AAA Backstage Archive

5 Times Your Favourite Band Was In Your Favourite TV Show

It’s been well documented that all actors want to be musicians and all musicians want to be actors. Very few people achieve the God like title of Actor/Musician (we’re looking at you Jared Leto) but for all those musicians that have as much acting chops as a plank of wood there is always the option of a musicians cameo. The musicians cameo is a highly revered thing, it can launch careers, it can make fangirls/boys squeak and it can make audiences cringe. Make no mistake the power of the musicians cameo can have. Here’s a couple that you may have missed…

1.Sigur Rós Opens For King Jofferys Death

Ok, so this on is recent enough that you can still hear the cheers from the Joffery haters over the young kings grizzly end. What you may have overlooked was the scruffy mistrials playing a sombre tune at The Purple Wedding. That was Icelandic superstars Sigur Rós with their rendition of The Rains Of Castamere (of which The National have also done a cover). Their cameo was blink-and-you’ll-miss-it quick with King Joffery tiring of their ethereal sound and tossing coins at them as a dismissal. The band scurries to collect the precious, precious coins in an accurate representation in what it’s like to be in a band.

2. Radiohead Are No Cry-babies

In what is widely regarded as the best episode of South Park ever the kings of Alt Rock show up as animated versions of themselves. The 2001 episode Scott Tenorman Must Die features character Scott Tenorman and his favourite band (Radiohead) who show up to mock him after Cartman, a.k.a the evilest 4^th grader ever, tricks Scott into eating a chilli made of his dead parents corpses. The band, while on tour in America, was driven to the recording studio by South Park co-creator Trey Parker who reportedly had to tell Thom Yorke to be more emotive with his recordings. That darn Yorke, always so stoic.

3. A Supergroup We Would All Like To See

If you’ve never heard of Portlandia then shame on you, it’s the wunderkind of SNL alumni Fred Armisen and Sleater-Kinney vocalist/guitarist Carrie Brownstein and it's really funny. Not only will it tickle your funny bone with its constant jabs at the hipsters of the world but it is also responsible for the best fake supergroup that never existed. Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), James Mercer (The Shins) and Corin Tucker (Sleater Kinney) are Echo Echo a super cool new indie band that are in town for the Blunderbuss music and film festival. Although the episode wasn’t that well received the spark of hope that Echo Echo has given us for future real life collaborations is all the reward we need.

4. Death Cab Goes Orange County

So, you probably didn’t miss this one as it was one of the only things that Seth Cohan ever talked about. It was a pretty standard cameo with Death Cab For Cutie showing up at local young people hang out, The Bait Shop, for a show. The thing that was different about this cameo was that is catapulted the little known Death Cab from indie band to cult superstars. I don’t think Cohen would take very kindly to everyone jumping on his favourite band.

5. The Polyphonic Spree Fit Into An ICU

Perhaps the most unexpected cameo on the list The Polyphonic Sprees cameo in the Scrubs episode My Choosiest Choice Of All really doesn’t have much point at all except to bask in the gloriousness of the band. A man in the ICU mentions that he’s going to miss out on going on tour with his band and he just happens to be the tambourine player for The Polyphonic Spree. Cue The Polyphonic Spree fitting all 21 of their members into a tiny hospital set to perform their hit Light and Day complete with balloons and a wind tunnel. It would have never gotten past OHS rules but boy was it a fun scene.