That Song From The NBA Playoffs Commercial
UPDATE: I replaced the old poor-quality webrip with the actual mp3 from the album, which means no more of those irritating clicking noises in the background.
Here at Good Weather for Airstrikes, we have a thing for sports. Football always holds the number one spot in our hearts, but with no NFL season right now the NBA Playoffs are keeping us occupied. Our hometown Washington Wizards should have gotten over that road bump known as LeBron James’ Playoff Debut by now and are poised to make a run deep into the playoffs (until they have to play Miami. If you know ‘Zards basketball, you’ll know its been a looong time since we’ve beaten Miami. Over two years, in fact). However, as we were watching our Wizards being dismantled by LeBron’s triple-double, we couldn’t help but notice one NBA Playoffs commerical standing out, and no, it’s not the one with Fort Minor (more on that later: guilty pleasure alert!). The commercial is called “To Each His Own Ritual”, and advertises the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, airing on ESPN and ABC. Zack posted the commercial over on All Things Go, and we’ve done the same, right here:
If you read Zack’s post, it signs off with a plea for somebody to identify the wordless track that plays in the background. Well, Good Weather For Airstrikes (read: Everett) has come to the rescue, tracking down that elusive song, and, with the help of Derek’s computer-hacking skills, has made it available for download.
The band is Mountains In The Sky. Signed to Trifekta Records (Aussie home of The Decemberists & Deerhoof and the past label of The Avalanches, Architecture in Helsinki, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone), Mountains in the Sky is the creative outlet of Melbourne, Australia’s John Lee. His latest album, 2005’s Celestial Son, features the song that is being made famous through its use in the above commercial, “Noah’s Arkestra”. Trifekta says of the band: “Mountains In The Sky is music you half-hear in your dreams. It lifts musical elements from the everyday and constructs kaleidoscopic, intimate, cut’n'paste pastiches that are as elusively foreign as they are somewhat familiar…sonic bliss.” Hyperbole, perhaps, but the song in question is definitely worthy of that description. Vaguely reminiscent of RJD2, who’s excellent “Ghostwriter” has been used in past NBA commercials, Mountains In The Sky’s work also seems influenced by DJ Shadow, but slightly more energetic. The song itself works perfectly with the “To Each His Own Ritual” concept, which sees various NBA stars going through their superstitous pregame activities. The jittery track perfectly imagines the butterflies even the greatest of basketball players feel before taking the court in the playoffs, and I applaud the National Basketball Association and ESPN for selecting a song that is not only obscure, but perfect for the mood they are trying to set.
Unfortunately, at the moment the only mp3 of the song we have downloadable for you is not of the highest quality, as it is a webrip. Rest assured, it will still play fine on your computer or your iPod, but because our only option at the moment was to capture the streaming audio from the label’s website, the sound quality does leave something to be desired. We are working to get a better copy, but we couldn’t wait to share this song with you, so we’re offering it to you right here, as is.
MP3: “Noah’s Arkestra” - Mountains In The Sky [updated link]
To download the song, PC-users should right-click on the song link and select “Save Target As…”, and Mac users should CTRL-click and select “Download Linked File”.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:01 am
Thanks for this, yet again your blog provides me with juicy titbits of musical delight with which to fill my iPod.
And, mac users can press alt-click to download the file directly
Excellent blog - keep on writing
BlueLeaf
April 25th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
great to see an Aussie getting some love…
April 25th, 2006 at 7:25 pm
Nice find Ace. Just to let you know I can hear your windows sounds in the background of the recording.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Yeah I know, my comp was fucking up whilst I recorded, and while I tried multiple times I couldn’t fix it. It should just be an occasional click right? Regardless, the label is mailing me a copy of the album now so I’ll replace that with a new album mp3 ASAP.
April 25th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Wow that’s amazing my brain has been pounding like hell trying to find that song ever since I first saw the commercial. You rule.
April 26th, 2006 at 9:50 am
Get at me I have a high quality copy of this track from the full length album I ripped after purchase.
April 27th, 2006 at 10:41 am
you are the man!!
ive been goin’ crazy trying to find that song .. took me a lot of time to find ur website
but thanks a lot dude
May 1st, 2006 at 1:26 am
Thanks! I have been looking for this ever since I heard it the first time too.
May 2nd, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Wow, I really, really like this. What a great find. I can’t believe I’m going to spend $28 bucks just to get their CD now.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:31 pm
You RULE! I love that song but didn’t even try to find it as I figured it might have been made specifically for the commercial. Go Clippers!
May 5th, 2006 at 7:52 pm
THANK YOU!!! finding the song couldnt have been easier!
May 6th, 2006 at 1:57 pm
hey, thanks for posting that song, i’ve been looking everywhere for it, thanks a lot
May 10th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Do you know the other ESPN/NBA commerical music from earlier this year? It was only on ESPN only and it had a mad beat to it. I think it came from a hip-hop song but I’m not sure!
MaWash3112@aol.com
May 11th, 2006 at 12:02 am
If anyone wants the actual lyrics for the 2006 NBA playoff song, it’s from a group called Fort Minor, and the song is titled, “Remember the Name.”
May 12th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Thanks for this post and the link, this song is amazing, and not having it was killing me.
May 12th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
I agree with some of the others, I’ve been trying like crazy to find this beat, thanks for the jam.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:22 am
Hey,
Do you know the name/artist of the song that is in the new commercials?
Thanks.
May 18th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Good Lookin Out, Tight track….
May 18th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
I want to use the 30 second edited version for my team’s warm up mix when we come out onto the field. If you can get that and post it on the website, that would be awesome. Thanks for posting it though
May 24th, 2006 at 5:19 pm
thanks this song is so sick
May 29th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I really like the song but doesnt it kind of sound like a distortion of
“Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf? Still a great song
June 2nd, 2006 at 6:30 pm
Thanks so much, been lookin all over for the title.
June 9th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
i’m having problems downloading the updated mp3… can someone who has downloaded it successfully e-mail it to me at ChrisTansey@sbcglobal.net?
Thanks y’all… and thanks much for tracking this gem down. Much respect.
June 12th, 2006 at 3:16 pm
hi i also am having trouble downloading the mp3 file if poss could someone email me at avrahmi@aol.com thanks a lot
December 29th, 2006 at 9:38 pm
I see this commercial for AOL.COM/NBA.COM where Luke Ridenour of the Sonics is hitting a jump shot. There is this Enya like dreamy music from the end of Gladiator playing? I can’t for the life of me find it anywehere???
Any help would be awesome!
Thanks!
December 30th, 2006 at 6:55 am
i don’t know if it helps, but the song at the end of gladiator is “now we are free” by hans zimmer and lisa gerrard.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:52 am
cool blog!