Tagged: bandsorbrands

Dr Pepper's recent publicity stunt in which the soda manufacturer offered to give every American ( with a few exceptions ) a free soft drink if Guns N' Roses managed to release its long-awaited Chinese Democracy album by the end of 2008 was an unmitigated success in terms of attracting attention for the brand. Apparently, Guns N' Roses had nothing to do with it, and now the band's lawyer Alan Gutman has taken the soda manufacturer to task for a "shoddy" promotion he says fooled fans and ripped off the band's image. Gutman send a [...]

Monday was going to be a rough one for Michael Jackson. He was scheduled to appear in London's High Court to answer breach-of-contract charges from Bahrain's Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who loaned The Gloved One $7 million American and took him in after he fled the United States on a distracting molestation scandal. But the principals have agreed on principles, and all the free advertising the scandal aroused will no doubt pay off for both down the road. "As Mr. Jackson was about to board his plane to London, he was advised by his legal [...]

Just as most net-savvy Listening Post readers predicted, Dr Pepper's servers crashed when Chinese Democracy buyers logged on and tried to cash in on the gratis sodas offered by the soft-drink maker. It had bet -- wrongly or rightly, depending on your marketing skills -- free drinks if Guns N' Roses ever got around to finishing its anticipated new effort. Dr Pepper is trying to make good on the gamble, and its bad IT skills, by extending the deadline until 6 p.m. EST. Here's how you can still get your carbonated fix: [...]

On Sunday, Guns 'N' Roses fans finally get to collect earnings on Dr Pepper's bet that the tumultuous band would never finish Chinese Democracy -- for 24 hours. After that, the freebies revert to huge traffic for the soft-drink manufacturer's servers. "We never thought this day would come," Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing Tony Jacobs told Variety , speaking no doubt of November 23, which also happens to be Chinese Democracy 's release date. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's [...]

On Sunday night, the most wonderful thing happened. MTV's Total Request Live aired its final installment, sparing the world from another parade of pop tarts and turnips, rap beefs and country punks. Are you there God? It's us, Listening Post. We just want to say thank you. Thank you so very much. "It's a big loss, not having this as a platform to promote our music," 50 Cent remarked, spelling out Total Request Live 's true contribution to pop culture over its decade-long run, according to the Associated [...]

Bands used to get discovered playing local shows. Increasingly, their first big break comes in the form of a nationwide advertisement. The Bad Eliots song "Cat's Meow" helped sell antioxidant water from Snapple in an ad that aired earlier this year. Late last week, the band posted the song on YouTube along with this video of them playing a subway show as pixelated internet people. "Since the commercial began airing, fans everywhere have been actively searching for more information about The Bad Eliots, and the song 'Cat's Meow' has been downloaded [...]

When Barack Obama won the Democratic primary in June, it was pretty clear who the next president of the United States was going to be. So Listening Post started early and crafted a soundtrack, and it was good. Now we find out that Santa Monica-based Hidden Beach Recordings bit our rhyme and made it official with a sanctioned compilation called Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement . It is probably the first ever official soundtrack in the history of American politics. Who knows? Maybe they thought of [...]

Three months ago, Listening Post followed Stephen Colbert's lead and wondered aloud why Rush hadn't made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame yet. We asked the readership to chime in on the snub, and it hit us back with a record 500 responses. We might have to check the math, but that might also be an overall site record as well. Listening Post also contacted our source at the Hall and asked if it would be cool enough to field three burning questions from Rush fans, and they agreed . Recent news that the Rock [...]

Microsoft has found a new champion for the Windows operating system: the deconstructionist and sample-based music maker Girl Talk, who appears in Microsoft's "I'm a PC" commercial below. As Buzzfeed puts it, "Microsoft finally found someone cool to admit they're a PC." Of course, this being Microsoft, there's a way to make fun. Sure enough, it turns out that AudioMulch , the software Girl Talk (a.k.a. Greg Gillis) uses on stage, won't run on Windows Vista unless your admin settings are set a certain way. [...]

A quintet of nerds are gathered in a contemplative circle on a carpet. They slowly begin play Led Zeppelin's seminal epic "Stairway to Heaven" -- on their iPhones. It is either the coolest thing I have ever seen, or the geekiest. Maybe it's both. Although a guitar is needed -- isn't it always? -- the nerds play the song's memorable flute lines by breathing into their iPhones using Sonic Mule's musical application Ocarina , so named for the ancient instrument that predated the flute by thousands of years. It's a [...]

Rickrolling's apotheosis came on Thursday in Liverpool, when MTV Europe settled the electoral intrigue that has been plaguing the world, and its own servers, for weeks. It passed over confusing contenders like Britney Spears, U2 and, yes, Tokio Hotel and crowned Rick Astley its Best Act Ever. Feel free to take this time to compose yourself. No doubt the overwhelming cultural cachet swayed MTV Europe's deranged mind. But it could also have been the online polls, which MTV Europe opened to the public to decide the winner. It could as well have handed [...]

Devotchka's operatic, kitchen-sink punk and pop may seem like a strange soundtrack for a tactical third-person shooter. But for a band that took its name from A Clockwork Orange , it makes perfect sense, especially after a few viewings of the recently released trailer for Gears of Wars 2 . In fact, the incoming sequel to the popular Gears of War blockbuster, out Friday from Microsoft and Epic Games, was written and rendered to bands like Kronos Quartet and releases like the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, [...]

In what may turn out to be one of the most memorable publicity stunts of the 21st century, film superstar and Johnny Cash stand-in Joaquin Phoenix offered a backwards, double-fisted goodbye to cinema at the AFI Fest on Saturday. The Walk the Line actor says he's jumping head-first into music and not looking back. "I think it's just moving on. It's rediscovering something else," Phoenix told the Associated Press before a premiere of what is professed to be his last film, Two Lovers . "It's like greener pastures, you know what I [...]

Ticketmaster is in the process of reinventing itself as a one-stop shop for all of an artist's business needs: ticketing, promotion, management and now the distribution of music. "The biggest misconception about this [Front Line] deal is that Ticketmaster in the future will be what it was in the past," recently minted Ticketmaster head Irving Azoff told Billboard . "The new name of the company is Ticketmaster Entertainment, and it's a platform for us to build a lot of other things. The fortunes of this company aren't going to rise and fall just on [...]

It sounded like a sure thing when the global economy was riding high on housing crack. But like leading economic indicators, reality has descended upon the U2 Tower, bringing plans for the tallest building in Ireland back to Earth. Which is where they will stay until further notice. According to the Associated Press , the Dublin Docklands Development Authority has shelved the project indefinitely. "The objective is to see this landmark project completed," the DDDA explained in a statement on Friday. "However, given the current unfavorable economic environment, more time is needed [...]

Black Sheep's "The Choice is Yours" was one of hip-hop's great party tunes, dropping in 1991 in the full swing of the genre's Golden Age. Better yet, the tune was a tongue-twisting boast designed to offer listeners a choice between gangsta rap and more alternative fare. That included the Native Tongues Posse to which Black Sheep belonged, along with A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers and founders De La Soul. But our era has knit politics and art together like few that came before. And so Black Sheep's Dres has remixed, refashioned and re-introduced the tune as [...]

It may be a mallrat paradise of punk and pop culture, but Hot Topic can smell the future of music coming just fine, thanks. So it has decided to embrace it with an online music social called ShockHound.com, which offers DRM-free MP3s, webisodes, reviews, merch, concert and more to Generation Xbox. So far, it's got its ears in the right place. ShockHound is following up its Tuesday launch with a free double-bill that's hard to beat, sending stellar noisemakers No Age and Titus Andronicus on the road for free shows in New York, [...]

The conventional wisdom is that punk is rebellion, a middle finger to the Establishment and propriety. But that's a pipe dream that just will not die, especially now that auction house Christie's is set to hawk memorabilia from the Sex Pistols, The Clash, Ramones, Patti Smith and other shining lights of the movement's early phase on November 24 in New York. "We understand that tastes change, tastes mature," Christie's Simeon Lipman told the Associated Press . "Ten years ago, punk memorabilia probably wouldn't be something we'd be auctioning here. But now, people of a certain age [...]

Today has been largely about EMI. First, we reported that the venerable music behemoth, which has scared off acts like Radiohead and lost over a billion dollars in the first quarter of the year, will sell music through airport kiosks . Then music blog Idolator posted a rant arguing we don't know anything about the music business. We weren't the only targets; BoingBoing also made the cut. In a Monday diatribe called "' Wired' Blogger Not Afraid to Look Stupid ," Idolator called me out for Friday's post, " EMI Badly Wounded, Bleeds [...]

Activision's world-beating music social Guitar Hero needs no powerhouse celebrities to lip-sync its virtues. But the gamer empire is probably so flush with cash these days that signing Kobe Bryant, Tony Hawk, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Phelps to spread its latest sonic gospel of love, otherwise known as Guitar Hero World Tour , was a no-brainer. But did it have to be this commercial? I mean, four iconic athletes shouldn't be wasted on Tom Cruise and Bob Seger. Yet they are, in this short, underwear-friendly homage to Tom Cruise's half-naked, home-alone stomp from [...]