Re-Wiring Up For Some Footy

Kasabian and English football collaborations are becoming something of an annual occurrence here at Treeswingers. Two years ago, the quintet from Leicestershire brought us Football Hero. Last year, they launched the new England kit. This year’s edition is the pick of the bunch.

Fresh off the release of their fourth full album, Velociraptor!, Kasabian sent lead singer Tom Meighan to face off against England No. 9 Darren Bent in a virtual reality version of the beautiful game. Instead of controlling pixels however, the pair were commanding live humans, who were wired up to headsets and forced to submit Big Brother-style to the commands of their overseers. It’s a bit choppy at first, but the pair eventually pick up the pace on the real life rendering of FIFA (which featured Kasabian’s “Switchblade Smiles on this year’s soundtrack). With Bent showing his ineptitude anywhere around any type of football match, the Kasabian frontman takes over and eventually comes out the 3-1 winner.

Kasabian Kicks It Again

Photo courtesy of forums.canadiancontent.net

If you have been following us for a while, you might remember how the combination of Kasabian and football produced some phenomenal results before.  They’re at it again, but this time for more mixed results.

Photo courtesy of forums.canadiancontent.net

The FA and Umbro decided it would be a great idea to launch the latest England away jersey not by showing it off on a footballer, but by having the lead singer of band model it at a concert.  Not only that, but they also thought it was a good idea to launch it not in England, but overseas (as it is an away jersey).  I don’t really understand either ‘innovation’ to their marketing, but the result was Tom Meighan, lead singer of Kasabian, debuting the shirt at a concert in Paris two nights ago.  I can’t imagine Parisian Kasabian fans really cared about the jersey at all, but it’s making a huge buzz in the football community, giving Kasabian plenty of publicity.

Kasabian: Football Hero

I get a warm fuzzy feeling when my obsessions collide.  Today, I had that feeling when I saw this video combining music and soccer.  Using Kasabian’s “Underdog” from Guitar Hero, some soccer sharpshooters tried to create harmony much more difficult than what they orchestrate on the pitch.  Plus, “Underdog” is a great song, though it unfortunately can’t be heard too well in the video.  Luckily, the full song and download can be found at the bottom.

Kasabian – Underdog (download)