The Savage Animal 08.01.07: Top Ten Simpsons Musical Guests
Posted by Mikey MiGo on 08.01.2007
Over the past eighteen years there has been a plethora of musicians, bands, and performers to appear on The Simpsons. In this week’s edition of The Savage Animal, Mikey MiGo shares his top ten musical guests from the classic animated sitcom
So today is my birthday. Don't feel bad that I'm writing a column on my birthday when I should be out getting my inebriation on because I'm not. I wanted to just repost a random column from late last year and do a re-run, but that won't fly. So, this is a pre-taped column. Don't tell anyone.
Tonight(Wednessday/August 1st) on Last Call with Carson Daily the world will be treated to Mindless Self Indulgence's first national televised appearance. I've rambled about them many times and with good reason. They are fucking great. Watch and see!
This past week was one of my busy ones. A few Chicago concerts, preproduction, seeing The Simpsons movie twice (see my review at the bottom of this page), and the usual. I wanted to have both Disonic footage from Friday AND Fun Club from Sunday in this column, but my hard drive can't handle that much greatness at once.
Here is Disonic performing their cover of Faith No More's "From Out of Nowhere":
And Disonic performing "Dreaming Oblivion":
TOP TEN SIMPSONS MUSICAL GUESTS
With the movie finally coming out I've realized how much I love this show. When asked in the past, "What's your favorite television show?" I'd quickly respond with "The Simpsons" Call it dedication or just sad, but I can honestly say I know more about the history of The Simpsons more than even my own family.
About two years ago a friend and I would play a lot of road games. The one that I still randomly think about most is "Name the Musical Guest on The Simpsons". Basically, we'd keep going back and forth with all the musicians and bands that have appeared on The Simpsons. With all the material we had to reflect on, this game obviously lasted the entire trip and a few spontaneous phone calls the next few days.
So today I'm going to narrow it down to my personal TOP TEN musical guests that have appeared on the show over the past eighteen years. It's not a popularity contest because I like some of the bands in my honorable mention more than the top five of my list. It's all about the entertainment value each appearance had and how much I personally enjoyed it.
So without any more rambling, here it is…
Honorable Mentions: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, The Who, Kid Rock, David Byrne, Ludacris, REM, Metallica, Sting, and The Ramones
10.) NSync Episode: New Kids on the Blecch (Season 14) The 411: This was the episode where "The Party Posse" took control over the pop world. With their hit song like "Drop da Bomb!" with the suspicious lyric "YVAN EHT NIOJ" and their popularity on the line NSync comes to save the day. Their entrance into the episode was great.
9.) Phish Episode: Weekend at Burnsie's (Season 13) The 411: Quite possibly one of my top five favorite episodes of all time. I don't know why I got such enjoyment watching Homer smoke medicinal marijuana, but I did. The last act of the show featured Phish performing at a Marijuana rally. The point in which they stopped playing because they smelt marijuana and wanted a doctors note was classic thanks to Moleman's interactions.
I actually took this episode and made a video project for it. It's all footage from "Weekend at Burnsie's" done to Radiohead's "Talkshow Host":
8.) The White Stripes Episode: Jazzy and The Pussycats (Season 18) The 411: I know this is from the last season and "there hasn't been a good season since Season 4/8/10/12" or whatever, but I really enjoyed this episode. Bart takes on drumming to balance out his attention deficient problem. As he gets better at drumming it consumes his life. This leads to a great meeting with The White Stripes.
7.)Spinal Tap Episode: The Otto Show (Season 3) The 411: Like my number 8 pick, this time Bart takes on learning the guitar from Otto. This is all inspired by the awesomeness of Spinal Tap. The entire Spinal Tap scene is full of hilarity.
6.) The Smashing Pumpkins/Peter Frampton/Cypress Hill/Sonic Youth Episode: Homerpalooza (Season 7) The 411: Hullabalooza! The greatest rock festival of all time featured The Smashing Pumpkins, Homer Simpson: Smiling Politely, Peter Frampton and his pig balloon he bought from Pink Floyd's yard sale, Cypress Hill and their stolen orchestra, and Sonic Youth. It was in my opinion the first great combination of musical guests on one show.
5.) Aerosmith Episode: Flaming Moe's (Season 3) The 411: Homer took it upon himself to share his secret alcohol drink with Moe. In return Moe stole it and created the "Flaming Moe". Moe's popularity increased to the point where Aerosmith came to the bar to perform. You didn't hear it from me, but the secret ingredient was cough syrup.
4.) Barry White Episode: Whacking Day (Season 4) The 411: Whacking Day should be celebrated by everyone. Every year we can all get together and bash snakes with whatever blunt object we can find. Okay, so that might be a tad extreme for us normal folk, but for the citizens of Springfeld it's a normal tradition. To save the snakes from getting whacked, the Simpson kids and help from legendary Barry White used the bass of his voice to bring them to safety. It seems a lot more sinister in Spanish…
3.) Paul and Linda McCartney Episode: Lisa The Vegetarian (Season 7) The 411: It's Paul McCartney. What more can be said? Lisa had problems with everyone around her eating meat and was doing whatever she could to change people's eating preferences. Enter Apu with Paul and Linda McCartney to save the day. They explained to Lisa little bit about tolerance in really a great moment.
2.) Mick Jagger/Keith Richards/Elvis Costello/Lenny Kravitz/Tom Petty/Brian Setzer Episode: How I Spent My Strummer Vacation (Season 14) The 411: Homer is bored with life and gets to be a weekend rockstar thanks to his family sending him to Rockstar Camp. In this allstar line up we had Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Lenny Kravitz, Tom Petty, and Brian Setzer. They all take part in mocking rock star stereotypes and have no problem taking jabs at themselves. I just wonder if Tom Petty ever found his toe.
1.) Michael Jackson Episode: Stark Raving Dad (Season 3) The 411: In this classic episode, Homer goes crazy and meets a big white guy who claims to be Michael Jackson. The truth was that the dialogue was in fact done by The King of Pop himself under the pseudonym of "John Jay Smith". Due to legal issues, the singing was done by an impersonator, but who cares. Bart is a bad brother and hooks up with the so-called "Michael Jackson" to perform "Happy Birthday, Lisa". It's a defining moment because it shows Bart does care about his family and shows that this cartoon is much more than pratfalls and one liners.
What do you consider your all time favorite musician appearance on The Simpsons?
MY "SIMPSONS MOVIE" REVIEW IN 381 WORDS OR LESS
There are movies that hope to have in front of you more than others. For years, friends and I have talked about the hypothetical idea of there being a Simpsons movie. We've discussed what plots could be done on a larger movie scale over and over again. Finally, in 2007 we got what we wanted. Thursday night, well Friday at 12:01 myself and two friends entered the crowded theatre. I don't want to give away ANYTHING, so I'll just say that it was awesome. Over the past few years I've came across a lot of people who quit watching the show because "The show should of ended ten years ago" or the ADD-minded people who proclaim "Simpsons sucks! Family Guy rules!" The thing about The Simpsons is that it's more than a cartoon, it's a family sitcom. It's not gag after gag for no reason and it's surely not overly edgy to please one particular demographic. Once you get past the best supporting cast ever on television, the couch gags, and the random guest appearances, it comes down to the misadventures of a family who actually cares about each other. For 18 years we've gotten half hour versions of this concept and now we have a feature length movie to compliment the series. If you're not a fan, you should see this at least once. If you are a fan then you'll see it multiple times, if you haven't already. I'm going on my third viewing myself.
Okay, so I'm a fan boy. But some things merit this sort of passion/obsession. It just sorta proves that everything that is good in the world can be traced back to music. This upcoming week is up in the air, but I'm sure will be either eventful, productive, or both. Until then… Have a Great Week!
