Memo to the Rock Daily comment crew: Rockers read your posts. At least, we think they do. A few months ago, Hot List honorees Band of Horses allowed Wal-Mart to use their song “The Funeral” in an Internet-only commercial. As BoH’s Ben Bridwell told In Forum, “We tested it with that Web site thing that I figured nobody would really even see. But in the Internet age, you can’t do anything without someone catching wind of it.” The gust was caught rather quickly, and the commerical was greeted with bile and anger from fans and people that post on sites like this one. The term “sell-out” was bandied about (it didn’t help that the commercial was for Wal-Mart, the maligned retail giant that slays mom-and-pop stores and monopolizes the Eagles). At least when Wilco got into the ad game, they sold their soul to Volkswagen. After the backlash, the proposal to turn the Internet commercial into a TV ad was declined by the band. Says Bridwell, “So once I saw our fans were let down by it, I nixed the TV commercial, and said, ‘You know what, this isn’t for me. Keep your money.’ ” A spokesperson for the band told Rock Daily that while the group is “generally pro-licensing,” they felt that Wal-Mart “was not a good match,” which means they could one day soundtrack Doritos commercials, à la Missy Elliott. The Internet ad featuring “The Funeral” has since been taken off the Wal-Mart Web site.

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