ANARCHY IN THE U.S.

The oddest juxtaposition of music and film this year may be the current use of “Tubthumping,” the unlikely hit song by the British anarchist collective Chumbawamba, in TV commercials for “Home Alone 3,” a prime example of mainstream U.S. comedy commerce.

How did it come about? Simple. The ad agency for the film--feeling the rousing “I get knocked down” chorus was a good match for the slapstick scenes--asked, and the band said yes.

“The band didn’t know much about the movie or its content, but it seemed like a good way to get exposure, so they signed off on it,” says Monte Lipman, who with his brother Avery runs Republic Records, the New York label that signed the band.

“A lot of people were concerned that it was a bad match, but the week the ads started running, we saw a sales increase on the album of 32% from 117,000 to 154,000,” he says, noting that the fact that this was also the high-shopping time right after Thanksgiving may have also played a part in the increase.

Whatever the causes, though, it adds to the incredible year of Republic, which has released only two albums, Chumbawamba’s “Tubthumper,” with sales now well past a million and climbing, and the debut by the Bloodhound Gang, which sold more than 750,000 copies.

Each was released via a different distribution deal (Bloodhound through Geffen Records, Chumbawamba through Universal), but the success means that Republic is now fielding offers for full distributions deals. Lipman expects that such a deal will be made soon with a company somewhere in the Universal Distribution group, which includes both Geffen and Universal.