Spinal Tap
Anvil! The Story of Anvil, released this week, 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. With sparsely attended concerts, a record label that refuses to print the sexist cover to their album "Smell the Glove" and glowing record reviews like the two-word critique that simply read "s--- sandwich," Spinal Tap is more famous as the fictional subject of Rob Reiner's self-proclaimed "rockumentary" than as a real band. But while the movie focuses on the washed-up rockers' inability to recognize their own unpopularity, their extravagant set-designs, childish logic and classic singles like "Sex Farm" and "Big Bottom" have made this fake band a real world hit. Actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer recorded a followup album, Break Like the Wind, in 1992, and are launching a reunion tour in spring 2009.