In the early to mid-90s the music I listened to wasn't obscure. My tastes were right in line with Live 105, KROQ and even MTV, or at least "120 Minutes." Then around 1997 or so the Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys hit and alternative rock went back to actually being alternative. These days the music I listen to is totally obscure: Scarling, the Dollyrots, Church of Girl Radio. In fact, there's really only one place I regularly hear music from my collection: commercials.

Yeah, don't ask me. I think the first time I noticed this was when I had the TV on and I heard some familiar chords and I looked up to find a commercial for some bank or insurance company playing. What was that song? "I'm callin' out to you..." And then I realized: it was "Ultralite." By Spiderbait. Off the Grandslam album that wasn't even released in the US — I had to order it from Australia. As far as I knew I was the only person in North America who owned a copy. Except, apparently, for some ad guy.

Recently I've repeatedly seen a commercial for Chevy trucks that uses a song I recognized from the "Garage Girls" hour on Church of Girl. That's right — General Motors has decided that the best way to sell the Trailblazer is to play a song, "Bad Word for a Good Thing" by the Friggs, about the word "fuck." This may rank with the commercials using that Iggy Pop heroin song to advertise cruise lines and banks.

Just a few minutes ago I saw a car commercial... Audi, I think it was... that used "Ivanka" by Imperial Teen. (Edited.) There are other examples I could cite if I took the time to go through my catalog. I dunno. Maybe I should've gone into advertising — at least my co-workers could give me tips about bands I'd like. And I wonder what's next. "Band-Aid Covers the Bullet Hole" in a Curad commercial? "Strawberry Gashes" used to sell Dannon Frusion®? I'm not even complaining, really. After all, it was one of Fruitopia's ad people who turned me onto the Muffs... using a song featuring the line "I'm not advertising."


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