money making

Grizzly Bear Now Writing Songs for Commercials?

This morning EW premiered the Washington State Lottery’s new TV ad. What the hell for? Because it’s soundtracked by 60 seconds of a brand-new song from Grizzly Bear. (It’s also directed by Patrick Daughters (“Two Weeks,” “Maps”) and choreographed by 500 Days of Summer’s Michael Rooney.) This being 2010 and all, we’re certainly not scoffing at an indie band for trying to make a living by pushing lottery tickets in the Pacific Northwest. But there is one distinction we’d like to point out: When “Two Weeks” was used in the Volkswagen commercial, the ad people were just using a preexisting Grizzly Bear song, one written and recorded solely under the auspices of the band. This time, it seems like the band may have written the song for the ad. EW doesn’t make it clear if that is the case, but there’s no upcoming GB project we’re aware of that this could be a part of, and the lyrics (“it was a sunny day/I was on my way/dreaming of something more/my thoughts began to soar”) are strangely appropriate for the whimsical spot. We could very well come to find out that this snippet is part of a Veckatimest B-side or something, but say Grizzly Bear did write the song for the Washington State Lottery … is everyone cool with that?

Grizzly Bear gives a new song to Washington’s Lottery ad: Watch and hear it exclusively here! [EW] (Sorry, not embeddable.)

Grizzly Bear Now Writing Songs for Commercials?