infobong.com the absurd courts the vulgar

Much of the blogosphere is understandably outraged at Universal Music Group’s decision to send cease-and-desist letters to a variety of parties over a hilariously lame adaptation of U2’s song “One.” Produced by Bank of America managers, the adaptation celebrates BoA’s acquisition of student credit shark retail bank MBNA and replaces lines like “You act like you never had love” with banalities like “do you like the Yankees?”

I agree with the blogs that Universal is being ridiculous and that the leaked video is more of an embarrassment to the bank than it is any kind of viral marketing campaign, as the media conglomerate asserts. However, this blogger found something else about the blog-event to be grumpy about. I saw two blogs point to a cover of the BoA adaptation performed by comedian David Cross and guitarist Johnny Marr. Public Knowledge identifies Marr as “the guitarist from Modest Mouse,” and WMFU’s Beware of the Blog also identifies him as the Modest Mouse guitarist.

I’m probably the least hip guy in the blogosphere, but I associate the name Johnny Marr with the groundbreaking 1980s postpunk band The Smiths, as well as Electronic and The The. “Could there be two Johnny Marrs?” I thought, “One known for literate indie pop and one in Modest Mouse.” Of course, I queried Wikipedia for Johnny Marr, and the disappointing article on Marr revealed that the guitarist joined Modest Mouse earlier this year. While I suppose it is factually true that Marr is now a member of the veteran act, wouldn’t it be better to identify him as a member of The Smiths, which is surely one of the most influential bands of the 1980s? I imagine that the policy dorks and NPR listeners who read these blogs are more familiar with The Smiths (and perhaps even The The or Electronic) than Modest Mouse.

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