Indie music with your indie coffee

Posted to Arts and Entertainment by David Teeghman at 4:30 p.m., Oct. 16, 2009

Starbucks has long sold itself as popularity in a cup. Few things used to make you cooler in the yuppie set than a cell phone in one hand, and in the other a grande café mocha latte crappucino, or whatever those things are called.

The mentality that you were somehow unique and cooler than the average person because you were willing to wait six minutes in line, pay $4.25, and wait another seven minutes for your café mocha latte non-fat crappucino to actually be made still hangs on by a miraculous, paradoxical thread.

To preserve this delusion in its overly caffeinated customers that they are somehow unique, Starbucks began the "Pick of the Week" program in late 2007. Small business cards are available near the register with a picture of a widely unknown band and the title of the song that you can get for free as the "Pick of the Week." The idea of this program is that when you pay some ungodly amount for a mediocre coffee-based drink, you grab one of these cards, fire up the laptop, open iTunes, and go to the "Redeem" section of the iTunes store and type in the code.

The songs are hit and miss, but they are consistently of the coffeehouse genre. The most mainstream band you will find is the Decemberists, but more often than not the pick is a singer/songwriter you've never heard of, and never would if it were not for this program. Some of them are unknown for good reason.

There are fantastic exceptions, however. Blind Pilot being one of them. Last spring, I downloaded their song "One Red Thread." One thing led to another, and I bought their debut album (with real money, mind you) and went to their concert here in August, where I bought a stylish yet comfortable t-shirt. The band is one of my top five favorites, and I give credit to Starbucks for introducing me.

So if you want to expand your indie/hipster/coffeehouse collection of music, give the Starbucks "Pick of the Week" a try. It's certainly not worth going in there and buying a $4.25 café mocha latte non-fat crappucino just for the song, but if you go in there anyway, grab a card.

You might hear something great, but it will not make you unique. Because remember: you're already unique, just like everybody else.