6 Best Movie Appearances by Good Bands

By Derek Neuland

25 October 2008 13 Comments

One of the greatest crimes Hollywood has ever committed is how they constantly put fake or bad bands into movies, such as The Lone Rangers in Airheads, the rooftop band in Empire Records, or the wannabe Rage Against the Machine band in Hackers. Luckily for music fans, every once in a while there will be an actual band with talent in a movie. While this has happened many times, here is a few of the most notable incidents:

1. The Donnas in Drive Me Crazy and Jawbreaker- Two great teen movies, one awesome band. While they are referred to as The Electrocutes in Drive Me Crazy (their name before they called themselves The Donnas), they appear several times playing live and in a music video.

In Jawbreaker, they reprise their role as the “band at the dance” but this time they’re rocking their old signature Donna shirts.

2. Letters To Cleo/Save Ferris in 10 Things I Hate About You- What is it with fun teen movies always having great bands playing in a club or at a dance? Why won’t more movies take cues from them? Both bands go unnamed in the movie, but they play a prominent part in the plot. Letters to Cleo is playing at the club where a young Heath Ledger asks an even younger Julia Stiles out on a date. They also join Save Ferris on stage at the dance and do a great cover of “I Want You To Want Me” on a rooftop while the credits roll.

3. L7 in Serial Mom- I had the pleasure of seeing L7 at the first Warped Tour when I was 14 so seeing them in a great movie always brings a smile to my face. They’re billed as Camel Lips at a club they’re playing at while Kathleen Turner’s character runs in to avoid the cops. The whole movie is great and is definitely worth a watch.

4. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in Clueless- While the movie does not stand the test of time for me, The Bosstones definitely do what they do best in the film and might be the reason you’ll see this DVD on the shelf of big fans of the legendary punk/ska band.

5. Alice Cooper in Wayne’s World- While he may be old, Alice Cooper’s theatrics on stage are legendary. Wayne’s World captured the aura around his performances so well.

6. The Ramones in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School- Arguably one of the most influential punk bands, The Ramones dominate this movie. It could have been titled The Ramones Movie and no one would have batted an eye. A classic movie combined with a classic band, how can you go wrong?

This is no where near an exhaustive list. What are some of your favorite appearances of bands in movies?

Last 5 posts by Derek Neuland

13 Comments »

Rick Boyer said:

Nice writing style. I look forward to reading more in the future.

[Reply]

Derek Neuland Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 3:57 am

Thanks Rick, that means a lot to me.

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# 25 October 2008 at 3:17 am

Rob-Bob said:

Circle Jerks in Repo Man

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# 25 October 2008 at 2:31 pm

Andy Czuba said:

List requires Cannibal Corpse in Ace Ventura : Pet Detective.

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# 25 October 2008 at 2:41 pm

Michael Conway said:

awesome blog entry! if you do a worst, would it include rise against in lords of dogtown?

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Derek Neuland Reply:
October 25th, 2008 at 5:53 pm

haha, i’m not sure, i still haven’t watched that movie yet. But thanks for the new post idea, i’ll have to think about doing a “worst of” list.

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# 25 October 2008 at 5:41 pm

pat said:

There’s tons of these in cultish movies, but most of them slip my mind. Here’s one- Medicine in The Crow (great band doing not their best song in a so-so movie) I was going to say Circle Jerks/repo man, but someone beat me

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# 25 October 2008 at 8:00 pm

billy t. said:

Southlander is full of great musicians. Mark Kozelek was in Shopgirl.
if you do a google search for punk bands in movies theres a great list.
Kristen just told me that Gwar was in Empire Records.

[Reply]

# 25 October 2008 at 10:03 pm

DVD Disc Movies Can be Downloaded Complimentary of a Site said:

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# 26 October 2008 at 9:11 am

failure's union said:

Epic fail of a list.

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# 26 October 2008 at 6:28 pm

Alicia said:

Primus opening for Wyld Stallyns in Bogus Journey!

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# 29 October 2008 at 5:14 pm

Oh Henry said:

Whoever wrote this obviously has never heard of Coyote Shivers, because otherwise he’d be retracting the statement about the “fake band” in Empire Records.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote_Shivers

[Reply]

Derek Neuland Reply:
October 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm

i never pointed to them specifically as being fake, i said:
“how they constantly put fake or bad bands into movies”

[Reply]

# 30 October 2008 at 9:30 am