Scene On TV

This week on American Ninja Warrior they hosted the Indianapolis Finals, and they kicked off the episode on the right note when they chose “Fire” by Barns Courtney as the intro music that played over the opening montage. We love how Barns Courtney consistently adds an almost movie soundtrack-like scale to all his rootsy compositions, and “Fire” is a perfect example of this - just listen to those huge drums! 

We’ve got the full episode embedded for your streaming pleasure above - check it out.

“Fire” by Barns Courtney combines cinematic drums with an epic build up to each chorus that really gets the adrenaline flowing (much in the same way that one of our all-time favorite tunes, “Jungle” by X Ambassadors and Jamie N. Commons does).  

Beats By Dre and Crossfit have combined forces in a new ad featuring Lauren and Garret Fisher that capitalizes on these qualities, resulting in a perfect fit between sound and sight in this short video, which you can watch above.

Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover had his explosive track “Crawl” put to great use in an intense scene in this week’s episode of Power, “It’s Never Over.” The song can be heard during a scene where Tommy is drinking anddoing lines in the corner of the room. He hears voices and turns to find the crew.  Black Grimmace comments about him snorting everything, and Tommy responds by freaking out and pummeling him. Check out a quick promo of the episode above.

It didn’t take a genius at ABC to pick a song to use in the promos for their new show Notorious - the choice, naturally was “Notorious” but not the amazing original Duran Duran version, but instead a beautifully haunting re-working by the brand new, under the radar (so new that we couldn’t find anything other than mostly blank official website) artist Morgan Karr. Check it out above.

The latest Pretty Little Liars episode, “Along Comes Mary” featured a great use of “Island” by Ethel & The Chordtones. If you haven’t seen it yet, we’ve got an episode preview above - and when you watch the episode, keep your ears open for the song during the scene where Hanna is at the coffee shop and she hears the police walk in saying they found something.  

Minutes Til Midnight make a splendid hybrid of rock and electronic music that is always propulsive and edgy, making their songs perfect for action or fight scenes.  The aptly-titled “Going out Fighting” was just put to great use in this week’s UFC Road to the Octagon, as it soundtracked some training/fighting a footage montage.

When it comes to intelligent, soulful hip-hop, few have done it longer or better than Blackalicious. Their addictive jam “Alphabet Aerobics (The Cut Chemist 2 1/2 Minute Workout)” has just been put to amazing use in a great new ad for YouTube Music, whcih you can watch above.

Underdogs is one of the new movies added to Netflix this month, and it caught our attention when we found out that it used “Cecelia & The Satellite” by Andrew McMahon twice. 

The first time it can be heard is during a scene when the Underdogs kick up into space, a great triumphant moment in the movie given further lift by this the song.  Later, they also decided to use it at the first end title. Check out a trailer of the film above.

Season 3 of Power on Starz just kicked off, and if you haven’t tuned in yet, we dare you to watch the trailer above and not stop everything to check out the first episode, “Call Me James,” which just aired last night.

Beyond being a great kick start to the new season, “Call Me James” also brought the Moska Remix of Major Lazer’s “Lean On” to our attention. Listen for it when Ghost's Escalade pulls up along a crowded sidewalk outside of Truth. An upscale throng jostles each other, fighting to get inside. Ghost gets out and opens the rear door, Angela steps out, dressed to kill and then inside, Angela and Ghost stand at the balcony overlooking the crowd. Ghost says there is a lot of work to be done on the clubs and Angela tells him she has faith in him. 

Discovery Channel just premiered a new show called Hello World, and we were happy to check it out when we found out that the show had tabbed “Last To Know” by Electric Owls as its theme song. Check out a teaser preview of the show above.

Last night, TNT premiered its new series Animal Kingdom, a family crime drama that so far is highlighted by Ellen Barkin’s amazing portrayal of Janine "Smurf" Cody, the tough-as-nails matriarch of the Cody crime family. Reminding us a bit of Katey Segal’s Gemma Teller in Sons of Anarchy, Barkin’s performance alone was enough to get us to watch the second episode, but the show’s cause was also helped thanks to a great use of “What Went Down” by Foals. 

The song plays out during a scene where Deran (Jake Weary) sneaks into Adrian's room while Adrian (Spencer Treat Clark) is watching a surf video.  It looks like Deran is going to attack Adrian, becuase he grabs him from behind and they wrestle a little, but then end up ripping each others clothes off and having sex.

If you didn’t catch last night’s episode of Pretty Little Liars, “The Talented Mr. Rollins,” and you also somehow have avoided the Internet today, then you might not know about the (much overdue and needed) death that occurred. We won’t spoil that, but we will say, it is one of two reasons you absolutely have to get on watching it ASAP - the other of course being music, thanks to a great use of Robert (aka Robot) Koch’s somber and evocative “Drift, ” featuring vocals from Nilu that are equal parts haunting and lovely.  

The song plays when Emily brings a drink to Sabrina. She apologizes and hopes she won't judge her based on that. Sabrina's date shows up.

Robot Koch on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Last.fm

Fashion is perhaps the only industry that is obsessed with staying as ahead of the curve and fresh as music, and as a result, fashion brands have a long history of using hip underground music right before it blows up to the mainstream. Fashion Magazine just provided a great example thanks to a new Instagram video (embedded above) that has introduced us to the incredibly unique music of A-WA and their song “Habib Galbi.” A-WA is comprised of three sisters, Tair, Liron & Tagel Haim who grew up in Israel, and while “Habib Galbi” definitely has a familiar Middle Eastern sound to it, you can also hear strong influences of modern pop, electronic music and hip hop. Be sure to get on this bandwagon while there’s still room.

A Look Back

Upon hearing the beat from Phantogram’s “When I’m Small,” the first adjective that pops in a lot of people’s heads is swagger. The song just oozes with it. Judging by how often the Gillette used it in a series of ads for their Fusion ProGlide razors, they certainly agreed, and these ads became so omni-present that they caught the attention of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow, who accused the band of sampling his drums without permission.  Barrow specifically cited the Gillette ads when bringing this up, saying he was reminded of it 6 times per day because it was always on. The band denied it, saying that the information entered on WhoSampled.com was false and it was their own drums, and the story disappeared quickly, but it’s one little footnote to this campaign that we’ll never forget. 

Nevertheless, this series of ads helped catapult Phantogram from a band that only the most discerning hipsters had heard about into huge stars playing arenas in the blink of an eye, and just as quickly, tons of new artists started popping up that obviously owed a huge debt sonically to Phantogram’s self-described “street beat” sound. 

Gatorade has just premiered a new series of commercials featuring Hi-Tek’s amazing take on the classic “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off.” The first one, “Coast To Coast” is embedded above, but you can also check out “Counter Attack” and “The Return,” which also feature the tune, on YouTube.

The funky “Deathelehem” by GRVRBBRS has been pegged by W Hotels as the soundtrack to their WET Deck summer dance parties. We dare you to watch the commercial above and not get the urge to move your body or lust for a pool. 

A Look Back

A Look Back is a new weekly feature we’re debuting that will take a closer look at some classic moments in commercial, film, video game, or TV history in which music played as important of a role as the visual components.  

We’re starting this off by taking a look back at the 2005 Sony Bravia Bouncy Balls commercial that featured Jose Gonzalez’s beautiful cover of “Heartbeats” by The Knife. This beautifully colorful ad was one of the primary reasons we decided to start this blog in the first place, after it turned us on to both Jose Gonzalez and The Knife, both of whom it propelled to further stardom. 

The Nicolai Fugslig-directed masterpiece was an enormous production, featuring 250,000 actual balls (no CGI cheating!) bouncing through San Francisco’s Russian Hill neighborhood, promising viewers that their new Bravia TV would feature stunning colors, but what really took this ad to legendary status was the breathtaking way that the Gonzalez’s gentle arrangement of “Heartbeats” transformed the scenery from a bunch of colorful bouncing balls into poetry in motion via the perfectly edited and synced relationship between the song and the all the shots. 

The impact this had still resonates today. “Heartbeats” has since been covered by established stars like Ellie Goulding, Royal Teeth, and Daniela Andrade, plus thousands (literally!) of other covers have popped up on YouTube. The Knife used the money from this spot to fund one of the most elaborate, all-encompassing visual journeys of a stage show for their Silent Shout tour (which was captured wonderfully in Silent Shout, An Audio Visual Experience), and Jose Gonzalez gave us another great cover when he re-invented Bronski Beat’s “Smalltown Boy” in his signature style.

Watch the entire spot again above - it truly doesn’t get any better than this.

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