Blue Moon beer ad sounds awful lot like Sonic Youth (and other seminal alt-rock bands)

ADVERTISING/BEER REVIEW: An all-too-familiar soundtrack to Blue Moon's "Creation" campaign

By Kenny Herzog

Pavement: Corporate advertising for beer.

Perhaps you've seen microbrew Blue Moon's "Creation" ads, which make the fairly unbelievable suggestion that drinking pints of alcoholic wheat beer are conducive to the creation of cohesive artwork.

Or, there's a chance you've merely listened to the below 32-second spot and thought, "Something here sounds awfully familiar." That's because the licensed track, a song called "Punctual as Usual" by obscure Oregon indie outfit The Parson Red Heads, is either a virtual facsimile or transparently derived descendant of at least three notable college-rock cuts from the late '80s and early '90s.

This is no major discredit to the Red Heads. Every contemporary indie rock band is a generic iteration of their forebears to some extent (in fact, just about all the ensuing songs rip from Neil Young's 35-year-old Zuma track "Don't Cry No Tears). However, methinks that Blue Moon probably desired one of the below three tunes (or a same-era song that would resonate with their presumably 30-something demo), but had trouble receiving artists' permission or couldn't meet the asking price.

SONIC YOUTH, "TEEN AGE RIOT"

Fast forward to about 1:23 seconds, tune in to Thurston Moore's eager guitar rev-up and tell me this iconic lead Daydream Nation track isn't what Blue Moon and their advertising agency spent weeks trying to pursue before discovering the Red Heads' most likely inadvertent homage.

PAVEMENT, "GOLD SOUNDZ"

As is to be expected from recently reunited indie legends Pavement, "Gold Soundz" has a distinctly more laconic tempo than the Red Heads' upbeat, Byrds-ian jingle. But speed that chord progression and signature jangle up toward double time, and you've got yourself the soundtrack to an evening of drinking Blue Moon while water-coloring the likeness of Blue Moon pints.

BELLY, "FEED THE TREE"

Dull the disenchanted edge of Sonic Youth's "Riot" with the melodic relent of Belly's "Feed the Tree" chorus and, voila, you have a half-minute snippet of "Punctual as Usual," ready to serve millions.

IN OTHER WORDS: Not that such diversion tactics are anything new in advertising, but it's a lot harder to pull a fast one on the public when there are websites solely devoted to policing this sort of thing.

"CREATION" AD RATING: 4.5/10

ALE'S PALE INVOKING OF CLASSIC ALT-ROCK RATING: 4/10

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