Fox Sports Is Down With The Arcade Fire (So Much They Swiped One Of Their Songs For An Ad?)

So while the rest of us were busy reading books/playing Yahtzee/waiting for The Wire last night, those music geeks actually tuned to the Super Bowl may have noticed, as Pitchfork did, that this “NFL On Fox” promo is backed by the big finish of the Arcade Fire’s “No Cars Go.” Turns out it wasn’t such an outre choice; the AF song fits the grunting gridiron heroics almost a little too well. And perhaps Fox’s clever ad department didn’t want to spoil the chocolate-into-peanut butter combination of epic Canadian indie rock and epic American sporting events by bothering to get the required go-ahead to use the tune?

We knew these guys were sports fans, but would Win, Regine, and the gang really sell their music to Rupert Murdoch so that he could advertise his football television program? No, no they wouldn’t. Turns out Fox never even asked the band if they could use their song, and they certainly weren’t given permission to do so.

Oh, News Corp, will you ever learn! Though Pitchfork, who we’re assuming talked to the Arcade Fire’s nebulous “people,” claim the legality of the clip is currently up in the air, some trigger-happy tabloids are already talking lawsuit, and though I’m no great fan of the AF’s particular rumpus, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Win (and the folks at Merge) eating a little better over the next 12 months thanks to a Fox-funded out-of-court settlement.

Yes, That Was An Arcade Fire Song In A Super Bowl Ad [Pitchfork]