D Nuts (with an update) || October 26, 2006

We thought we were done posting Old 97's news, since the group is rarely in Dallas these days and has no gigs or albums coming anytime soon, but we at Dd have a huge batch of interns that watch TV at all hours of the day, much like The Daily Show does to capture random/wacky news feeds. Of course, our interns just watch Comedy Central and G4 all day, but somehow, that painstaking work resulted in this gem, which we just had to post:




His face isn't on the ad, but Rhett Miller's voice is unmistakable on this Chili's baby back ribs jingle, and if that's not the Old 97's backing him up, then Rhett has found a remarkably faithful Ken Bethea clone on guitar to support his fondness for "barrrrbecue sauce."

We got on the phone, but Bethea didn't answer his, so we tracked down Traci Thomas, the band's publicity rep at New West Records. She confirmed that it was indeed the full Old 97's lineup on the commercial, then passed us along to a New West media rep by the name of Wilson...just Wilson, "like Madonna." Figures that we were transferred to the California branch of New West.

"Rhett's about getting out there and looking for opportunities," Wilson says. "And it's a big revenue opportunity...Chili's came to the band with the pitch; the ad company that works with Chili's [GSDM Advertising] is based out of the Austin/Dallas area, and so is Chili's. Everybody there's really familiar with the Old 97's, so I'm pretty sure that's how it came to be."

When we asked about the fact that the band had never done a commercial or jingle before, Wilson couldn't really speak on behalf of the Old 97's, but he noted, "The whole attitude of the industry has changed a little bit. I don't think the whole selling out factor is there anymore these days."

The band's done a coupl'a tie-ins, but those were (in our humble, unemployed opinion) more sensible, from a full-on concert appearance in a Jennifer Aniston movie to a contribution to the King of the Hill soundtrack album (which just makes sense, dammit). But we must admit that this spot is a much more tolerable take on the annoying baby back ribs song, and we understand that running a separate tour bus just costs more, so more power to 'em. -SM

WHOPPIN' UPDATE: The incredibly kind and informative Ken Bethea called us to chat about the advertisement, along with 1st grade soccer, tour bus rumors and the hypothetical Old 97's biography. Listen to the whole thing on MP3 by clicking here.