What The Musicians Of 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Are Up To Now

There's no doubting that, in the 20 years (to the day) since Buffy The Vampire Slayer made its TV debut, the series has assumed an essential role as part of the Western pop culture pantheon.

Much of that is to do with the fact that — as Clementine Ford and others have noted — the show, and its title character, was a breath of fresh air at a time when the TV landscape was otherwise littered with two-dimensional and under-developed female characters, contrived and wooden drama, and cookie-cutter comedy.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, in what is arguably still her defining role, brought Buffy to life as teenager and shepherded her to womanhood over the course of the show's seven seasons, believably filling her out — with the assistance of show creator Joss Whedon and his writers — with strength, vulnerability, intelligence, impetuousness, humour, gravitas, resilience, selfishness and selflessness, torn as she was between her personal life and her higher calling as a Slayer (and ultimate guardian against all evil, not just sunlight-averse blood-suckers).

There is no questioning that importance, and it deserves to be mentioned in any retrospective piece revisiting the show now, two decades since it first arrived on the small screen.

Still, I'm actually not here to talk about Buffy's historic position as a progressive phenom who broke from the tradition of what was expected of women in television; I'll leave that to Clem and other writers far more qualified and insightful than me.

Without diminishing that aspect, it wasn't the only way that Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a forward-thinking show; it also made a point of featuring a tonne of emerging and established musical acts — mostly from the Los Angeles area, but also from across the US and around the world — often even having them perform on-screen, years before The OC aped the idea and got a bunch of praise for it.

This was largely achieved through scenes at The Bronze, the fictional nightclub hangout where Buffy and her friends would go to shake off (or start) a long night of killing monsters, but the odd house party, appearance-via-radio or simple sync job also highlighted some truly great musicians from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Let's revisit some of the acts who graced the show.

Nerf Herder

It seems logical to start with Santa Barbara pop-punk four-piece Nerf Herder, the band responsible for Buffy's now-iconic opening theme and the last-ever act to play The Bronze on the show, in season-seven outing Empty Places. The theme song was re-recorded after season two for production reasons, but the original version was where it was at.

The group's initial lifespan loosely mirrored Buffy's, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1996 (though they'd formed two years prior) and putting out a further two albums, culminating with 2002's American Cheese, before going on hiatus in 2003, the same year the show wrapped up.

Original members Parry Gripp, Steve Sherlock and Charlie Dennis reignited the band in 2005, being joined by guitarist Linus Of Hollywood in 2008 — the same year they released fourth album Nerf Herder IV — though bassist Dennis left in 2009, replaced by Ben Pringle. They've since released a fifth full-length, Rockingham, which landed on 11 March 2016.

Sprung Monkey

San Diego's Sprung Monkey were the first band we ever saw at The Bronze, appearing in pilot episode Welcome To The Hellmouth to perform their song Believe, as well as a couple of others. Their tunes also popped up in consequent season-one episodes The Harvest and The Pack.

The band had been active for more than five years by the time Buffy rolled around, with two albums already under their belt when they made their Sunnydale debut. They released two more during the show's run — Mr Funny Face (1998) and Get A Taste (2001) — and were synced in movies such as Dude, Where's My Car? and Van Wilder before calling time-out in 2002.

The band was revived in 2005, and released fifth album Dead Is Dead in 2013. They're still active, too, and are even launching their own beer, Sprung 4 Life IPA, at a bunch of shows later this month.

Cibo Matto

After a first season dominated by alt-rock artists, New York's Cibo Matto kicked off The Bronze's season-two bookings with a whole different kind of vibe in opening episode When She Was Bad, playing their tracks Spoon and Sugar Water.

The band started in 1994 as a two-piece effort between Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, who released their debut LP Viva! La Woman in 1996 before being joined the following year by Sean Lennon, Duma Love and Timo Ellis. This cemented Cibo Matto's line-up through till the start of their hiatus in 2002, with a second album, Stereo ★ Type A, landing in 1999.

Honda and Hatori woke the sleeping beast in mid-2011 without the others, instead being joined by drummer Yuko Araki. The rejigged Cibo Matto has released one album so far, 2014's Hotel Valentine, but have been quiet on social media since September last year.

Four Star Mary ("dingoes ate my baby")

California alt-rockers Four Star Mary have the rare distinction of being heavily featured during all but one of Buffy's seasons, but not as themselves: they formed the backing band for Seth Green's character Oz as the fictitious Dingoes Ate My Baby — rough name — though the songs themselves were their own.

Between season two's Inca Mummy Girl and season seven's The Initiative, they played The Bronze more than five times, played at Buffy's house once and even popped up on the radio a couple of times. They clearly made an impression, as they also ended up being featured on Party Of Five, Charmed and a few other shows.

Unlike many of their fellow Buffy artists, the band has never ceased being active, and celebrate their own 20th anniversary this year (although, despite promising "updates" in mid-2016, their Facebook page has been suspiciously sparse of late). Their most recent album is 2006's fourth studio full-length Hello It's Me, with their handful of singles and EPs stretching through till last year's Pieces Pt 1. 

T.H.C ("Shy")

Another band masquerading as a fictional act, LA trip-hop duo T.H.C lent their sounds to the in-show group of Shy, fronted by Paige Moss' character, Veruca. Shy, who featured T.H.C's founder George Sarah on keys, appeared in three episodes in the show's fourth season, beginning with second episode Living Conditions (Veruca only) before bowing out in sixth episode Wild At Heart.

T.H.C — the other member of whom was vocalist Sarah Folkman, who didn't feature in the show — released two albums during their seven-year career, having formed in 1992 and put out debut full-length Death By Design in 1996 in the wake of sole EP Consenting Guinea Pig. Sophomore effort Adagio followed in 1999, and the band wrapped up not long after.

Notably, they did not attempt a mid-2000s comeback.

The Breeders

Appearing in the sixth episode of season seven, Him, The Breeders deserve a mention among the voluminous ranks of artists featured on Buffy on the basis of Kim Deal's involvement alone (and her status as the group's sole consistent member). Two of their songs — Little Fury and Son Of Three, both from their 2002 third studio album Title TK — get a look-in during their show at The Bronze.

Their on-screen inclusion in the Buffy canon came just before the onset of, you guessed it, a hiatus that kicked off in 2003 and lasted until 2008. That year saw fourth album Mountain Battles materialise and earn broad acclaim, and it remains their last full-length to date, though an EP, Fate To Fatal, followed in 2009.

The band reassembled their early-'90s line-up a few years later to celebrate the 20th anniversary of second album Last Splash (1993), and are currently working on the follow-up to Mountain Battles, which is said to feature a guest spot from Aussie muso Courtney Barnett.

Aimee Mann

Virginian singer-songwriter Aimee Mann stands out among the army of Buffy musical guests not just because she's a prolific, consistent and respected musician — although she is all those things — but because she's the only one to ever be granted a speaking role. (Nerf Herder came close, not speaking but being directly referenced by other characters during their appearance — another rarity — as Buffy's 'sister', Dawn, is suspicious that they may be one of the signs of the apocalypse.)

Her guest spot, in season seven's Sleeper, is a comical one since, after years of supernatural attacks, it's clear that Sunnydale has earned a reputation for itself outside the municipal limits, evidenced by Mann's deadpan response of, "Man, I hate playing vampire towns," after a fight breaks out between James Marsters' Spike and the newly undead Charlotte (Robinne Lee), a woman he had previously sired.

Mann was already a well-established performer before her appearance on Buffy (for which she busted out her tracks This Is How It Goes and Pavlov's Bell), having released four solo albums between 1993 and 2002 after a stint with new-wave band 'Til Tuesday, and has since put out a further four (through 2012's Charmer). Her ninth studio album, Mental Illness, will be released at the end of this month.

Angie Hart

Yup, that Angie Hart — Australian songstress extraordinaire and former frontwoman of Frente. After moving to the United States in the late '90s and forming pop duo Splendid with her then-husband, Jesse Tobias, Hart began a period of collaboration with Joss Whedon that led to her being featured on the show a few times.

She performed Blue, a co-write with Whedon, in season seven's Conversations With Dead People, having previously appeared twice as Splendid with Tobias and on-screen members J.D. Foster and Gordon Townsend (as far back as season two!). Their song Tomorrow We'll Wake also nabbed a sync back in season five's Forever.

The fruitful relationship with Whedon also yielded a guest spot in his beloved short-lived sci-fi Firefly, singing an a capella version of Amazing Grace — and even an audition for a small role on Buffy spin-off Angel — but ultimately the call of home became too strong, and Hart returned to Australia more than a decade ago.

She's thrived as a solo artist since, releasing her debut album, Grounded Bird, in 2007, and following it up with Eat My Shadow in 2009. Hart remains an active member of the Melbourne artistic community to this day and serves as host for the city's Women Of Letters events.

Of course, there was a laundry list of other established and lesser-known acts who filled out Buffy's world both on and off-screen — including blink-182, Superfine, Dashboard Prophets, Sarah McLachlan, Nickel, Lotion, Third Eye Blind, Morcheeba, Curve, Royal Crown Revue and a whole bunch of others, not to mention an entire musical episode in the brilliant Once More, With Feeling — so maybe the best way to celebrate the series and its ear for excellence is just to rewatch it. Happy 20th birthday, Buffy!

This piece was aided in a major way by the exhaustive information compiled by the volunteers behind the Buffy The Vampire Slayer wiki, and this hugely helpful list of all the bands who physically played The Bronze.