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Neon Trees – “Everybody Talks” Video/Buick Commercial

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If you’ve been watching this year’s March Madness on CBS, TBS, truTV, and TNT, then you’ve probably seen the commercial in the first video below. This is a commercial for the new Buick Verano, which is some type of luxury sedan from General Motors, but I don’t really know much about it. What I do know, though, is that for some reason I really enjoy this commercial. It’s quick – take a look:

Have you ever watched a commercial and just thought, “Ha! I like that!” Well, that was my response to that commercial. Whoever put that 30 second spot together really did a good job. One of the things that I like about the commercial is the use of the Neon Trees as the band that performs in the last part of the spot. In fact, I did some Googling and it turns out that the Neon Trees actually recorded a performance of that entire song – Everybody Talks – while sitting in that tour bus. Sure, the song is very likely lip synched (there’s no drum set for the drummer to play inside the tour bus!), but it’s still a pretty impressive feat. Take a look at the full video (which is hidden from people if you search for it on YouTube, but fully available to watch if you have the link… like I do):

Pretty cool, huh? Anyway, turns out that the Neon Trees will be putting out a new album in April. I’ll definitely check it out and see if it’s worth purchasing and if you like alternative rock, then I encourage you to do the same. Enjoy!

Album Review: Ocean Eyes by Owl City

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Usually on my ride to and from work each day I’m listening to Sirius XM. If there is nothing good on Howard 100 or Howard 101, then my next stop is AltNation on channel 21. I like AltNation because it’s a nice mix of standard alternative and contemporary alternative rock mixed together. Makes for nice listening music when you’re driving home after a long day at work or when you’re on your way to work when you’d much rather be asleep.

The other day I heard a song called “Fireflies” by an artist named Owl City. The song was sort of weird in that the lyrics almost didn’t make any sense. Some guy was singing about catching fireflies and keeping them in a jar – weird. Anyway, aside from lyrics that made me go, “hmmm…” the sound of the song was almost whimsical, if that adjective can be attributed to a song. I was intrigued and added the song to my Sirius XM alerts – meaning that whenever the song was played on any channel, my radio would beep and tell me which channel I could switch to in order to hear the song.

A few days went by and the radio didn’t beep “Fireflies,” but I was able to bring up the video on YouTube. It’s crazy. It’s a guy (who apparently calls himself “Owl City”) sitting in a room with a variety of light-up toys blinking on and off. Weird, but sort of funny.

The video was so crazy that I decided to listen to the entire Ocean Eyes album and I loved it. It’s really a type of electronic/emo sound, but the lyrics in the songs are so out there that I can’t help but enjoy it. The dude sings about going to the dentist! The dentist! Ha! Then there’s another song about him being a worm lowered into the ocean on a hook to have a party with his undersea friends.

What might be most interesting, though, is that I found this album to be incredibly calming when I listened to it. And that’s sort of funny to me because I generally hate the electronic/emo type of music. I don’t know – something about Owl City’s music just seems to calm down the rage a bit. It’s a nice change, actually. I found myself listening to the album as I was designing websites for Usable Web Solutions, LLC and it helped me to focus – very nice indeed.

So if you have a few extra bucks built-up on iTunes or if you have a few minutes and you can get over to YouTube, then I suggest listening to this guy. He’s pretty good and I think you’ll enjoy it.