fake bands, good songs
featuring McGwyer Mortimer, PoP!, Ally Maine, School of Rock, and more!
Sometime in the fall of 2003, I walked into a movie theater in suburban Detroit and left a completely different tween. That may sound dramatic, but I mean it when I say that seeing School of Rock was one of the most formative moments in my cultural life. I vividly remember watching the final Battle of the Bands scene and the rush of adrenaline I got when the band members screamed “KICK SOME ASS!” during the performance. I was the exact same age as the kids in this movie, and I had never been so jealous of a group of my peers. These were the coolest people I’d ever seen in my life. This fake band was my new favorite band.
School of Rock has been on my mind since I saw The Ballad of Wallis Island, a new movie about a fake band, last weekend. The premise of The Ballad of Wallis Island honestly sounds like a horror movie - an eccentric rich guy hires his favorite band to reunite for a private show at his home on a secluded island - but it’s actually very sweet. The fake band, called McGwyer Mortimer, is a folky duo. Co-screenwriter and co-lead, Tom Basden (the McGwyer half of the band), wrote a full album’s worth of songs which he and Carey Mulligan (the Mortimer half of the band) recorded for the movie. Love a committed fake band!
Listening to this soundtrack got me thinking about some of my other favorite songs by fake bands. Turns out, this is one of my preferred tropes in media, because there are lots. From the Wham-esque, Hugh Grant-fronted fake band in Music and Lyrics to another folky duo in Once, I love a good (or stupid and silly and catchy) song by a fake band. Today’s mix features my favorites including those mentioned above as well as songs from Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Sing Street, A Star Is Born, Parks and Recreation, Schitt’s Creek, Josie and the Pussycats, 30 Rock, and more:
wait love this and im glad josie and the pussycats is on here or there would've been an issue