Amid the slew of Gap commercials with catchy Christmas tunes is one with a souped-up, rock&roll version of “The Little Drummer Boy.” The band sounded U2-esque, and their arrangement was quite moving.
Anybody know the name of the band that did this?
It’s by a band called Low. It’s on a CD (Christmas) that came out last year. It has both new X-mas songs and standards. It’s really good, by the way.
Can anyone tell me what the song is in the other holiday Gap commercial? It’s the one with the guy and girl walking towards each other and the lyrics are something about “suddenly you’re in love with everything” and something about the sun setting.
Nothing to add except I hate the phony sense of love that Gap tries to promote.
RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
Whoohoo! Someone wants to know about Low!
My best friend does their website. You can find the old one on http://www.cro-magnon.com/low and the new one on http://www.chairkickers.com
Low is awesome, though I certainly wouldn’t describe them as U2-esque.
If you’re looking to pick up a cd, I suggest “The Curtain Hits the Cast”, or “Songs for a Dead Pilot”.
I’m going to tell Cath (the webmistress), that someone was asking about the band.
Yep, the Gap commercial featuring the droney version of “Little Drummer Boy” (U2? What?) is indeed the band Low, a trio from Duluth, MN. The song was recorded in the summer of '99 and was released on the band’s Christmas album last winter. It’s available from CDNow or direct from the band by mail-order [ http://www.chairkickers.com/merch.html ]. If you’re interested in seeing the ad, you can go to http://www.adcritic.com, but I’m not sure if the other ads are available there – the “party-scene” one that ends in a blue lightbulb is Badly Drawn Boy, and the one with the people falling is Red House Painters (an excellent band; Mark Kozelek is great and I’ve heard his solo stuff is good too). And I have no idea what the ‘Give and Receive’ music is from (the one with the two people who approach each other and kiss).
And in the spirit of other good music in TV ads, Helzberg Diamonds is using a Magnetic Fields song this winter.
The “Give and Receive” commercial also has music from Badly Drawn Boy. The song is called “The Shining.” Even though Gap used the song, I still like it. CDNOW gave the album a good review.
Thank you!!
My bad – the “give and receive” is Badly Drawn Boy. The party one (“decorate yourself”?) is the Dandy Warhols; the song is “Boys Better.”
Guess I should brush up on my indie-rock flashcards.