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The Blues Brothers, The Blues Brothers (1980)
The Band: The Blues Brothers almost count as a real band: John Belushi and Dan Akroyd developed the characters for a Saturday Night Live sketch, made two movies about them, released a couple of albums, and even occasionally perform live in character. But they’re still characters, so they’re on this list.
Greatest Hit: There are plenty to choose from, but let’s go with Gimme Some Lovin’. Although it didn’t exactly go down well with the locals.
Barry Jive And The Uptown Five, High Fidelity (2000)
The Band: Constantly being renamed – they used to be called Sonic Death Monkey – Barry Jive And The Uptown Five are massive music snobs, though that maybe doesn’t quite come through in their performances.
Greatest Hit: It’s far from being a hit, but their best rendition of Let’s Get It On is, er, memorable.
Josie And The Pussycats, Josie And The Pussycats (2001)
The Band: Can a manufactured pop band be cool? Well, if the government is spending this much time on developing subliminal messages to tell you that they’re cool, then they must be cool. Resistance is futile and all that.
Greatest Hit: 3 Small Words, a bratty pop punk anthem.
Spinal Tap, This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
The Band: Another fictional band that started out on a sketch show before getting their own movie, Spinal Tap are a British metal band whose philosophy is, basically, to be louder than everyone else.
Greatest Hit: It’s gotta be Hell Hole.
Wheres Fluffy?, Nick And Norahs Infinite Playlist (2008)
The Band: Where’s Fluffy? are an indie rock band who hate the idea of being famous so much that they never publicise their shows. To see them perform, fans will have to follow a series of clues left in pub toilets across the city – and even then, sometimes the trail will go cold before Where’s Fluffy? ever show up.
Greatest Hit: If you have to ask, you’ll never be cool enough to know.
The Winners, Suck (2009)
The Band: The Winners are kind of ironically named, since they’re a not very good and not very popular rock band. Until their bassist gets turned into a vampire, making them the hottest band in town. And the bloodiest.
Greatest Hit: I Was A Fool, a haunting tune that’s immediately better than their other songs because it features Jennifer (Jessica Pare) on vocals.
Low Shoulder, Jennifers Body (2009)
The Band: Low Shoulder were just another cute indie band trying to make it in the cutthroat world of music, until they decided to get Satan on their side by ritually murdering a virgin. The only flaw in that plan is that she wasn’t actually a virgin, so their success was short-lived.
Greatest Hit: Through The Trees, an emotional ode to dying friendships – dedicated to dead friends.
Sex Bob-Omb, Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010)
The Band: The oddly named Sex Bob-Omb features Steven Stills (Mark Webber) on guitar, Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) on bass, and Kim Pine (Alison Pill) on the drums. Despite some intra-band dramas, they’re good enough to beat off strong competition in a Battle of the Bands competition, and ultimately nab themselves a record deal.
Greatest Hit: Unlike most fictional bands, there are actually a few to choose from. We Are Sex Bob-Omb is probably the best known.
Stillwater, Almost Famous (2000)
The Band: Stillwater are a fictional distillation of all 70s rock bands, with all the antics and excesses that go along with that: they fight with one another, take drugs, perform ridiculous stunts, and even come close to dying in a plane crash.
Greatest Hit: The soundtrack’s full of actual 1970s rock songs, but there are some original Stillwater ones, too. Fever Dog is the standout.
The Venus In Furs, Velvet Goldmine (1998)
The Band: Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is the lead singer of The Venus In Furs – and a pretty obvious analogue for David Bowie (with a bit of Marc Bolan thrown in for good measure). His on-stage antics – including faking his own assassination – threatened to overshadow the music, though.
Greatest Hit: Many of the songs performed by The Venus In Furs in the movie are covers, but of the new songs, The Ballad Of Maxwell Demon is the most striking.
