Russell Brand is your new favorite fake rock star. Although based on his performance at LA’s Roxy nightclub last week promoting his new Judd Apatow film, Get Him to the Greek, it’s not all that much of an act. More like a dream come true, one he’s finally letting himself believe. Watching the 35-year-old comic make the transition from self-deprecating admiration for “the real rock stars who made it easy for me to act like one,” to possibly pretending not to recall the words to his own songs, to finally casting aside his lyric sheets and embracing the persona with gusto — in the space of just a few songs — was like watching a butterfly hatch from a cocoon right on the Roxy stage. Granted, a wild-haired, potty-mouthed, scalawag of a gorgeous-looking indie shock comic butterfly, but still.
Just look at the Rolling Stone cover for June. With Brand in character as Aldous Snow, the real thing is indistinguishable from the fake RS covers over on the genius Infant Sorrow website, with Brand looking more like a bad-boy rocker than Lyle Workman (who wrote almost all of the original the music for the film). Though not a mockumentary, Get Him to the Greek is essentially a Spinal Tap-esque parody, meaning it requires actual good music.
Here’s what Brand and Apatow said about the soundtrack (possibly an even better way to spend $15 than at the theater): “We needed songs that were rock songs, but were a bit fucked up, but could still be believable as rock songs.” And that’s exactly what they got. “Bangers, Beans, and Mash” for example is nearly charming as a proper love anthem, along the lines of “Inside of You” from Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the song that started a revolution.
Click through below to check out images of Infant Sorrow from the Roxy.