Family Of The Year: ChugJug

Every once in a while when you hear a song that is used for a TV commercial bed, it sounds completely different in its entirety than what you experience in a brief 30 seconds. That was the feeling I got regarding today’s TV Thursday selection “ChugJug” by Family of the Year. Often the edit is only a small portion of the original and, as in this case, parts from different segments of the same song are joined together to create the musical effect.

Hailing now from Los Angeles, indie band “Family of the Year” has a much wider audience because “ChugJug” was used as the bed for an Advil commercial – “Take Action – Take Advil.” It is a great little pop tune that during the song’s bridge sounds a little like the songwriting of Paul Simon from a generation ago. Simon and Garfunkel were noted as being one of the main influences of the band.

I am unsure where the unusual title originated as it cannot be found in the song’s lyrics. One does not have to look far to find examples of hit records where the titles were unusual and absent from the lyrics entirely. Two that I can think of offhand are Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 and 35” and Robert Plant’s “Big Log.” There are numerous others and now “ChugJug” joins that list of esoteric song titles.

Advil Commercial