As an old-time Apple apologist and–in one of my other lives–a computer journalist who’s closely followed the industry for a couple decades, I’ve become more and more fed up with the company over the years, as well The Man Steve Jobs. Used to be I thought Jobs was here on earth to save us from the massive geekdom his alter-ego Bill Gates would inflict upon us…and make our computers actually, you know, usable.

Old-time Mac mavens like me now see Jobs as less of a messiah and more of a Rasputin, more interested in hobknobbing with rock stars and music-biz money than making really good computers.

C’est la vie. Follow the money, right? Sure looks like Jobs is, and it turns out he didn’t have a passion for computers after all, but instead phones and MP3 players and in fact any gizmo that inflated the size of his already fat wallet.

But the zeitgeist he preaches, the Kool-Aid he serves, still touches some people and does occasionally foster innovations and open-minded thinking. That’s how we arrive at the new iPod commercial.

The story: This guy, Nick Haley, student and Apple freak, mocks up his own iPod Touch commercial and posts it to YouTube. Somehow, he discovers an obscure, grungy Brazilian power-pop band called CSS, fronted by a diminutive cutie nicknamed Lovefoxxx, singing this song called “Music is My Hot, Hot Sex.” Apologies to the Spice MILFs, but this song oozes hot as opposed to the processed corn syrup that comes from their latest lingerie ad (see below). Check out his original production:

That was great idea #1. Great idea #2 was an open-minded someone at Apple in the marketing department realizing its beauty, ringing up Haley, and adopting it for the actual TV commercial. Genius because it creates another YouTube hero, which feeds the fantasies of every Mac + iLife hacker out there and keeps them interested (and buying new hardware).

For the music fan, it beats the living crap out of trotting old warhorses like U2 out of mothballs for a round of TV spots, that’s for sure. That’s where the iPod commercials succeed: When they take little-known bands and pump them up, instead of padding the stats of the already-popular or on-the-decline dinosaurs. If I ever see a Sting iPod commercial, it might be enough to give my 160-gig Classic iPod the old-skool Jimi Hendrix treatment with matches & gasoline. (People who don’t know me think I’m kidding.)

Now, CSS is world reknowned, and its MySpace is going insane, from sleepytown to millions of plays on its other music. The iPod’s got its Touch, and Apple’s still got its King Midas touch for even the most obscure bands, literally, in the world. Music is my daddy, indeed.