Whitney points us to this list of the Top 12 Appearances By Bands In Films, which is a great idea, but ends up being shit ’cause most of the examples don’t even include notable bands — they’re just music scenes! Here’s what they came up with:
San Francisco dinner jazz in Bullit
Jazz club scene in Collateral
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds in Wings of Desire
Cliff Richard ‘Junior’ in Thunderbirds
The Pretty Things and Norman Wisdom in What’s Good For The Goose
Graham Bond Organisation in Gonks Go Beat
Warhol party scene from Midnight Cowboy
Moby Grape from Sweet Ride
Chico Hamilton Quintet in Sweet Smell of Success
Jazz band creates havoc in Tati’s Playtime
Bauhaus in The Hunger
The Yardbirds in Blow Up
Of course The Yardbirds and Nick Cave are always appreciated, but let’s put together something with more actual bands, yeah? Doesn’t even have to be an awesome appearance. Here are some to get started:
My Morning Jacket (playing “Freebird”) in Elizabethtown
Twisted Sister in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
L7 in Serial Mom
Ray Charles in Blues Brothers
Aretha Franklin in Blues Brothers
James Brown in Blues Brothers
James Brown in Ski Party
Aerosmith in Waynes World 2
Morris Day & The Motherfucking Time in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back
Alice In Chains (as Alice In Chains) in Singles
Soundgarden (as Soundgarden) in Singles
Pearl Jam (as members of Citizen Dick) in Singles
The Ramones in Rock ‘N’ Roll High School
Miles Davis in Scrooged
Ween in It’s Pat
ZZ Top in Back To The Future III
Yo La Tengo (as Velvet Underground) in I Shot Andy Warhol
And of course we immediately thought of Oingo Boingo’s “Dead Man’s Party” from Back To School, but only ’cause we’ve been rocking to Rolling Stone‘s Saddam Execution Playlist. Your turn!
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My favorite: The Feelies playing at the high shcool reunion in Something Wild (directed by Jonathon Demme, who later shot the video for the ten-out-of-ten Feelies’ song “Away.” Oh, what the hell, go enjoy it yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7EpGVB7-kk)
The Volebeats in Shopgirl.
And of course, White Lion in The Money Pit!
Fishbone in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka.
Gogol Bordello as the random band in Everything is Illuminated. It was one of the great great WTF Moments in Film.
leprechaun in the hood: “hey look it’s coolio.”
Oh yeah — The Afghan Whigs in Beautiful Girls.
Fishbone in Back to the Beach (Do you know what to Jamaica Ska?)
Cro Mags in Beat Street
TSOL and DI in the original Suburbia
The Donnas as the Electrocutes in Drive Me Crazy
Red Hot Chili Peppers in both Thrashin’ and Tough Guys
Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura Pet Detective
Kiss in Detroit Rock City (too easy!)
Jonthan Richman in like every Farrelly Bros movie esp There’s Something About Mary
so many more i like this game…
Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura and Power Mad in Wild At Heart
Fishbone in Back to the Beach (Do you know what to Jamaica Ska?)
Cro Mags in Beat Street
TSOL and DI in the original Suburbia
The Donnas as the Electrocutes in Drive Me Crazy
Red Hot Chili Peppers in both Thrashin’ and Tough Guys
Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura Pet Detective
Kiss in Detroit Rock City (too easy!)
Jonthan Richman in like every Farrelly Bros movie esp There’s Something About Mary
so many more i like this game…
Metric and Tricky in the movie “Clean”. Plus they had some really really flat dialogue involving the main characters of the film as a loose tie in justifying their involvement in the movie. Emily Haines, although a beautiful talented musician, is not much of an actress. Check it. Wreck it. Etc.
i always like David Bowie’s appearance in Zoolander – does that count?
White Lion was in The Money Pit?! Ha. That’s so … 80s!
i wish someone would put metric’s bit in clean up on youtube, i cant find the movie for download
letters to cleo and save ferris in 10 things I hate about you
phantom planet playing wipeout in the bad news bears
that’s all I can think of right now
Tom Waits acts in The Outsiders, Mystery Men, etc.
And what about Coffee & Cigarettes? That movie had tons of musicality going on.
Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Clueless.
Mark Kozelek in Almost Famous, Shopgirl.
Meat Loaf in Fight Club.
Jack White in Cold Mountain.
Elvis Costello/Burt Bachrach in Austin Powers.
Huey Lewis in Back To The Future.
The Rave-Ups in “Pretty In Pink”.
radiohead-thom yorke + jarvis cocker in harry potter
I forgot about reel big fish in baseketball covering take on me
I can’t believe no one mentioned the Strawberry Alarm Clock in “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”
Fishbone (as ranchbone) in Tapeheads and Otis Day and the Knights in Animal House
Phoenix in Marie Antoinette.
Ugh.
dudes!!! Mudhoney in Black Sheep!!!! KILL WHITEY!!!
urge overkill in kingpin
dudes!!! Mudhoney in Black Sheep!!!! KILL WHITEY!!!
dudes!!! Mudhoney in Black Sheep! KILL WHITEY!!!
Duke Fame in “This is Spinal Tap”
They were still booin’ ‘im when we came on stage!
Sugar Ray (they may have been the Shrinky Dinx at that point) in Father’s Day.
it’s crazy talk. Absolute crazy talk.
5,6,7,8′s in Kill Bill
Sebadoh (+ Alessandro Nivola) as whatever the band’s name is that Frances McDormand’s character is producing in Laurel Canyon.
blink-182 in American Pie, Elvis Costello and Mos Def in Talladega Nights, The Offspring in Idle Hands
In other “so 80s” moments:
Guns ‘n Roses more or less played themselves in the Dirty Harry movie “The Dead Pool.”
Elizabeth Daily (best known as Dottie from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) singing at the school dance in “Better Off Dead.”
Madonna performing “Crazy for You” at a nightclub in “Vision Quest.”
Circle Jerks as the lounge band in Repo Man
Wasn’t Oingo Boingo in Back to School???
Call me sometime when you have no class…
Randy Weeks and band in Shallow Hal
Randy Weeks and band (which included Tony Gilykson from X, in Shallow Hal.
Randy won a Grammy for his song, Cant Let Go, on one of Lucinda William’s albums
Coyote Shivers in “Empire Records”.
The Zombies had a kind of superfluous but surreal appearance in Bunny Lake is Missing.
Ya’lls,
Snoop-A-Loop in Old School.
Though The Dan Band stole the first half of that movie with “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
Don’t forget friggin’ Stillwater in Almost Famous. Band or not, Fever Dog still gets stuck in my head.
Guess he didn’t really ‘appear’ in it, but Tom Waits as the singing voice of Cap’n Hook in Shrek 2 was a good wtf/cool moment.
ummm, nick cave and the BS not an “actual band?”
my readership stops here.
I’d have to add Dio’s appearance in the Tenacious D movie to the list.
The Plimsouls in Valley Girl.
Did you know that Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols was in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen? Yeah, he wore a shirt of his own band; how avaricious!
He’s at the party scene, if anyone wants to look for him.
He’s the only reason I watched that movie.
Oh yeah, and I just found out that Jenny Lewis was a slutty chick in Pleasantville, which is pretty funny when you think about it…
Gwar in Empire Records.
babes in toyland in SFW
The Donnas in Jawbreaker
oh and unwritten law in coytoe ugly
and bowling for soup in crossroads
Flea in The Big Lebowski!
Jon Brion in the party band in Boogie Nights
seven year bitch in mad love(drew barrimore/chris o donnell), and the dickies in killer clowns from outer space(or wait was that just the video?), solo(?) missy elliot in pootie tang… ha ha, i have horrible taste in movies….
Amon Düül II plays in a room packed wall-to-wall with filthy German hippies in the Fassbinder movie The Niklashausen Journey.
Flea and Anthony Kiedis in The Chase.
Alice Cooper in Wayne’s World.
All those bands that played in between the fucking in Nine Songs.
It’s not a movie, but the Beach Boys in Full House (motherfucking Stamos got the lead vocal on Forever).
Good Charlotte was the band at the prom in Not Another Teen Movie.
Little Richard in Catalina Caper (which was on MST3K).
GWAR in Empire Records.
* Stephen Malkmus in “Sweethearts”
uhhh… purple rain… duh. Prince and Morris Day & the Time… and Appolonia (does she count? Probably not.)
I suppose I must state the obvious since no one else has up to this point:
Springsteen in “High Fidelity”.
as long as we’re mentioning t.v….
the beach boys also appeared in home improvement
and the mooney suzuki in school of rock
mark kozolek in almost famous
George Clinton and the P-Funk Allstars in “PCU” and Digital Underground in “Nothing But Trouble”
Old 97′s in “The Breakup”.
Aren’t Devo in that Neil Young movie (not a concert movie, a real movie) “Human Highway”? I’ve never actually seen it…
Primus in Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey…
Tori Amos performing “you belong to me” in Mona Lisa Smile
The Infectious Grooves in Encino Man
tenacious d in biodome
word.
RUN DMC and the Beastie Boys in Toughter Than Leather
somebody stole my PCU reference – and my animal house, so I’ve gotta go with…
seu jeorge in The Life Acquatic.
and if mere appearances count, how about bowie in “Labryinth” and “last temptation of christ” Or anthony kiedis in “point break”
if its tv,
Polaris,
Magnetic Fields,
Luscious Jackson
in PETE AND PETE
I enjoyed:
1. Jack Black singing lets get it on in high fidelity
2. The Flaming Lips on 90210
3. Everything Bjork did in Dancer in the Dark
4. aretha franklin in blues brothers
I laughed at:
1. Vanilla Ice in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles number 2 (go ninja go ninja go ninja go!)
2. gweneth paltrow in duets
Tom Jones in Mars Attacks!
The Flaming Lips in Christmas on Mars
Tom Petty in the Postman (nonmusical but he played himself)
And its not an actual band but the scene in Last Days where Kurt/”Blake” picks up various instruments and constructs a demo in his head is pretty fucking tight.
There’s also a 60′s beach movie the Beach Boys guest-starred in (name escapes me) where the plot is about trying to get the Beatles to come play. I dunno, I’d be pretty stoked to have the beach boys, myself.
Two more:
Circle Jerks and Untouchables in Repo Man.
Flea was in Back To The Future III as well as The Big Lebowski.
Blink 182 was the band in American Pie that stops practicing to watch Shannon Elizabeth strip.
* David Johansen in Scrooged (The Ghost of Christmas Past)
* Vince Neil, Wayne Newton, Morris Day in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane
* Helmet (with Ozzy as their manager) in The Jerky Boys
smashmouth in rat race, how could you forget that?
Gordon Gano was a singing substitute teacher on an episode of Pete and Pete. Also, Iggy Pop was regular character on that show.
the clash in the king of comedy
Can’t believe no one mentioned this yet — ESG in a Vampire’s Kiss. Great, weird scene in my all-time favorite movie.
James Brown in Rocky IV (you know the one with the Russian aka “death from above”)
flea and anthony keidis in point break
nother TV one: the dickies on cpo sharkey, from that moment on no more rhinestone cowboy/love is like oxygen/highway star for me, got me some god damned good records
Wax in the Pauly Shore/Stephen Baldwin masterpiece “Biodome”
That RS list is a fucking tragedy, “Nebraska” is a much better Springsteen song choice for a dead man than ?Dead Man Walking,?
1. leif garett in the outsiders (beat that!)
2. ll cool j in toys
3. david bowie in zoolander
Love Jones plays a cover band in David Schwimmer’s great high school reunion movie”Since You’ve Been Gone.”
wayne newton wuz in “vegas vacation” too.
flea in the original suburbia.
I thought the commentor above was joking about Tenacious D being in Bio-Dome. Then I checked IMDB.
Devo also appear in Spirit of ’76 (along with the McDonald brothers from Red Kross!)
Y’all gotta appreciate Willie Nelson as Uncle Jesse.
And Bo Diddley in Eddie and The Cruisers II- Eddie LIves.
Britt Daniel singing Elvis Costello’s “Veronica” at a karaoke bar in Veronica Mars.
here’s some obscure ones:
Boss Hogg in Joe’s Apartment
the Goodie Mob as the no-goodie mob in Mystery Men
Marilyn Manson in Lost Highway
Bad Brains in After Hours
I’m glad someone mentioned the ESG appearance- they’re playing “Moody”- my favorite song of theirs.
Yo la Tengo as The Velvet Underground in ‘I Shot Andy Worhol’
DEAN WAREHAM in “HIGHBALL”.
Fine Young Cannibals in Tin Men
Jeff Healy in Road House
dangit you got all mine…
how about…
Neil Diamond in “Saving Silverman”
Ween’s also in “Road Trip.”
If were talking TV you can’t forget Anthrax eating the mystery pack on Married With Children and The Doobies on What’s Happening laying down the blue eyed soul. And who can forget Bobby Brown in Ghostbusters 2 with the cameo and great title track. Too hot to handle, too cold to hold
They’re called the Ghostbusters and they’re in control. And Vanilla Ice in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze. Go Ninja Go Ninja Go
Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam as “Citizen Dick” in Singles.
Brandon Marsalis in “Throw Momma from the Train”
Blues Traveler/Urge Overkill in “Kingpin”
AC/DC in “Private Parts”
David Baerwald in “The Crossing Guard”
Wilco in “Chelsea Walls”
Regarding the jazz dinner band in Bullitt: The band is actually a Sauselito band from the 60′s/70s: My ex-GF’s dad plays guitar in the band. The only reason they’re even in the film is that apparently McQueen saw them play while in SF shooting, and asked them to be in the movie. There’s some trivia for ya…..
Alas, I forgot KISS in “KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park” (made for TV and laughably bad)
Does anyone remember this film called Dudes? There was a punk kinda thing going where Flea gets killed by (of all people) Fear’s Lee Ving who plays a raving murderer.
Those are some great bands and some shitty movies.
Medicine did “Time Baby III” in The Crow and Siouxsie and the Banshees did “Cities in Dust” in Michael Anthony Hall’s fugitive-chase film Out of Bounds. I thought this list was of performances not just appearances.