Best Fictional Bands of All Time

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posted: 153 DAYS 16 HOURS AGO

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(March 3) - We're elated by the news of Spinal Tap's reunion. In fact, we had a conversation this morning, around the PopEater watercooler, about the fact that Spinal Tap is the world's greatest fictional band of all time. "Well sure," you might say. "But how much competition is there?"

We thought the same thing - as it turns out, there's A LOT. Our challenge for the day was narrowing the list of great fictional bands down to our top ten... and here they are.

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10. Barry Jive and the Uptown Five / Sonic Death Monkey / Kathleen Turner Overdrive: Whatever their name was, the band that Barry (Jack Black) closed 'High Fidelity' with was amazing.

9. The Rutles: Eric Idle and Neil Innes created this fictional Beatlesque band made famous by the 1978 mockumentary 'All You Need Is Cash'. Even though they sounded just like the Beatles - but sillier - they were kind of awesome in their own right.

8. Driveshaft: Charlie's band on 'Lost' only had one hit, as far as we can tell - and even though 'We All Everybody' is the stupidest title ever written, we had it stuck in our heads for most of the first season of the show.

7. School of Rock: Jack Black makes the list twice with his all-kid band from 'School of Rock'. Those children, plus Jack Black as the kid-at-heart lead singer, really seriously rock. This song might have found its way onto our mp3 players, where we possibly listened to it on repeat... unironically..

6. The Commitments: It started as a book about a band. It was made into a movie about a band. Then it was an actual touring band. That's right, the performers in the film adaptation of 'The Commitments' were so well loved, they hopped on a bus and took their act on the road.

5. Stillwater: The band portayed in 'Almost Famous' was based on '70s bands like Creedence, Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers Band - and with music by Frampton, Cameron Crowe and his wife Nancy Wilson (of Heart), they sounded great. Plus, Jason Lee as the band's singer made us wish Stillwater was real.

4. Josie and the Pussycats: These animated girls had long tails and ears for hats, and we have no doubt this hard-rocking cartoon band paved the way for real rocker girls like the Bangles. Yeah, we said it.

3. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: The songs from the cult-hit musical about this tortured band are so good, they've been covered by Cyndi Lauper, Spoon, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright and more.

2. Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem: The coolest funk band we've ever heard has a furry, fuzzy lineup - in fact, their drummer is a real Animal. The Electric Mayhem, the Muppets' house band, first appeared in 'The Muppet Show' but played this awesome tune in 1979's 'The Muppet Movie.'

1. Blues Brothers: Can you believe this started as a 'Saturday Night Live' sketch? Comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi brought their act to the big screen in 1980, after releasing a successful record album. The funniest part about 'The Blues Brothers' - yes, funnier than the movie itself - is how good their band really was.