Lots of artists hype their songs in movie soundtracks and TV ads. Positive punkers MxPx do that too, but they’re also relying on the Bush administration to help get the word out.
“Well Adjusted,” one of the songs from their new album, Before Everything and After (September 16), is being used in a TV public service announcement by the President’s Council on Drug Abuse and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. In January, the same song was used in a Diet Pepsi commercial that aired during the Super Bowl.
“We thought, ‘This is great,’ ” bassist and vocalist Mike Herrera said of the exposure. “We didn’t have to do a cheesy jingle. We didn’t have to dress up in a clown outfit. Our whole goal was to get the song out there early and see what people think about it. When we played our last tour with Good Charlotte, we played that song every night, and people kept going, ‘Dude, that song sounds so familiar. I just don’t know how I know it.’ ”
The song takes a comical look at a guy who’s not so well adjusted and seeks group therapy only to find that he’s saner than the people around him. “Everybody’s crazy in some way and everybody’s weird, and that kind of makes us all the same in a lot of ways,” Herrera said. “We’re not alone, we just think we are.”
In addition to being used in advertisements, “Well Adjusted” will be one of two MxPx songs featured in the upcoming MTV film “Wuthering Heights,” based on the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë. In the movie, which also features the group’s track “Play It Loud,” MxPx play a club band and Herrera gets some action from a character played by Katherine Heigl (“Roswell,” “Valentine”).
“She takes me to her car and we start making out,” he said. “She’s definitely hot and really nice. It was absolutely a nice kiss, and it was cool because it was completely professional.”
Despite the media saturation for “Well Adjusted,” the song won’t be the first single from Before Everything and After. Instead, the band will go with “Everything Sucks,” which details the age-old problem of loneliness on tour. “I wrote it about my girl,” Herrera said. “I met her in Dallas where she lived and I wouldn’t see her most of the time. Now she comes and visits a lot and we’re pretty happy. There’s always something in life to complain about. And this would be one of those things, but I get to do something so amazing that it’s almost made me who I am. It’s hard to complain about that.”
MxPx will open for Dashboard Confessional starting August 30 in Pittsburgh. Dates run through October 7 in St. Paul, Minnesota.