the likable rob gordon?

so tuesday night has turned into my official music meets tv night of guilty pleasure. obviously, i like millions am regularly sucked into watching American Idol. i am actually sincerely interested in it as bad as that sounds. i love to see the lines drawn between what so-called industry folks think and wha the general population will get behind. it really does show sometimes how utterly clueless people making money for hitmaking can be.


now my new fascination is the poorly named show Love Monkey where that guy who was Ed is now supposed be believable as an a&r rep at some small label in new york. it's actually based on a book, only the guy works at a newspaper there. i'd love to hear the story about how they decided to go this route instead. every attempt to be realistic as well as squeeze in cameos seems so forced, i find it highly amusing. a number of people pointed out how last weeks episode was trying to be oh so sly and mention MySpace as a viable marketing tool for labels and was only outshined by the moment that was...oh isn't it cool that he's all like aquinted buddie with Ben Folds, who obviously can't act even if its for one minute on a tv show. so like this week there was a game of hoops played over a LCD Soundsytem tune and a cameo performance by Robbers on High Street. i dig that band and so i fell for it. they're a lot like the show in that they're an enjoyable imitation of the real thing (re: Spoon) that i don't get why more people aren't into it. i've posted a song here before and i'm posting another today to keep my television reflection for the day relevent with your music download. next week it looks like Aimee Mann is gonna be on the show while our cliche a&r guy tries to get a band on Letterman. i've actually had to try and do that before so i'll be curious to see how it looks in tv-land. for all the silliness in the show's attempts to be real, i must admit they have some legitimate people behind the lenses. tamera davis, a former music video director who would go on to direct britney in Crossroads directs and one of the producers is none other than kcrw's nic hardcourt (morning becomes ecclectic). you'll see his name occasionally as a music supervisor in films that have some good tunes (though he is way more into the dandy warhols than anyone should be). probably the most realistic aspect of the show is that producer sony is using a few episodes to roll out Teddy Geiger, an artist whose record they are releasing in march. now that's the music marketing i know and love. someone pointed out to me that he was a finalist in some vh-1 contest where they were remaking the partridge family. i don't have cable, so i'm lost on that one.

Robbers on High Street "Love Underground"