Penny Thoughts ‘14—The Sexiest Elbows in Rock Music (2014) ***

NR, 4 min.

Director: Rod Blackhurst

Starring: Jason Narducy, Fred Armisen, Britt Daniel, Jon Wurster, Bob Mould, Tim Meadows, Margaret Cho, David Grohl

One of the greatest somewhat recent Saturday Night Live skits was a mockumentary about a fake forgotten British punk band called Ian Rubbish & the Bizzaros. Fred Armisen played Ian Rubbish with a pitch perfect impression of a typical punk frontman from the late 70s, equal parts Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious. The reason his band had been forgotten, however, was because of the fact that Ian embraced Thatcherism, a decidedly un-punk stance. He had a thing for the Iron Lady.

The mockumentary wonderfully recreated the spirit of punk in its attitudes and the Bizzaros band members’ disgust with Ian’s ideology. It included interviews with the other members of the fake band and with the quite real Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols describing how brilliant Rubbish was until his unfortunate crush destroyed everything. The best part of the 5 minute film were the songs written by Armisen that perfectly capture the sound of the punk movement. He even released a four song EP of the Ian Rubbish catalogue.

Now, Armisen is at it again to help promote the new album by Split Single with a new mockmentary featuring the band’s frontman Jason Narducy and his (made up) reputation for having the most desirable elbows in the music industry. This time he enlists the help of another former SNL player, Tim Meadows, as a legendary producer, and real life rockers Dave Grohl, Bob Mould, Spoon’s Britt Daniel and Superchunk’s Jon Wurster. Comedian Margaret Cho portrays herself as uncontrollably compelled to suckle the said appendages, and Ian Rubbish shows up to put in his two cents as well.

The new short is one of many music-oriented projects Armisen has launched in 2014. Along with becoming the new bandleader for NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, Armisen has also launched a record label dedicated to publishing discs of the greatest work of fake bands, mostly from SNL skits. I would expect more fake music documentaries from the music-obsessed comedian in the future.

Because I can’t help myself, here are both mockumentaries presented below.




Ian Rubbish And The Bizzaros from no brains on Vimeo.