YouTube Link. You can buy the single on iTunes or Amazon. Follow the band on Twitter, Facebook, or MySpace. Oh, fine, it's a gimmick, but a clever one. And sure beats parking a truck in the middle of a Los Angeles freeway.

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Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Baldhead

the train was out in the burroughs. Queens has fewer stations and is mostly above- ground, for example. run sound into portable mixer- amp and to tape via aux out. singer could also be using a lapel mic or similar. How often do you see the mics in musicals? Gimmick to be sure, but you need to get noticed.
Anonymous

They are good , not N7 good though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF-KagTq7qY
Anonymous

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy new instruments than to buy iphones?
Anonymous

facts, courtesy of the video info that none of you bothered to look at:

“This video was filmed unannounced on Friday October 8, 2010 aboard the New York City B Train, over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn and edited from 3 iPhone cameras. All footage is performed 100% live and executed in one take.”

Also: “Directed by Benjamin Espiritu. Produced by Atomic Tom and Benjamin Espiritu. Edited by Reid Carrescia.”

Carrescia is an independent videographer. You can see his stuff at reidcarrescia.blogspot.com

I don’t know who Ben Espiritu is, but the guitarist for Atomic Tom is Eric Espiritu. My guess? He doesn’t work for Apple, and they have nothing to do with this video – yet.
thatbob

Pretty cool, but talk about a captive audience.
solstone

It’s clever, but probably faked. Pretty good attempt at viral marketing, in any case. Did Apple have anything to do with the production? (How does a person even find something like that out?)

Sucks that their equipment got stolen (presuming that is true). Good job turning the tables on misfortune, though. (Again, presuming it is true.)
- hdon
  
  @solstone
  > Did Apple have anything to do with the production?
  
  If they didn’t, expect them to sue somebody for using their iPhones in an unapproved application.
  - solstone
    
    Haha. I think they always approve of things that encourage more people to buy iPhones…
- Anonymous
  
  I understand your reluctance to think this was for real especially if you are not a musician and are not familiar with the iPhone and its musical capabilities. But I am and I have these iPhone applications so I know this was not faked.
Antinous / Moderator

Did I miss a memo about wearing V-necks?
Anonymous

Does it really matter if its faked or not? Its a nice concept, personally I like the whole “playing live on a subway” idea for a music video. Its better than most main stream, lets copy what they did and tweak it just a little so that every music video looks mostly the same theme.
Anonymous

I love Atomic Tom! Here’s a interview they just did! Enjoy! http://bit.ly/i579f8
Anonymous

The brunette behind them starts singing along at about 1:06, so clearly she’s someone who knows the song and isn’t a random subway rider.

Good call on the lack of ambient subway noise…unless they were so loud as to drown out the rumbling, clacking, and other racket (in which case I shudder to think how loud they were).

I wonder how they amped it for the rest of the car to hear it though…those phones can’t possibly be loud enough…The drummer is resting his phone on a laptop, so maybe all the audio is going into that, that may be the final mix we’re hearing. There’s a couple points where the singer yells and the sound of his voice changes from mic’ed to much more “ambient”.

Not sure I would enjoy this. Almost as intrusive as the mariachi guys. But the mariachi guys have the benefit of being mariachi guys.
technogeek

Definitely viral marketing, definitely Apple-backed (note that the only other handheld on screen is an iThing), definitely edited (a cut means they were either running two cameras in that very limited space, or more likely that they’ve interleaved multiple takes and are cutting away to avoid an even more distracting video jump), definitely more recording equipment not seen (the vocalist is obviously *not* singing into his iThing, given that we heard him just as clearly when he was playing with it as a piano keyboard)…

I’m willing to believe that it’s edited down from performances actually done on a train (though probably one populated with extras) with touch instruments. But it’s a sponsored music video, not a documentary. Take it with the appropriate-sized grain of salt; I would suggest a 5-pound block is about right.
- Anonymous
  
  It’s viral marketing in that the band wants people to know about them is marketing and thus produced a video to put on YouTube. Good job nailing that one. Presumptuous to call it Apple-backed. You can see the elbow of the second camera man half way through the song.
  
  The sound quality is too good so it’s more than likely pre-recorded audio with them lip-syncing on a train. Like a music video directed by a music video director.
- arkizzle / Moderator
  
  I’m not so sure it is faked. Or at least, I’m not as sure as you.
  
  You pointed out that there were cuts in the video, but there are also clearly (at least) three people filming on phones (which defeats your ” very limited space” issue). At around 0:50 you can see the second camera (dude with iPhone 4), and at 1:15 the third camera (appears to be another phone-holding stance, and person has different sleeves to 2nd guy) closes in for the cross cut, which follows at 1:18.
  
  As to the mic/more-equipment etc: as we can also hear the ambience of the train well, but not badly, I’d suggest that the singer is singing into the phone in-the-spirit of what the band were doing and that whole session is being recorded on an external mic. The instruments are likely all plugged into some sort of portable amp, otherwise everyone else on the train will just hear the singer.
  
  The thing is, they don’t say that they don’t have more recording equipment, just “Sights and Sounds by iPhone”. Which is cameras and instruments. Also, they don’t say “our instruments were stolen on the same occasion as we performed on a train”, just that the instruments were stolen (back story; true or not).
  
  While I can’t attest to the money behind the vid, or the intent, your points are not as you seem to believe. Too many ‘definitely‘s for me.
solstone

So I found a blog by someone whose profile says he is an “A&R Manager”, and who was one of 4 people taking video with iPhones on the train. No mention made of ‘stolen instruments’.

http://pumpsessions.blogspot.com/2010/10/atomic-tom.html

No idea how they actually sounded on the train, since clearly quite a bit of editing went into it. (It is a music video after all.)

Also no mention of said stolen instruments on the band’s twitter feed: http://twitter.com/atomictom

I did see a comment on gizmodo where someone said something along the lines of if their instruments weren’t stolen, and that is just a lie to try and get the video to go viral, that 4chan should go and steal their iPhones… hahaha. I don’t condone stealing of any kind, but that still makes me laugh.

And yes, I obsess over silly things…
hoop

Pretty cool I’m not sure why commentors think it’s fake or Apple sponsored, there are other similar thigns on the web, this is one of the best I’ve seen but it doesn’t seem fake to me.
Ryanwoofs

Notice every iPhone has a wire coming out of the headphone jack, so they were most likely plugged into a battery-powered mixer and amp. Ambient train noise was probably picked up by a shotgun mic aimed at the singer (his level maintains even while not singing into his iPhone) and mixed out to isolate the singer when necessary.

My question is, what subway were they on? All the ones I rode when I was in NYC a couple weeks ago were underground, and never spent more than 2-3 minutes without stopping.
Ernunnos

I like the song. How it was produced is secondary.
Anonymous

Some thoughts. It’s viral whether intended or not. it is not apple sponsored. at least not yet. the technology exists to make this sound good live. the band sports several if not all members out of music school (Berklee Boston) so they have the talent. watching the videos of their regular performances they can belt it out and play it well so they def have the talent. the girl could be part of the crew, but if the whole thing were a plant there would be a lot more applause. the manhattan bridge train to brooklyn is about 4-5 minutes ABOVE ground. I agree with @arkizzle. It’s fun, it’s well done, there a very good band. I got their album from itunes and they’re pretty damn good. I think credit is due. Maybe they’ll get on letterman and prove it once and for all. I’m in… this technical/engineer/video/musician of 35 years votes REAL.
hungryjoe

Welp, I thought it was cool as hell, and I enjoyed the song. I suspend my cynical disbelief.
Anonymous

“Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy new instruments than to buy iphones?”

Absolutely not unless you go shopping at the local pawnshop.

This is a wonderful video and I like this version better than the studio version.
Anonymous

my favorite part of this is the poor dude behind them who looks livid. if you catch the train everyday to work the last thing you want is to hear some tosser band screaming in your ear.

i’m actually surprised they actually got through the whole song without someone smashing their phones, which lends to the thinking that this was totally edited together in post (well that and nyc trains are noisy as all hell and you really don’t hear them at all).
Delaney

Damn…fun song. I’m in a goofy ipod band: http://www.myspace.com/kittieribbinz
jonathan levy

Some of the audio is out of sync with the picture. There is also no room tone, i.e. subway car noise to pin it to the location. I don’t think it makes a difference whether it is ‘fake’ or not. It is a music video that lends to the impression it is live; what’s wrong with that?

Personally, I’m just not a fan at all of the media, i.e. iPhone performances. I taste a little bit of throw up every time I’m subjected to it.
Eric Atkins

Anyone know what apps they are using?

Drums?
Guitar?
Piano/keyboard?
- Anonymous
  
  I know the lead guitar is iShred (I’m one of the developers), less sure about the others but I’ve heard drum meister, pianist and maybe band for bass.
  
  http://fdgm.us/iShredSale

"Take Me Out" by Atomic Tom, performed live with iPhones on NYC subway

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