Hold your horses: BOH turn down Wal-Mart

While Of Montreal has brazened out criticism of their T-Mobile campaign by saying red-blooded capitalism is great, Band of Horses have had second thoughts after they did one deal with WalMart and turned down a much larger deal:

"I called my family, talked to my girlfriend about it, talked to the guys in the band and decided it's no big deal," [Ben] Bridwell said of the initial decision to license the song. "We tested it with that Web site thing that I figured nobody would really even see. But in the Internet age, you can't do anything without someone catching wind of it.

"Some fans, they don't even give a crap. They're like, 'Whatever, bands got to get paid.' But at the same time, I was reluctant to do it in the back of my mind, and some fans reminded me there is a reason to feel that way about it.

"So once I saw our fans were let down by it, I nixed the TV commercial, and said, 'You know what, this isn't for me. Keep your money.'"

Arguably, dealing with Wal-Mart, a body who have happily censored the music they're prepared to sell in the past, is a lot dodgier than doing a deal with T-Mobile, who have at least poured a lot of their sponsorship into music directly. Even so, turning down a large cheque for a small band is still a big decision to take. Principles in 2007. Whoever would have thought?