WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.720 Okay, so for this deep dive, I want to take you 00:00:01.720 --> 00:00:06.940 back. Let's go to December 1st, 2009. 2009. Got 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:09.939 it. The world is listening to Lady Gaga. The 00:00:09.939 --> 00:00:12.480 Black Eyed Peas are just, they're everywhere. 00:00:13.019 --> 00:00:15.960 And we are deep, deep in the era of neon skinny 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:19.359 jeans. Oh, yeah. And then, kind of out of nowhere, 00:00:19.460 --> 00:00:21.820 one of the biggest rock bands in the world, The 00:00:21.820 --> 00:00:24.739 Killers, decides to drop a Christmas single. 00:00:25.100 --> 00:00:26.960 And not just any Christmas single. I mean, they 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:30.160 aren't covering Silent Night or doing some, you 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:34.020 know, standard Jingle Bell rockabilly track. 00:00:34.259 --> 00:00:36.240 Right. They release a track called Happy Birthday 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:39.200 Guadalupe. Yeah. And on paper, this whole thing 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:41.340 looks like a potential disaster. It really does. 00:00:41.460 --> 00:00:44.119 It's a collaboration between a Las Vegas synth 00:00:44.119 --> 00:00:46.899 rock stadium band, a mariachi group, and it's 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:50.140 all tied into this massive global charity campaign. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.380 It sounds like something that should be a chaotic. 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:55.840 A total mess. Like a fever dream you'd have after 00:00:55.840 --> 00:00:58.119 eating too much holiday food. It does sound improbable, 00:00:58.159 --> 00:00:59.859 but I mean, that is exactly why we're talking 00:00:59.859 --> 00:01:02.020 about it. Because instead of being a train wreck, 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:04.980 this track is, well, it's arguably a masterpiece 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:08.340 of genre fusion. It's a cultural artifact that 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:11.299 tells us so much about where music was in 2009, 00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:14.680 how charity and celebrity culture were intersecting, 00:01:14.680 --> 00:01:17.819 and how a band can create a tradition out of 00:01:17.819 --> 00:01:20.549 pure eccentricity. So that's the mission today. 00:01:20.689 --> 00:01:23.049 We are unpacking the documentation surrounding 00:01:23.049 --> 00:01:25.390 Happy Birthday Guadalupe. We're going to look 00:01:25.390 --> 00:01:27.989 at the credits, the bizarre music video with 00:01:27.989 --> 00:01:31.430 a 90s icon, and the reception. But I have to 00:01:31.430 --> 00:01:33.230 ask you, before we really get into the weeds, 00:01:33.549 --> 00:01:36.950 does a mariachi Christmas song by an indie band 00:01:36.950 --> 00:01:39.799 actually work? Or are we just looking at this 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:42.480 through like rose colored glasses? That is the 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.040 fundamental question, right? It's a high wire 00:01:44.040 --> 00:01:45.920 act. You have the earnestness of a Christmas 00:01:45.920 --> 00:01:49.560 song, the technical complexity of mariachi instrumentation 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:52.000 and the swagger of Brandon Flowers. Right. If 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:54.159 even one of those elements fails, the whole thing 00:01:54.159 --> 00:01:56.079 just becomes a parody. But I think the documentation 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:59.780 shows they treated this with like deadly seriousness. 00:02:00.280 --> 00:02:02.319 Well, let's start with the context, because the 00:02:02.319 --> 00:02:03.819 first thing that struck me in the research is 00:02:03.819 --> 00:02:07.209 that this wasn't a random decision. The Killers 00:02:07.209 --> 00:02:09.270 didn't just wake up in 2009 and decide to go 00:02:09.270 --> 00:02:11.150 buy sombreros. No, not at all. This was part 00:02:11.150 --> 00:02:12.990 of a sequence. Exactly. You have to look at the 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:16.409 timeline. By 2009, the Killers had established 00:02:16.409 --> 00:02:19.710 a very specific, very strange holiday ritual. 00:02:20.110 --> 00:02:23.069 This was their fourth consecutive Christmas single. 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:26.069 Right. It started back in 2006. With a great 00:02:26.069 --> 00:02:28.330 big sled. Which is a great track, very indie 00:02:28.330 --> 00:02:30.889 rock. But then they followed it up with Don't 00:02:30.889 --> 00:02:34.050 Shoot Me Santa in 2007. Mm -hmm. And that's where 00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:36.270 I feel like the tone shifted a bit. That wasn't 00:02:36.270 --> 00:02:38.590 just a song. It was a narrative. It was dark 00:02:38.590 --> 00:02:40.689 comedy. It absolutely was. And that really sets 00:02:40.689 --> 00:02:43.610 the stage for Guadalupe. By the time we get to 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:46.770 2009, the fans knew the drill. They were right. 00:02:46.849 --> 00:02:48.810 They weren't expecting a lullaby. They were expecting 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:52.330 a weird cinematic story. The band had effectively 00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:54.409 trained their audience to expect the unexpected 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:57.409 every December. And just to place this in the 00:02:57.409 --> 00:03:00.520 band's career timeline. This is the day and age 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:03.099 era, right? Correct. They had released the album 00:03:03.099 --> 00:03:06.340 Day and Age in 2008. So they are riding high 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:09.719 on hits like Human and Spaceman. Okay, so this 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:12.099 is peak killers. This is their pop star phase. 00:03:12.340 --> 00:03:15.539 Lots of feathers, lots of synth, very, very polished. 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:18.020 They aren't the gritty rock band from Hot Fuss 00:03:18.020 --> 00:03:20.680 anymore. They're global superstars. Which brings 00:03:20.680 --> 00:03:24.280 us to the why. Why does a band at the peak of 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.919 their global fame commit to writing, recording, 00:03:28.099 --> 00:03:31.139 and releasing a brand new song every single Christmas? 00:03:31.259 --> 00:03:33.680 Right. Most bands just, you know, record a cover 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:35.580 of Last Christmas and call it a day. And this 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:37.219 is where the story gets bigger than just the 00:03:37.219 --> 00:03:40.539 music. We have to talk about Product Red. R -E 00:03:40.539 --> 00:03:43.979 -D with the parentheses. Oh, I remember this 00:03:43.979 --> 00:03:45.979 vividly. You couldn't walk into a mall in the 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:48.199 mid -2000s without seeing it. It was a cultural 00:03:48.199 --> 00:03:50.979 juggernaut. Spearheaded by Bono and Bobby Shriver, 00:03:51.099 --> 00:03:53.319 the whole idea was to partner with massive brands, 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:57.180 Apple, Gap, Starbucks, Converse, to create products 00:03:57.180 --> 00:03:59.460 where a portion of the profits went to the Global 00:03:59.460 --> 00:04:02.159 Fund to fight HIV AIDS in Africa. It was very 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:04.159 corporate activism, wasn't it? That whole era 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:06.759 of buy this red iPod and save the world. It was, 00:04:06.800 --> 00:04:09.360 and it definitely drew some criticism for that 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:11.699 exact reason. But the revenue it generated was 00:04:11.699 --> 00:04:15.349 undeniable. And the killers wanted to be part 00:04:15.349 --> 00:04:17.569 of that conversation. They didn't just donate 00:04:17.569 --> 00:04:20.290 money quietly. They turned their entire Christmas 00:04:20.290 --> 00:04:23.569 output into a dedicated revenue stream for the 00:04:23.569 --> 00:04:27.569 global fund. So Happy Birthday Guadalupe is technically 00:04:27.569 --> 00:04:31.110 a charity product. It is. All proceeds went to 00:04:31.110 --> 00:04:34.709 R .E .D. And that that changes how we view the 00:04:34.709 --> 00:04:38.540 weirdness of the track. How so? Well. if they 00:04:38.540 --> 00:04:40.879 were doing this just to sell albums for themselves 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.399 it might seem self -indulgent to go out and hire 00:04:43.399 --> 00:04:46.459 a mariachi band but doing it for a global charity 00:04:46.459 --> 00:04:48.879 initiative it gives them license to be experimental 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:51.339 it sort of signals hey we're doing this for a 00:04:51.339 --> 00:04:53.300 good cause so we're gonna have fun with it it's 00:04:53.300 --> 00:04:56.350 also a massive flex isn't it to say We are going 00:04:56.350 --> 00:04:58.589 to release a song that is completely off genre 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:00.529 and it's still going to make money for charity 00:05:00.529 --> 00:05:02.949 because we are the killers. Absolutely. It's 00:05:02.949 --> 00:05:06.290 an ambition to be a U2 sized band. U2 saves the 00:05:06.290 --> 00:05:07.790 world. The Killers wanted to show they could 00:05:07.790 --> 00:05:09.629 operate on that level too. But let's actually 00:05:09.629 --> 00:05:11.670 talk about the music itself because this is where 00:05:11.670 --> 00:05:13.389 the rubber meets the road. Or where the boots 00:05:13.389 --> 00:05:15.730 hit the sand, I guess. Exactly. The sound. This 00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:18.410 is what I was so skeptical about. The credits 00:05:18.410 --> 00:05:22.089 list. The Killers featuring Wild Light and Mariachi 00:05:22.089 --> 00:05:26.800 El Bronx. Now, I know The Killers. But who are 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.420 Mariachi El Bronx? Okay, this is a crucial detail. 00:05:29.720 --> 00:05:33.060 Mariachi El Bronx is actually the alter ego of 00:05:33.060 --> 00:05:36.120 a Los Angeles hardcore punk band called The Bronx. 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:39.250 Wait, really? A punk band. Yes. They started 00:05:39.250 --> 00:05:42.769 doing mariachi music as like a side project, 00:05:42.829 --> 00:05:45.250 but they approached it with incredible technical 00:05:45.250 --> 00:05:48.170 respect. They weren't mocking the genre. They 00:05:48.170 --> 00:05:50.550 learned the instrumentation, the guitar on the 00:05:50.550 --> 00:05:53.230 Vuela, the trumpet lines. Wow. So when you hear 00:05:53.230 --> 00:05:55.209 them on this track, you aren't hearing a studio 00:05:55.209 --> 00:05:57.750 session musician hired for an hour. You are hearing 00:05:57.750 --> 00:05:59.990 a band that understands the energy of punk and 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:02.009 the structure of mariachi. That makes so much 00:06:02.009 --> 00:06:04.170 more sense because the energy on the track is 00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:06.209 so high. It doesn't feel like. Easy listening. 00:06:06.310 --> 00:06:09.110 It drives. Exactly. And look at the production 00:06:09.110 --> 00:06:11.990 credits produced by the killers and Stuart Price. 00:06:12.230 --> 00:06:16.149 Stuart Price is a legend. He did Madonna's Confessions 00:06:16.149 --> 00:06:18.709 on a dance floor. He did Day at Age. He's the 00:06:18.709 --> 00:06:22.009 guy you call when you want things to sound shimmering 00:06:22.009 --> 00:06:25.970 and expensive. Right. So think about the engineering 00:06:25.970 --> 00:06:28.889 challenge here. You have Stuart Price. who is 00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:32.009 famous for his wall -of -sound digital compression 00:06:32.009 --> 00:06:34.370 and sparkling synths. And you have a traditional 00:06:34.370 --> 00:06:37.389 acoustic mariachi ensemble. Mixing those two 00:06:37.389 --> 00:06:39.129 things, getting the brass to cut through the 00:06:39.129 --> 00:06:42.069 synthesizers without sounding jarring, is incredibly 00:06:42.069 --> 00:06:43.730 difficult. I was listening to it with headphones, 00:06:43.990 --> 00:06:45.790 and there's that moment where the trumpets kick 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:47.470 in, and instead of clashing with the electric 00:06:47.470 --> 00:06:51.389 guitars, they sort of... They reinforce them. 00:06:51.449 --> 00:06:53.990 They occupy the same sonic frequency as a lead 00:06:53.990 --> 00:06:56.230 guitar riff. It's brilliant. Yeah. The track 00:06:56.230 --> 00:06:59.350 is classified in the records as mariachi and 00:06:59.350 --> 00:07:01.410 indie rock, which are two genres that usually 00:07:01.410 --> 00:07:03.910 do not speak to each other at all. But here, 00:07:04.029 --> 00:07:06.250 the driving rhythm of the mariachi strumming, 00:07:06.250 --> 00:07:08.970 it just replaces the typical indie rock hi -hat 00:07:08.970 --> 00:07:11.490 pattern and propels the song forward. And the 00:07:11.490 --> 00:07:14.279 runtime. I noticed it's four minutes and 33 seconds. 00:07:14.379 --> 00:07:17.339 Which is an eternity in radio time. It is. A 00:07:17.339 --> 00:07:20.139 standard pop song is three minutes, maybe 3 .30. 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:22.800 Four and a half minutes means they weren't trying 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.459 to make a quick jingle. They wrote a saga. And 00:07:25.459 --> 00:07:27.459 look at the songwriting credits. It's not just 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:30.139 Brandon Flowers. It's Flowers, Dave Kuning, Mark 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.339 Stormer, Ronnie Vinucci Jr. The whole band is 00:07:33.339 --> 00:07:35.459 credited. So everyone had their fingerprints 00:07:35.459 --> 00:07:37.899 on this. Which suggests a jam session approach. 00:07:37.939 --> 00:07:39.480 You can kind of hear it in the structure. The 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:42.459 song shifts. It has breakdowns. It has that spoken 00:07:42.459 --> 00:07:44.800 word dialogue section. Very theatrical. It is. 00:07:44.899 --> 00:07:47.819 The male vocal duet credit is interesting, too, 00:07:47.899 --> 00:07:50.579 because the vocals trade off in a way that feels 00:07:50.579 --> 00:07:53.120 almost like a Broadway play set in Tijuana. It's 00:07:53.120 --> 00:07:56.240 very dramatic. But the killers have always been 00:07:56.240 --> 00:07:58.819 dramatic. Yeah. Brandon Flowers loves a bit of 00:07:58.819 --> 00:08:01.480 theater. Oh, he does. And vocally, he completely 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:04.660 commits. He isn't singing this with a wink and 00:08:04.660 --> 00:08:07.120 a nod. He's suing with the same passion he brings 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:10.180 to Mr. Brightside. He treats the lyrics, which 00:08:10.180 --> 00:08:13.259 are about a cowboy pining for a lost love named 00:08:13.259 --> 00:08:15.759 Guadalupe, as if they are Shakespeare. Let's 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:17.699 talk about those lyrics for a second. Because 00:08:17.699 --> 00:08:21.000 usually Christmas songs are about, you know, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:22.759 coming home, I'll be home for Christmas, driving 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:25.899 home for Christmas. But this song is about looking 00:08:25.899 --> 00:08:29.290 for someone. It's a song of absence. I am living 00:08:29.290 --> 00:08:32.950 in a dream and I am open to the scheme. He's 00:08:32.950 --> 00:08:35.629 wandering. It fits into the blue Christmas tradition, 00:08:35.809 --> 00:08:38.149 the Elvis tradition of being lonely on the holiday. 00:08:38.330 --> 00:08:40.450 Right. But instead of sitting by a fire, he's 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:42.590 wandering the desert. Which perfectly segues 00:08:42.590 --> 00:08:45.149 into the music video. Because if the audio is 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:47.350 a mix of Vegas glitz and mariachi tradition, 00:08:47.710 --> 00:08:51.409 the video is, well, it's Luke Perry in the dirt. 00:08:51.570 --> 00:08:54.370 The visual component here is just vital. Released 00:08:54.370 --> 00:08:57.980 the same day, December 1st. And it stars the 00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:00.000 late Luke Perry. And we have to contextualize 00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:02.500 Luke Perry in 2009. This is post -Beverly Hills 00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.779 90210, but pre -Riverdale. A long time pre -Riverdale. 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:07.919 He was in this interesting phase of his career 00:09:07.919 --> 00:09:10.220 where he was an icon, but kind of a nostalgic 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:12.399 one. He was a working actor for sure, but his 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.039 casting here brings a very specific kind of baggage. 00:09:15.100 --> 00:09:17.240 When you see Luke Perry, you think of the cool 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:20.139 brooding loner. Dylan McKay. Exactly, Dylan McKay. 00:09:20.200 --> 00:09:22.559 So casting him as a cowboy, searching for his 00:09:22.559 --> 00:09:25.889 lost love, the audience instantly buys it. We 00:09:25.889 --> 00:09:27.730 don't need a backstory. We look at his face, 00:09:27.809 --> 00:09:30.730 we see the dust on his coat, and we go, OK, this 00:09:30.730 --> 00:09:33.850 guy is heartbroken. And the setting? There is 00:09:33.850 --> 00:09:37.309 zero snow in this video. None. Not a single flake. 00:09:37.350 --> 00:09:39.649 And that is a bold choice for a Christmas release. 00:09:39.909 --> 00:09:42.690 It is. Usually the visual language of Christmas 00:09:42.690 --> 00:09:47.490 is non -negotiable. Snow, red, green, pine trees. 00:09:47.789 --> 00:09:52.330 This video is brown, orange, yellow. It's dusty. 00:09:52.450 --> 00:09:54.710 But somehow it still feels like a holiday video. 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:56.490 Why do you think that is? I think it connects 00:09:56.490 --> 00:09:58.769 to the nativity aspect of Christmas, the journey, 00:09:58.929 --> 00:10:01.289 you know, the idea of traveling across a desert. 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:03.789 But mostly it works because the music anchors 00:10:03.789 --> 00:10:06.610 it. The mariachi horns summon that landscape. 00:10:06.870 --> 00:10:08.990 That's a great point. If they had filmed Luke 00:10:08.990 --> 00:10:11.470 Perry walking through a snowy forest in Aspen 00:10:11.470 --> 00:10:13.269 while that trumpet line played, it would have 00:10:13.269 --> 00:10:15.429 been cognitively dissonant. It would have been 00:10:15.429 --> 00:10:17.769 weird. Yeah. The video respects the audio. They 00:10:17.769 --> 00:10:20.889 leaned into the whole Southwest aesthetic completely. 00:10:21.470 --> 00:10:23.870 And remember, the killers are from Las Vegas. 00:10:23.950 --> 00:10:27.289 They aren't from New York or London. Their version 00:10:27.289 --> 00:10:30.970 of winter is the high desert. So this feels... 00:10:31.440 --> 00:10:33.840 authentic to their geography in a way that a 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:36.600 sleigh ride song never would it's americana but 00:10:36.600 --> 00:10:39.340 a very specific slice of it so okay we have the 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:41.480 song we have the video we have the charity angle 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:44.360 did anyone actually care because 2009 was a busy 00:10:44.360 --> 00:10:46.740 year for music did this thing chart this is where 00:10:46.740 --> 00:10:49.639 we have to uh manage our expectations and also 00:10:49.639 --> 00:10:53.179 understand the uk music market specifically okay 00:10:53.179 --> 00:10:55.779 hit me with the stats it peaked at number 110 00:10:55.779 --> 00:11:00.539 on the uk singles chart okay number 110. To an 00:11:00.539 --> 00:11:02.299 American listener, that sounds like a failure. 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:05.240 It does. If you're 110 on the Billboard Hot 100, 00:11:05.519 --> 00:11:08.090 you effectively don't exist. Right. But the UK 00:11:08.090 --> 00:11:10.230 chart system is different, especially in December. 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:11.990 The race for the Christmas number one in the 00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:14.529 UK is a national sport. It is a blood sport. 00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:16.789 Right. Everyone releases a song. Every massive 00:11:16.789 --> 00:11:19.370 pop star, every X Factor winner, every novelty 00:11:19.370 --> 00:11:22.230 act is releasing a single that specific week 00:11:22.230 --> 00:11:25.090 to try and grab the top spot. The market is completely 00:11:25.090 --> 00:11:27.490 saturated. So getting on the list at all is hard. 00:11:27.690 --> 00:11:30.809 For a charity single released digitally that 00:11:30.809 --> 00:11:33.970 is almost five minutes long and features a mariachi 00:11:33.970 --> 00:11:37.600 band. Cracking the top 200 is actually a sign 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:40.279 of a very dedicated fan base. That's a good point. 00:11:40.440 --> 00:11:43.679 It means thousands of people specifically went 00:11:43.679 --> 00:11:46.120 out and bought this track in a week where they 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:48.279 were being bombarded by the biggest marketing 00:11:48.279 --> 00:11:51.039 campaigns in the world. It really shows the cult 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.940 status of the killers in the UK. They are almost 00:11:53.940 --> 00:11:56.080 bigger there than in the US sometimes. Consistently. 00:11:56.139 --> 00:11:58.639 And the song had longevity. It wasn't just a 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:01.820 one week blip. It appeared in the 2015 film Christmas 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:05.909 Eve. It became a staple. on indie holiday playlists. 00:12:06.049 --> 00:12:08.110 And the tradition itself didn't stop there. No, 00:12:08.169 --> 00:12:10.029 they kept going. The next year they did Boots, 00:12:10.049 --> 00:12:12.529 which was much more somber. Then the Cowboys 00:12:12.529 --> 00:12:15.690 Christmas Ball in 2011, which feels like a spiritual 00:12:15.690 --> 00:12:17.669 sequel to Guadalupe. Well, the Cowboys Christmas 00:12:17.669 --> 00:12:19.570 Ball is definitely in the same cinematic universe. 00:12:20.029 --> 00:12:22.429 It is. But I would argue Guadalupe represents 00:12:22.429 --> 00:12:25.950 the golden era of this tradition. It was the 00:12:25.950 --> 00:12:28.389 moment where the budget, the band's fame, and 00:12:28.389 --> 00:12:31.110 the creativity all peaked perfectly. They had 00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:33.230 the money to get Luke Perry and Stuart Price, 00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:35.250 but they were still weird enough to want to do 00:12:35.250 --> 00:12:37.710 it. Later on, the Christmas songs got a little, 00:12:37.850 --> 00:12:40.610 I don't want to say tired, but maybe less surprising. 00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:43.710 They became more introspective, certainly. Guadalupe 00:12:43.710 --> 00:12:46.590 is just so joyous. It has a fiesta energy to 00:12:46.590 --> 00:12:49.419 it, despite the sad lyrics. It's a celebration. 00:12:51.240 --> 00:12:53.039 Zooming out, we're looking at this documentation 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:56.519 from 2009. What is the takeaway for us today? 00:12:56.580 --> 00:12:59.159 Why does this matter beyond just being a fun 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:01.519 piece of trivia? I think it matters because it's 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:03.879 a rejection of cynicism. How so? Well, think 00:13:03.879 --> 00:13:06.059 about it. It would have been so easy for the 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:08.039 killers to be cynical. Oh, we have to do a charity 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:11.080 song for a fine. Let's just record a quick acoustic 00:13:11.080 --> 00:13:13.559 cover, put it on iTunes and take the tax write 00:13:13.559 --> 00:13:15.720 off. Right. Or just license Mr. Brightside for 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:18.320 a commercial and donate the fee. Exactly. But 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:20.850 they didn't. They put. actual artistic labor 00:13:20.850 --> 00:13:23.629 into this they collaborated with artists from 00:13:23.629 --> 00:13:26.990 a totally different genre mariachi el bronx and 00:13:26.990 --> 00:13:29.529 they elevated them they wrote original music 00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:32.529 they filmed a high production video they treated 00:13:32.529 --> 00:13:35.330 a charity christmas single with the same artistic 00:13:35.330 --> 00:13:38.250 integrity as a lead single from an album that's 00:13:38.250 --> 00:13:40.649 true it shows a respect for the audience too 00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:42.710 they didn't think oh the fans will buy anything 00:13:42.710 --> 00:13:44.610 they thought let's give them something worth 00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:47.850 buying and it highlights the elasticity of the 00:13:47.850 --> 00:13:50.889 indie rock label in the late 2000s. It was a 00:13:50.889 --> 00:13:53.710 time when bands were allowed to be playful. I 00:13:53.710 --> 00:13:55.269 feel like we've lost a bit of that. Everything 00:13:55.269 --> 00:13:58.149 is so curated now. This just feels like a bunch 00:13:58.149 --> 00:13:59.870 of friends with a lot of money having a great 00:13:59.870 --> 00:14:01.830 time in the studio. It really does. And frankly, 00:14:01.929 --> 00:14:04.330 the song slaps. Yeah. The horns are incredible. 00:14:04.669 --> 00:14:07.309 It is genuinely a catchy piece of composition. 00:14:07.429 --> 00:14:09.129 If you strip away the Christmas context, it's 00:14:09.129 --> 00:14:11.409 just a great song. So we've unpacked the mariachi 00:14:11.409 --> 00:14:15.049 fusion, the RE campaign context, the Luke Perry. 00:14:15.210 --> 00:14:18.830 Desert Saga and the UK chart performance. It's 00:14:18.830 --> 00:14:22.389 a weird, wonderful package. It is a unique cocktail 00:14:22.389 --> 00:14:25.750 that could only have existed in 2009. Before 00:14:25.750 --> 00:14:28.610 we wrap up, I want to leave you, the listener, 00:14:28.789 --> 00:14:31.789 with a thought. We talked a lot about the charity 00:14:31.789 --> 00:14:34.850 aspect, Product Red, and you made the point that 00:14:34.850 --> 00:14:38.649 the good cause gave them license to be experimental. 00:14:38.889 --> 00:14:41.309 It shielded them from criticism, in a way. Right. 00:14:41.350 --> 00:14:44.860 So my question is this. Does knowing a song is 00:14:44.860 --> 00:14:48.639 for charity change how we critique the art? That's 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:50.960 a heavy question. I mean, if Guadalupe was just 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:53.899 a commercial single released for profit, would 00:14:53.899 --> 00:14:56.799 we be as forgiving of the genre mashing? Would 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.279 we call it cringy? Or do we give it a pass because 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:01.179 we know the money bought medicine? It really 00:15:01.179 --> 00:15:03.320 challenges us to separate the aesthetics from 00:15:03.320 --> 00:15:07.740 the ethics. Can a good act produce bad art? Or 00:15:07.740 --> 00:15:10.779 does the good act elevate the art? In this case, 00:15:10.779 --> 00:15:13.000 I think the art stands on its own, but the charity 00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:14.840 certainly helps the narrative. It's the halo 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:17.100 effect. Something to mull over next time you 00:15:17.100 --> 00:15:19.919 stream a charity compilation. Thanks for taking 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:21.820 this deep dive into the desert with me. Always 00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:24.419 a pleasure to unpack the strange history of rock 00:15:24.419 --> 00:15:26.460 and roll. And happy birthday, Guadalupe, wherever 00:15:26.460 --> 00:15:26.919 you are.