Brave Combo - Media Appearances

Media Appearances

• The band made a short appearance, as animated figures, on the March 21, 2004, episode of The Simpsons ("Co-Dependent's Day"). Series creator Matt Groening is a fan of the band and they appeared on the show at his personal request.
• In that same episode of The Simpsons, the band played a new original song called "Fill The Stein" and their version of "The Simpsons Theme" played over the closing credits.
• Finch and other band members made cameo appearances in Talking Heads leader David Byrne's 1986 movie True Stories, set in fictional Virgil, Texas. Finch can be spotted in the fashion show sporting a brick-patterned suit and in the parade leading the all-accordion marching band. (In real like, Brave Combo was David Byrne's wedding band.)
• They appear in the 1986 Hank Wangford Channel 4 television series The A to Z of C & W singing the Hank Williams song "Cold, Cold Heart".
• They contributed two songs to the Gumby album, released in 1989.
• Their song "Busy Office Rhumba" was used as the theme for the 1993 Fox television series Bakersfield P.D.
• They appear as a wedding band in the 1995 feature film Late Bloomers.
• In 2000, they appeared on the national telecast of the MDA Labor Day Telethon with Jerry Lewis dancing along to the music.
• They wrote and performed the theme song for the 2005 series "ESPN Bowling Night".
• The opening theme and other music for the 2008 PBS animated series Click and Clack's As the Wrench Turns were produced by Carl Finch and composed, arranged, and performed by Finch and Brave Combo.
• Their live music video, "The Denton Polka", appears on the "Bohemia Rising DVD Compilation" (released in 2009), a collection of documentary shorts directed by Christopher Largen exploring rebellion and resistance to corporate demolition in their hometown of Denton, Texas.
• Included in Bob Dylan's 2009 Christmas release, Christmas In The Heart, the song "Must Be Santa", is performed polka-style. Dylan's arrangement is almost identical to the Brave Combo arrangement from their 1991 CD It's Christmas, Man!. In an interview published by Street News Service, Dylan acknowledged the influence of Brave Combo: "This version comes from a band called Brave Combo. Somebody sent their record to us for our radio show. They’re a regional band out of Texas that takes regular songs and changes the way you think about them. You oughta hear their version of "Hey Jude"."
• They were featured on Bowling for Soup's album Sorry for Partyin', playing a polka version of Bowling For Soup's song Belgium.
• The season seven episode "Fun on a Bun" of the animated science fiction comedy Futurama includes two original songs by the band plus a cover version of "The Chicken Dance". The episode debuted August 1, 2012, on Comedy Central.