Pro sports usually don't do a good job of soundtracking themselves. A few years back, the NFL was using an Air song in one of its commercials. Because nothing goes together like smashmouth gridiron action and fluffy French nu-disco.
But Fox is now bucking that trend. The network's latest spot hyping the upcoming baseball postseason makes masterful use of The Walkmen's best tune to date, "The Rat." If there's one word that describes the song best, it's definitely tension. The spookhouse organ, the ringing guitars, the drumline that starts in slowly but whose rolls eventually propel the song along. All very dramatic. And as a longtime Dodger fan sweating out the team's hectic attempt to make the playoffs, that song accompanying (among other images) Kurt Gibson's legendary limping homerun in '87 definitely makes the goosebumps arise.
"The Rat"