Indie Rock musicians turned TV stars (a list!)

There’s a long tradition of musicians turning into actors. Madonna, Meatloaf, Bjork, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Henry Rollins, Mariah Carey, Dwight Yoakim, Ice-T, Ludacris, to name a few, have had successful second careers as thespians. Lately though, this trend seems to be more popular than ever, dipping heavily into the indie rock world. You may have seen that Sharon Van Etten, Au Revoir Simone, Trent Reznor, and other indie-leaning artists will appear in the upcoming Showtime reboot of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Whether it’s speaking roles or they’re just playing the roadhouse where Julee Cruise would play in the original run of the series, remains to be seen. But it got us thinking about other shows use of indie rock musicians in front of the TV camera. Here are 10 prime examples below. Please leave more in the comments.

Grooms' Steve Levine (left) on 'Better Call Saul'

Better Call Saul

This spinoff of Breaking Bad memorably featured Grooms' drummer Steve Levine and his brother David as inept budding twin con men that Bob Odenkirk's character employed for some shady shenanigans in Season 1. They weren't in Season 2 but we hope they'll return at some point in the series.

SEE ALSO: Did you know that Law & Order: Criminal Intent featured Patti Smith and Luna's Dean Wareham in guest roles?

"The Nasty Bits" on 'Vinyl'

Vinyl

Set in the world of the '70s NYC music biz, HBO's ambitious, expensive (and, let's face it, not that good) series Vinyl is filled with real, current Brooklyn indie rockers playing real and fictitious musicians. Beach Fossils play most of proto-punk band The Nasty Bits, Saint Rich's Christian Peslak portrays the New York Dolls’ David Johansen and Connor Hanwick (formerly of The Drums) plays Lou Reed. They also got tons of indie bands to cover songs for the many, many soundtracks.

SEE ALSO: HBO's much, much better series Treme, which had New Orleans' music pumping through its veins.

Fred and Carrie checking in dueling Flaming Lips bands at Pickathon on 'Portlandia'

Portlandia

Seeing how one half of Portlandia is Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, and the other half is onetime-Trenchmouth drummer Fred Armisen (who also leads Seth Meyers' 8g Band), it's no surprise that this sketch comedy series is rife with musical cameos, including Joanna Newsom, Johnny Marr, St. Vincent, J Mascis, Jeff Tweedy, Dirty Projectors, Danzig, No Doubt, The Decemberists,J Mascis, Aimee Mann, Eddie Vedder and more appearing on the series. Portlandia went into indie overdrive in Season 6 with an entire episode set at festival Pickathon.

SEE ALSO: Broad City, Girls, and Parks & Recreation.

Mastodon and cast of 'Game of Thrones'

Game of Thones

HBO's epic fantasy series, based on George RR Martin's even-more-epic novels, has a soft spot for casting musicians in background roles, often in very pivotal, bloody episodes. Members of Coldplay were in the band at the infamous "Red Wedding"; similarly, Sigur Ros appeared as musicians in the "Purple Wedding" episode; and members of Mastodon played wildlings on the exciting white-walker-heavy "Hardholm" episode. The National and The Hold Steady are among the bands who have contributed versions of folk songs intrinsic to the series.

SEE ALSO: Not really related but The National have also been on The Mindy Project and Comedy Bang Bang!

Sleater-Kinney rocking Tina's room

Bob’s Burgers

Music has always played a big part on Bob's Burgers, and the FOX series has a tradition of getting indie rock bands (The National, Stephin Merritt) to cover songs that appear on the show. Sleater-Kinney also worked with Bob's Burgers to make their "A New Wave" video, which had the band rocking out in Tina's room.

SEE ALSO: The Simpsons (remember "Homerpalooza"?) and Radiohead's classic cameo on South Park episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die".

SEE ALSO: The Simpsons (remember "Homerpalooza"?) and Radiohead's classic cameo on South Park episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die".

Squirrel Kurt Vile on 'Animals'

Animals

HBO's very funny animated series about the various wildlife that cohabit New York City with us humans has an amazing voice cast, including Kurt Vile as the squirrel version of himself and A$AP Rocky & A$AP Ferg as rapping bodega cats. (Also every cool comedian going right now.) Bonus: series executive producer Mark Duplass (who also created HBO's Togetherness) used to be in indie rock band Volcano, I'm Still Excited!!

SEE ALSO: Tim & Eric, Space Ghost Coast to Coast

Thurston, Kim and Coco on 'Gilmore Girls'

Gilmore Girls

This show, which dropped pop culture references faster than any show before or since, was an early-adopter of the indie rock cameo, having Grant Lee Phillips as Stars Hollow town troubadour from season 1, and over the years featured cameos by The Bangles, Joe Pernice, The Shins (before Garden State), and -- all in one episode -- Sparks, Yo La Tengo, and Sonic Youth. Not indie, but Skid Row's Sebastian Bach was a regular cast member for the last three seasons, too. Both Phillips and Bach are back for the Netflix revival, and we'd bet they'll work in a cameo or two in these four "Seasons" episodes. The most indie music-loving show ever? Perhaps.

SEE ALSO: No Doubt on Dawson's Creek, and, uh, Wakey! Wakey!'s Mike Grubbs on One Tree Hill

Seth Cohen entices with Death Cab ticket

The O.C.

In some ways a West Coast cousin to Gilmore Girls, The OC had sensitive emo-and-indie-loving (and comic reader) Seth Cohen at the center of the show, and their own rock club (The Bait Shop) that had some of the mid-'00s hottest acts, including Death Cab for Cutie, The Walkmen, The Killers, Modest Mouse, The Thrills, Cobra Verde, The Subways, Tom Vek, and Rooney. The show's high-profile music supervisor, Alex Patsavas (who worked on Grey's Anatomy at the time as well), probably singlehandedly caused a spike in music fans (music bloggers too) who thought, "I should be a music supervisor too!" There were many successful soundtrack CDs.

SEE ALSO: Veronica Mars had Britt Daniel and Courtney Taylor Taylor of Dandy Warhols (who did the theme song) sing karaoke on the series, and the movie had Mr. Twin Sister's Andrea Estella in the cast; Gossip Girl (also made by The OC's Josh Shwartz) had appearances by Kim Gordon, Lisa Loeb, Robyn, No Doubt, Jenny Lewis...and Penn Badgley (aka Dan aka Gossip Girl) now fronts band MXTHXR.

Marshall Crenshaw, Syd Straw, Polaris and 'Pete & Pete' castmembers

The Adventures of Pete And Pete

The real indie rock cameo pioneer, however, was '90s cult Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which featured a theme song by Polaris (Mark Mulcahy of Miracle Legion), and gave speaking roles to Iggy Pop, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, The B-52s singer Kate Pierson, Syd Straw, Juliana Hatfield, Debbie Harry, the Violent Femmes, Marshal Crenshaw, and Bongwater's Ann Magnuson.

SEE ALSO: Yo Gabba Gabba, that episode of Sabrina The Teenage Witch that Violent Femmes were on.

The 8G Band

Late Night with Seth Meyers

While not a drama -- and late night talk shows have long had indie/alt artists perform -- it's still crazy to think that Late Night with Seth Meyers' 8g Band features members of Les Savvy Fav, Girls Vs Boys, and Marnie Stern, plus notable guest drummers every week. This is probably partly due to frequently absent bandleader Fred Armisen, but it's still very cool. Now if the show would book better bands to actually play on the show.