The Bad Eliots: Fame From a Bottle

by Suzanne Baran
21 January 2009

Since 2001, small, independent bands appearing in commercials have sold thousands of records, been placed on numerous Billboard charts, and culled the respect and admiration of music fans.

Some say a band is “selling out” if they promote themselves and their tunes this way.

So how did a corporate behemoth like Snapple come to court The Bad Eliots? Frontman James Rotondi says, “There was some spirit in the studio that day which was light and fun,” and this put the band on the map. But Rotondi counters, “People have an idea that music for commercial use means selling out. I never had someone from a commercial client come to me and say, ‘We’d like you to do something unoriginal that no one will notice.’”

He continues saying that making music (albeit with commercial appeal and recognition) “beats laying cable.” [A company will] typically say, ‘Give us something edgy, something that feels real, original, fresh, and contemporary.’ But there’s a cheese factor in looking for something edgy. We’re by and large asked to do something left of center.”

But some bands simply get their 15 minutes and then disappear from the scene. Rotondi has a formula to counter the all-too familiar scenario:

“If we keep the same spirit of throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, then we’ll do well.”

Sheer willpower, authenticity, originality, and innovation certainly help. So does a good public persona and public relations manager. Savvy businessmen are by and large incompatible with musicians, and rarely do they inhabit the same body. Not this one.

“We all know about viral marketing, music that’s marketed and exposed, digital distribution, and the Internet’s multiplication principle which replicates itself like a weird robot created with its own rules. We’re stunned about how much attention we’ve gotten. Our persona is simply that we’re a band in the digital age and it’s something to have fun with.”

The Bad Eliots are an amalgam of the Psychedelic Furs, Magazine, and Gang Of Four. Find out more at their site.

Filed under music industry indie-rock