With this week’s premiere of The Runarounds, Prime Video’s show about teen dudes who form a rock group with dreams of breaking big (a tale as old as post-Beatles time that’s been told in That Thing You Do!, Not Fade Away, and a bunch of other works), we decided to ask The A.V. Club staff: What’s your favorite fictional band?
As always, we invite you to contribute your own responses in the comments—and send in some prompts of your own! If you have a pop culture question you’d like us and fellow readers to answer, please email it to [email protected].
When Rob (John Cusack) walks into his Chicago record store to to ask about the head-turning song playing on the speakers, Jack Black’s Barry hits him with the news that it’s by “those little skate fuckers” (or “business-crippling, Nazi-Youth shoplifters,” as he later calls them) Vince and Justin, who often hang outside the shop. “It’s really…” Barry admits, trailing off and defeated. “It’s really fucking good.” And it really is, which isn’t all that surprising: The demo by The Kinky Wizards—which inspires Rob to start a record label and (sort of) snap out of his woe-is-me funk—is actually “The Inside Game” by the great duo Royal Trux, which was released on Chicago’s own Drag City just two months before the film opened. [Tim Lowery]
I listen to crappy garage bands in my spare time anyway, which means that Beck’s version of that in Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is the stuff of my dive-bar dreams. From Alison Pill’s punk count-in to the grungy chug of Sex Bob-Omb’s guitar rock, whether coaxing you to take a ride on their garbage truck or “spilling out music into raw sewage,” they’re just self-aware enough about their half-assed sound. And they stand out in a great, romantically messy fictional music scene. A slinky Brie Larson doing Metric rules, of course, but I can better relate to a trio of dirtbags making noise. And when that noise turns into a massive furry sonic monster (not to be confused with a massive furry Sonic monster), it’s all the better. [Jacob Oller]
Daisy Jones & The Six, Daisy Jones & The Six
Before you cry recency bias for a pick that only originated in 2023, how loyal are you to your favorite fictional band? I’ve been bumping the Daisy Jones & The Six soundtrack regularly for the past two years. I’m making my friends sing it with me at karaoke. I’m pressing play on “Look At Me Now (Honeycomb)” every time the sun hits just right on a lovely 75-degree day. Yes, the band is a campy Fleetwood Mac knock-off, but Stevie Nicks herself endorsed the Prime Video series, so a little copycatting can be forgiven. I liked the show, but the music is irresistible. [Mary Kate Carr]
The Ain’t Rights, Green Room
Having toured the nation’s taco shops in a rundown Econoline with a DIY punk outfit, I can confidently say Green Room nails the realities of a nobody band on a go-nowhere tour. Sure, The Ain’t Rights, the group at the film’s center, kinda suck. But they suck in just the right way and are a pitch-perfect portrayal of a shitty, late-minute addition for a meager audience to suffer. But The Ain’t Rights’ values—arguably more important than the music—don’t waver when they end up playing a white power festival. They’re willing to face their enemy onstage, performing Dead Kennedys’ classic “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” to a crowd of Nazi punks, and off, fighting them with the squirrelly tactics that a summer on the road teaches you. [Matt Schimkowitz]
Lady Parts, We Are Lady Parts
As soon as I read the titles of We Are Lady Parts’ original songs, I knew I was in. What other reaction is there to “Voldemort Under My Headscarf,” “Malala Made Me Do It,” and “Bashir With The Good Beard”? In her pivotal and hilarious British series, Nida Manzoor uses music to advance the story of the five Muslim women who form the punk band Lady Parts. I was and remain enamored with the unique, from-the-heart lyrics and headbang-worthy tracks, which include season-two standouts like “Villain Era” and “Glass Ceiling Feeling.” Their music videos are a treat, too. [Saloni Gajjar]
Pink Slip, Freaky Friday
Pink Slip may be a two-hit wonder, but who cares when those two hits rock as hard as “Take Me Away” and “Ultimate.” More than two decades later, I can draw a pretty direct line between the first time I watched that “Take Me Away” performance and the punky, riot grrrl-adjacent bands I still love to this day. At the time, my CD collection mostly consisted of Now compilations and folk albums I’d nicked from my parents, all of which started to gather dust the second I got my hands on the Freaky Friday soundtrack. Pre-teen me genuinely didn’t know music could sound that cool. I would still love to catch a real Pink Slip gig, but getting to watch MUNA (who also have a far too brief cameo in FF‘s sequel) cosplay as Anna & co. for Halloween in 2022 was a close second. [Emma Keates]
