to Freedom album, the band’s first, it delivered a mishmash of world music like ska, rocksteady, roots reggae and dub, and meshed it with punk and hip hop. Pantera, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and even Megadeth were having memorable years with huge releases, but the third wave of ska, popularized in Orange County, Calif., was still years away from tapping into the mainstream. Copyright 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.The ska-punk, reggae blend that Sublime would later explode with in the mid- to late-’90s wasn’t quite what cool kids were listening to in 1992. There were also a number of posthumous Sublime releases, among them 1997's Second Hand Smoke, 1998's Stand by Your Van and Acoustic: Bradley Nowell & Friends, Greatest Hits in 1999, and Gold in 2005.Ĭontent provided All Music Guide. As Sublime's legend lived on, Wilson and Gaugh formed a new band called Long Beach Dub Allstars. On the strength of the alternative radio hit 'What I Got,' the album was certified gold by the end of 1996. The band collapsed, but Sublime was still slated for a July release. On May 25, 1996, however, Nowell was found in a San Francisco hotel room, dead of a heroin overdose. The album performed well at college radio and set the stage for the breakout success of their self-titled third album. Mostly due to the radio exposure, Sublime signed to MCA for 1994's Robbin' the Hood, which revealed an experimental ethic more in keeping with cut-and-paste dub than the well-tuned rage of the Cali punk revival. The LP was released on Skunk Records - the label formed by Nowell with Sublime manager Miguel - and sold at shows, but it really started to break when KROQ began playing the single 'Date Rape' two years after its initial release. After four years of concentrating strictly on live shows, Sublime's first album (40 Oz. The group began aggressively touring around the area with an increasingly substantial following, especially among the surf/skate beach crowd. The trio which comprised Sublime - vocalist/guitarist Nowell, bassist Eric Wilson, and drummer Bud Gaugh - played their first gig on the 4th of July 1988 at a small Long Beach club (a show that sparked the infamous Peninsula Riot). It was Sublime's last, however, as lead singer Brad Nowell died in May 1996, just two months before the album's release. The band released just two albums during its first seven years, finally finding a hit with its self-titled third one. Formed in Long Beach, CA, in 1988 as a garage punk band, Sublime grew to fame in the mid-'90s on the back of the Cali punk explosion engendered by Green Day and the Offspring, though Sublime mixed up their punk rage with reggae and ska influences.

Sublime 40 oz freedom album