Placing Bets on the Careers of the Latest Radio Darlings
Print this out and store it in your time capsule, nuke bunker, or with your wedding video and dust it off in a few years to see how wrong I was.
I’m starting this sucker out with a heartfelt bang aimed directly at everyone’s new favorite “psychiatrist in a song” Gotye. His lovelorn mix-tape masterpiece “Somebody That I Used to Know” is being worn on the sleeves of the broken-hearted from pre-teen to post-AARP at the speed of 138 million youtube plays in 9 months. Gotye was booked at the Bluebird Theater in Denver on April 6th but was immediately upgraded to the Ogden once the tixs hit the fans. The Ogden sold-out easily as has the whole tour. So what’s my bet on the rest of Gotye’s career? This is his 15 minutes of American time. I think he is going to have a great career in Europe and Australia (like he already has) and has picked-up some new fans in the States that will go along for his vision but the chances of another mega hit here are less than 1%. And that’s ever. His style and groove is awesome but not universal and this is his global moment. Gotye is the guy on VH1 in 20 years who they ask where has he been? and his answer will basically boil down to: “Making millions of dollars and touring like crazy but just not at your BBQ.” Rather than post Gotye’s video with 138 million plays, here’s an ingenious cover of “Somebody That I Used to Know” with a measly 82 million views.
Next up is a band that I freakin’ love: Cage the Elephant from Bowling Green, Kentucky. CTE have a sound that is familiar yet quirky, cool and uniquely their own (Otherwise known as “Success Stew”). They have won numerous awards and have been basically kicking ass for a few years now, but what I think is that they deserve an award for “product placement of the decade.” The offbeat, space western video game Borderlands was released in late 2009 and the theme song and soundtrack to the intro of the game is Cage the Elephant’s “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked“. Every time you boot up the game you hear that song. So far sales of Borderlands stands at 4.5 million copies. I personally love the game and have easily booted it up at least 50 times. By the time I actually beat the thing it will probably play 100 times. That’s a good chunk of math right there and guess how I became a Cage the Elephant fan? Now whomever at the game publisher chose “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” deserves a raise because the vibe of the song and the game are identical. Just watch the first 30 seconds of Borderland’s intro and you will get the whole ambiance of the entire game. (One quick side note: while I think Cage the Elephant scored awesome on this video game intro, the best video game commercial ever is right HERE.) So what’s my bet on the future of the band? Complete meltdown. I see these guys doing press releases about side projects in no time. Why? If your third album is a live album then you are either out of ideas or you owe a lot of money. Or both.
Who the hell names their band “Fun”? Well I guess Fun does. The only worse name I can think of is this incredible Denver band called “Places” (Great band for real.). Seriously how about stringing a couple/three words together for your band name people (People! Now there’s a band name!) so we, your potential fans, and dollar-spenders can successfully Google you. Fun have assembled a musical cash cow in the form of the song “We Are Young,” which has been played on numerous TV shows from Glee to the WWE but is most well known as the featured song for the Chevy Sonic commercial during this year’s Super Bowl. So that being said if you’ve got enough pull to land a Super Bowl commercial with only 2 albums under your wheels then I’m thinking day jobs are not a concern. I’m giving Fun my longevity vote. It will be 15 years before the band’s divorce papers get signed.
So, go ahead, open up that time capsule in the future and let me know where this all stands.