Before the Washington Capitals take on the Dallas Stars tonight, CSN Mid Atlantic will debut a new song. The country-tinged rock anthem is performed by the D.C.-based Morrison Brothers Band and will serve as the opening theme for the network’s hockey coverage. The news was first reported by my figurative brother at the DC Sports Bog, Scott Allen.
The music video for “Ice on Fire” features — and I know this is shocking — ice and fire. It was shot at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. I’m told no Capitals players were burned alive in the making of this film.
Here’s some background on the band from thatmusicband.com:
Fusing elements of Southern rock, pop and country with a tinge of blues sprinkled in for good measure, The Morrison Brothers Band is putting DC’s country music scene on the map. They’re racking up die-hard fans and critical acclaim for their playful, energetic live shows and insightful, witty lyrics.
Having shared the stage with such iconic artists as Alison Krauss, Tim McGraw, Steely Dan and Maroon 5, the band went on to win first place in the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Competition for the opening track off their album Midnight In Virginia. In 2010 they were selected as the Gigatone Songwriter and Performer of the Year. Now, with five prestigious Washington Area Music Award nominations (Wammies) under their belts, including Album of the Year for their third full length album, State Of The Union, The Morrison Brothers Band are poised to have their best year yet.
According to Allen, CSN went down this path because of the “success” (and I’m quoting a CSN spokesman here) of Maggie Rose’s “Get Ya Game On.” That song was featured before CSN’s “Redskins Kickoff” and “Ravens Kickoff” pre-game shows and was aired approximately 75 trillion times during commercial breaks. The song won two local Emmys. It’s an ear-worm.
Earlier in the week, Capitals owner and man-who-can-wear-aviator-glasses-and-actually-pull-it-off Ted Leonsis wrote on his blog that CSN was introducing a new genre of music: Capitals country. “Kudos, and tap your toes,” he requested of his readers.
Meanwhile, I asked successful musician and my literal blog brother Peter Hassett what he thought of it. He has a beef with calling it country.
That is not a country song. It contains almost none of the instrumentation or generic markers of country music. If it not for the singer’s identifiable accent and its self identification as such, the listener would have no way of differentiating this song from its *actual* genre, which is– of course– hair metal.
This is the well-polished glam rock of the late 1980s, with a stripper-pole friendly tempo, a plodding power-chord chug, and a dopey gang/singalong chorus.
But those are problems with the music industry overall, not with this song, which is fun and fine and if you get a couple Natty Bohs in me I’ll sing along with everyone else.
I agree with Peter. After a first listen, the song’s pretty good. My concern is how much CSN plans to air it. If it’s used sparingly, something we hear once every game, I think it’ll be a nice, subtle add to the games. If they give it the Nickelback “How You Remind Me” radio treatment, I’m going to go postal on someone.
Why do I have a feeling it’ll be the latter?
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