Newt Gingrich ordered to stop using song by British band on campaign trail

Newt Gingrich is the latest politician to be chided by a band for playing its music on the campaign trail (and thus creating an icky association), as British funk-rockers, The Heavy, took to Facebook and utterly disavowed any responsibility for their song, "How You Like Me Now?" being used by the Gingrich campaign at a Tampa rally last week. And the hot-headed historian was also served a cease and desist notice by Canadian publishing company, Third Side Music, which owns the rights to the tune. 

"How You Like Me Now?" is off The Heavy's second album, 2009's The House That Dirt Built. If you watch the boob tube on a regular basis, you know it from that Kia Sorrento commercial (and probably thought it was James Brown if you weren't paying attention), which was cool the first fifty times, but then got old fast. It was also featured in The Fighter, as well as a bunch of TV shows. Definitely too funky for Gingrich.

The Heavy's delicate and nuanced message on their Facebook page, in regards to the use of their song at Republican rallies, stated:

"If you heard How You Like Me Now being used by Republican, Newt Gingrich, in his campaign, we'd like you to know it had fuck all to do with us and we are trying to stop it being used. TWATS."

Bands objecting to pols (who they don't agree with) using their songs as one more form of manipulation is becoming a common phenomenon. You probably recall last summer when Tom Petty and Katrina and the Waves said a resounding "hell no" to Stepford platitude-machine Michele Bachmann after she tried to bask in the jaunty vibes of "American Girl" and "Walking on Sunshine" respectively. Perhaps Gingrich is better off not being associated with a band called "The Heavy" anyhow.