“Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean” by Explosions In The Sky which clocks in at 8:43.

If Olympic subplots of human rights violations and superhuman quests for eight gold medals haven’t really been doing it for you, perhaps you’d rather peruse the torrent of self-reflexive, media-focused stories polluting newswires like smog on the Beijing skyline. Welcome to the “Metalympics.”

Here you’ll find some of the following topics of varying urgency and importance: NBC is doing an admirable job in expanding its Olympic coverage, NBC will undoubtedly do a terrible job in its coverage, NBC’s viewers should boycott the Olympics and send a message to China, McCain is outspending Obama on advertisements aired on NBC during the Olympics, and oh right, of course, NBC’s viewers should be careful of coming across spoilers when watching the Olympics.

Lost in all of these tangential stories and pseudo-stories about NBC’s broadcast and online coverage is an honest assessment over one of THE most important aspects of watching the Olympics on television: MUSIC (what did you think it was going to be? We’re a music site, remember?)

The most applicable Olympic-music article I’ve come across came nearly three months ago in the June issue of Fast Company. This piece, “Strike Up The Band”, profiles the duo behind Audiobrain, a New York-based “sound-branding” firm entrusted with the enviable task of providing the soundtrack to the Beijing Games.

Their jobs sound amazing. Basically, they are the puppet masters manipulating and yanking at your heartstrings at precisely the right moment with precisely the right song. Matching moments like Muhammad Ali’s lighting of the torch in 1996’s opening ceremonies to an applicable bed of music may not sound like rocket science (more “Chariots of Fire”, less “Nookie” duh), but its impact on the overall viewing experience cannot be underestimated, at least according to the Fast Company piece:

No matter how immune consumers may believe they are to these kind of audio cues, they’re not made out of wood: Positive sounds have a 65% chance of changing listeners’ moods, according to sensory branding expert Martin Lindstrom.

Turns out we are all slaves to the music. Now, here are some more facts. Fact: The days of NBC embedding every human-interest story, athlete profile, daily recap, and medal ceremony throughout the Olympics with maudlin and dramatic musical swells are far from over. And though the network is making the move to expand its coverage online (which will hopefully mean we can bypass and avoid some of the more drawn-out human-interest pieces that regularly dominate the games), NBC’s primetime coverage will still dictate storylines and tell us how to feel, all of which will be delivered against sappy strains of music. So congratulations Audiobrain, your jobs are safe.

Fact: NBC and all of its affiliate networks and websites will be airing 3,600 hours of Olympic-related programming this month, which means that Audiobrain and NBC have to compile over 30,000 musical tracks to accompany every possible moment, emotion, victory, upset or defeat that could transpire over this period of time.

Fact: That’s a lot of work.

EAR FARM wants to make things easy on NBC, easy on Audiobrain, and most importantly, easy on the viewers. That’s why we propose that Explosions In The Sky be considered as NBC’s house band for the Olympics. It’s oh so simple; get them on the next plane out to Beijing, clear a corner of NBC’s Olympic Studios, set them up and let them play! Just like Max Weinberg, Kevin Eubanks and Paul Shaffer manage to puncture every flailing joke and awkward moment of late-night programming with a perfectly placed musical stinger, so will Explosions bring the inherent drama of the Games to the forefront by playing LIVE and in studio. Couple these live performances with the band’s entire pre-existing back catalog - which NBC could license in its entirety and use whenever appropriate - and we’ve got ourselves an instant Olympics soundtrack.

Not surprisingly, there’s a longstanding synergy that exists among the band, NBC, and televised athletics. As most are aware, Explosions’ music figures heavily into NBC’s critically adored series Friday Night Lights, adding just as much depth and texture to the show as the actors’ performances and authentic locations. Of course, the show is based on the 2004 film Friday Night Lights - in turn based on the Buzz Bissinger book of the same name – which Explosions not only scored but also contributed a few pre-existing tracks (including “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean”). “Six Days” was also used by HBO in an episode of the documentary series Mayweather-Hatton 24/7 (more sports programming) while NBC has used brief pieces of other Explosions songs in several of its NFL broadcasts (more sports, more NBC).

So it’s really a no-brainer; they’re the perfect fit. Oh, but one last thing NBC, it may be best to save “Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean” as musical accompaniment for those moments in Beijing that occur outside of the pool. Consider guitarist Mark Smith’s explanation of the song’s meaning to the Austin Chronicle and you’ll see what I mean:

“It was written around the story of the Kursk, the Russian sub that sank to the bottom of the ocean. We were imagining what it was like to be those men at the bottom of the sea, trapped and desperate, running out of oxygen. [The song] gallops, getting faster and more intense until it just stops, and you breathe your last breath.”

Good to know, right? Opening ceremonies commence tomorrow evening. Let’s get them over there already. USA! USA! Explosions In The Sky! Explosions In The Sky!

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*above photo from HERE

EAR FARM’s 8+ is a weekly feature that showcases songs longer than 8 minutes. Click HERE to see the songs recently featured in EF’s 8+.