Santogold, Casablancas and Pharrell record track for Converse.

from the Guardian

In 2008, a company, let's say a shoe company, hires a big advertising firm. Executives at the ad firm call their teenage nieces in New York and London, and ask them what's cool. And then the shoe company throws money at people.

That is how we imagine Santogold, the Strokes' Julian Casablancas and Pharrell Williams from the Neptunes came to be working together on a song for Converse trainers. And Santogold - the scattershot American electro-punk who is currently one of the most talked-about artists - is fine with it. "It's like one of the main ways to get our music heard now and so it's stupid for artists to shy away from that," she said to Gigwise.




The new untitled song is “such a Pharrell track”, Santogold said. We hope this means it recalls the heights of Justin Timberlake and not the lows of Skateboard P.

A video has also been shot, in which we assume Converse trainers will feature prominently.

Finally, if anyone’s worrying that this kind of arbitrary commissioned project might somehow be lacking in a clear, creative vision, Santogold offers the following lucid insight: “Everybody on it does their own separate thing and we didn’t do it together so it ends up being just this weird long song with sort of everybody with lots of their own personalities separate.”

It’s enough to make us long for Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney on a horse-drawn wagon.

AND From Pitchfork:

Pitchfork heard the track today, and we have to say that her description is quite spot-on. Over a bouncy rhythm indebted to old school soul, the three take turns singing verses that seem to have little to do with one another, and absolutely nothing to do with Converse or shoes in general.

It sounds like a less shiny, more downtown version of the Timbaland/Justin Timberlake/Nelly Furtado jam "Give It to Me", complete with silly disses of unidentified targets ("I find your approach so adolescent / I may look young, but your game is pre-pubescent," Santogold sings.) Pharrell makes the unfortunate decision to try to sing (that has never worked out well in the past), crooning come-ons like "now thank you for coming to my drive-thru." As usual, Julian sounds like he just woke up, making the line "if you wanna be like us you better work every night" kind of comical. There's also a part near the end where everybody sings about how they "just wanna dance." (BLOGGER NOTE: AWESOME)

All in all, it should sound just fine in a TV commercial.

In other news, both Santogold and Pharrell (as part of N.E.R.D.) have plenty of dates on the docket. Julian doesn't seem to be doing much.

Okay, obviously, this is exciting for me. I need to find this video and song soon. Glad to see Julian hasn't fallen into a hole and that he is doing something.

Now enjoy Jackson and McCartney on the wagon.