Who would have guessed that O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the 2000 film directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen, would spawn a bluegrass revival? The Depression-era comedy, with its twangy soundtrack and old-timey classics, earned a Grammy in 2001 for Album of the Year, and helped popularize singers like Dan Tyminski, who provided the vocals for the Soggy Bottom Boys’ frontman — an otherwise talentless nobody named George Clooney. The jailbird trio’s hit song, Man of Constant Sorrow, went on to garner several awards, including a Grammy for best Country Collaboration with Vocals and the Country Music Assocation’s award for best single of the year. “We like to call this a phenomaly — a phenomenon and an anomaly,” one Nashville music executive said of the track’s mass appeal. The song’s popularity prompted a roadshow of sorts, taking the group all the way to Carnegie Hall. Not bad for a fake band covering a song first published in 1913 by a blind Kentucky fiddler named Dick Burnett.
Top 10 Fake Bands
Anvil! The Story of Anvil, the buzzed-about documentary out now, follows an aging metal band trying to reclaim former rock glory. And if that sounds like the plot to the influential (and ironically more popular) '80s mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, well, it's because it is. So while Anvil may hold the distinction of actually existing, here are ten fictional bands that didn't hesitate to turn the volume to 11.
