TV: Even with strike, is TV still the new radio?
Despite the fact that the writer’s strike has forced many of our favorite shows into repeats for the new year, there is a crop of new shows with scripts completed just before the strike began. With the growing trend of TV shows using more and more music, here is an update on some of the new shows that will feature interesting soundtracks.
"Quarterlife" is a show that is actually comprised of thirty-six 8 minute episodes that will originally air as webisodes on the social networking site of the same name and on Myspace. The show will then air on NBC as an hour long drama in six episodes. Quarterlife follows the lives of young artists (including a band) who are using a the social networking site to help promote themselves and advance their careers. Music supervisor Jen Ross has brought some new and fresh sounds to the show including one of our favorite LA shoegaze bands Helen Stellar. All of the bands who's music appears in the show can be tracked down through their own Quarterlife pages where you'll be able to find music, videos and interviews.
Six Feet Under producer Alan Poul is taking us back to the 70s with "Swingtown" (trailer above). It's kind of like Dazed And Confused but about adults. The show is about a couple who move to a new neighborhood and discover that their friendly neighbors are swingers. Fortunately for us they are into it. Since the show takes place in the 70s music is key and the pilot we saw was chock full of the hits everybody knows and loves from rock to R&B. We also hear that in addition to all of the licensed music the show it will feature original music provided by Liz Phair. Keep posted to SEEN for an interview with music supervisor Gary Calamar in the very near future.
Alan Ball, another Six Feet Under producer, is back on HBO with a new series called "True Blood". Vampires who ingest synthetic blood and frequent a Louisiana roadhouse will be the center of the series. Alan Ball and music supervisor Gary Calamar promise a soundtrack heavy show with blues influences as well as more contemporary regional sounds from Louisiana. Look out for songs from Jim White, Joseph Arthur, and C.C. Adcock to be some of the featured sounds.
Keep it locked on SEEN for updates on these and other new shows featuring good music as SEEN on TV.
Ads: Quantifying Sellout Status
In a recent Washington Post article, the ongoing debate of artists selling out by offering their music to advertisers was reinvigorated. Case in point: is seminal shoegazer band Lush selling out one of their illest songs ever, or is it just, straight up, a badass jeans commercial? CLICK ON TITLE OF POST TO READ MORE
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