Sunday, April 6, 2008

BAND CAN THANK K-FED FOR ALBUM SALES?


Well, perhaps Kevin Federline isn’t entirely to thank for rock band The Honorary Title’s success after performing on a February episode of One Tree Hill, alongside Federline. However, the tabloid coverage of K-Fed appearing on the teen drama certainly didn’t hurt.

“It was such a great experience and the week that our show aired, our sales totally shot up,” says lead singer Jarrod Gorbel, who’s album sales on Amazon increased over 15,000%.

Could it be that viewers tuned in to see K-Fed get punched? “He gets his ass kicked to our song Thin Layer, which I though was pretty surreal and ridiculous,” Gorbel cracks. “I saw him run his line, which was something like, ‘Get off the stage, ho!’ So that was his one big line.”

Since then, clips of Britney’s ex getting thrown down on the episode have reached more than 100,000 views collectively from different uploads on You-Tube. As for the recent success from their cameo alongside K-Fed, the Honorary Title gives credit to show’s writers rather than their costar. “We actually got written into the script, which is amazing,” Gorbel says. “It was really a great plug for us.”

Many bands have been helped out from appearances on hit TV shows. The OC made it a point to promote up-and-coming bands thanks to creator and indie music follower Josh Schwartz. Popular bands Death Cab for Cutie, Rooney, the Walkmen, the Killers and Modest Mouse all appeared on the one-time hit TV show.

Another perk with performing on a show is the fans the TV show hires. “They were really good actors,” says Gorbel about the paid extras on set. “Their support and volume was better than the average crowd. They’re like, ‘cheer now’ and everybody like screamed so loud. It was kind of ridiculous but at the same time, I wish we had the money to like take the little crowd on tour with us.”

It doesn’t look like the band will need to pay fans to see them anytime soon. The Honorary Title is currently on tour promoting their album, Scream and Light Up the Sky, which was released in August last year. The band will be in SoCal this week with shows in Los Angeles, Pomona and San Diego. Then they’ll hit a few cities in Texas and Florida and make stops in New Orleans, Atlanta and Greensboro.