on Palebear… you guys need a “Dreampop” section!
October 30th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
shannon - I hadn’t heard The Concretes before, so I wouldn’t know if it was a remix. But I wouldn’t be surprised, as I know a lot of times they have to clean up the versions in order to use them on TV. Sometimes they even have to remix them to remove the vocals and other things. Interestingly in the Stephen Malkmus “Phantasies” song for Sears, I sort of thought that the version was different or something too.
p.s you are right about that “dreampop”, we’ve been lumping them in with shoegaze but that probably isn’t as accurate!
November 10th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
I’ve searched and search for over 5months now for the background music to Kaiser Permanent TV commercial. The one where the physicians for the cardiology and other following departments descend in an elevator. Canm you help. I see Poastal Services mention Kaiser but that’s as far as it goes. It’s not a song but a string pizzacto piece of orchestrial music. Would appreciate a reply. Thank you.
November 10th, 2005 at 10:32 pm
lynn - Hm… I’m not sure I know which Kaiser commercial you’re talking about. I only know the most recent one with Postal Service. Did you already check on Adtunes.com? They are pretty good over there at getting to the bottom of which bands are in a commercial. Try the forums. One thing I do know, a lot of times the music is “made for Commercials”, as in ad agencies just hire some unknown jingle writer or composer to make the music…