As you know, indie rockers and corporate America can make for awfully strange bedfellows. Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes seems to be more accustomed to snuggling up with commercial interests than most, what with his now-infamous Outback Steakhouse ad and at least one other foray into the world of selling stuff.

And he's done it again, with a T-Mobile advertisement that debuted during the American Music Awards. The ad features two lines of Barnes' dialogue, the band all gussied up, and just a bit of "Gronlandic Edit" - it will be airing regularly throughout the next several months (Art Brut have apparently filmed a similar spot).

Stereogum caught wind of Kevin's plans to peddle phones on the television and asked Kevin just what the deal was. He responded with a rather lengthy thinkpiece entitled "Selling Out Isn't Possible", printed in full on www.stereogum.com.

The gist of Barnes' statement is simple: he may be providing these companies his goods and services in exchange for money, but in so doing, he's not actually compromising his art. That in mind, he can't really be characterized as a sellout. This isn't entirely true-- Outback Steakhouse did compromise the lyrics of your song to better move bloomin' onions or whatever-- but it's close: though the popularity of Of Montreal has ballooned of late, it's mostly due to their latest, weirdest record and most elaborate, well-conceived stage show to date.

Apropos of the article's title, Barnes then rails against the very notion of selling out itself. "The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70's created an impossible code which no one can actually live by," he writes, adding, "it's such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sellout is completely out of touch with reality."

Barnes mentions that those crying sellout are generally gainfully employed and, therefore, oughta think about zippin' that lip. And he closes with this: "Next time you see a commercial with one of your favorite band's songs in it, just tell yourself, 'Cool, a band I really like made some money and now I can probably look forward to a few more records from them.' It's as simple as that. We all have to do certain things, from time to time, that we might not be completely psyched about, in order to pay the bills. To me, the TV is the world's a------ boss and if anyone can earn some extra bucks from it and they're not Bill O'Reilly, it's a good thing." Also worth mentioning: better to have Of Montreal records on the television than, uh, Hinder.

And in other news, Band of Horses took a bit of flak a couple months back-- on the interwebs, anyway-- for licensing a song to Wal-Mart (and another to Ford) for a net-based ad campaign. "My personal stance," Band-leader Ben Bridwell wrote in response to the haters, "is that once that music is recorded and released to the world then I don't really care where it goes."

But despite this apparent nonchalance, Bridwell has drawn a line. Speaking to Fargo, North Dakota publication The Forum this week, Bridwell confirmed that while it could have taken quite a leap forward, Band of Horses' dalliance with the mega department store chain with the questionable ethics has come to an end.

"I called my family, talked to my girlfriend about it, talked to the guys in the band and decided it's no big deal," 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," he continued. "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.'"

The TV commercial Bridwell mentions was an option Wal-Mart put before the band following the success of the web campaign (which has since ended), according to Band of Horses' label, Sub Pop.

So, in summary: Band of Horses could have gone all the way with Wal-Mart, but they didn't. Yay for them. Meanwhile, life goes on, Cease to Begin is out now, and Band of Horses continue their recently upsized tour in Montana this weekend.