So what is a hard-working rock band supposed to do to get some exposure in the Big Apple? In the case of one Astoria, Queens-based band, sign on to become the latest shills for the cable industry’s triple play of video, voice and data.
According to the New York Observer, Future 86 was making the rounds of local clubs, offering up a menu of cover tunes and the occasional original song without much fanfare.
It wasn’t until Jennifer Brooke, cofounder of Long Island film-production company Forever Films, which was doing some work for 1-800-OK-Cable, a marketing consortium of cable operators in New York, New Jersey and southern Connecticut, spotted the band while trawling the MySpace social-networking site.
Brooke and her partner, Beatrice Alda, particularly liked a Future 86 song entitled “I Want It All,” which, they felt, with some minor tweaking, could fit the ad campaign, according to the Observer.
And thus lyrics like “Woke up this morning, no sunshine on my head” became “Woke up this morning, cable’s triple play in my head.” And “Woke up this morning, couldn’t wait to get out of bed” became “Craving TV and Internet and phone is what I said.”
It’s no “A Day in the Life,” but it serves the purpose.
The song has taken on a bit of a life of its own on YouTube, according to the Observer, where comments range from mildly annoyed to downright nasty.
Future 86 lead singer and co-writer of “I Want It All” Courtney Samborsky defended the band’s foray into cable commercials in the article, telling the Observer that some form of commercialism is necessary to make it in the cut-throat music world. But her closing comment, in defense of the artistic integrity of the song, could double for take two of the latest 1-800-OK-Cable ad.
“Everyone is searching for something that means something to them,” Samborsky told the Observer. “We’re all craving something more, better.”
Like maybe (nothing} faster Internet service. Or HDTV (nothing clearer). Or cable digital phone, so I can talk all day-ay-ay.
