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Sublime

Long Beach

Biography

Sublime is an American reggae punk band from Long Beach, California. Formed in 1988, the original lineup consisted of Bradley Nowell (vocals and guitar), Eric Wilson (bass), and Bud Gaugh (drums). Lou Dog, Nowell’s Dalmatian, served as the band’s mascot. Nowell died of a heroin overdose in 1996, which led to the group’s initial breakup. In 1997, several of the band’s songs, including "What I Got", "Santeria", "Wrong Way", "Doin’ Time", and "April 29, 1992 (Miami)", received radio airplay in the United States.

The Arc of Sublime

The pivots — what forced Sublime to reinvent.

  1. The CSUDH Midnight Sessions

    From 1989 to 1992, the band operated as musical kleptomaniacs, sneaking into a university studio after hours to cut 40oz. to Freedom. Michael "Miguel" Happoldt engineered the sessions, helping them translate their chaotic backyard-keg-party energy into a coherent record. You hear the result in the cheap digital delays, the raw punk-rock drum hits, and the blatant, unlicensed sampling of everything from the Grateful Dead to KRS-One. It was a local word-of-mouth phenomenon that sold thousands of copies out of the trunk of their cars before a single major label even knew they existed.

  2. The Living Room Dub Collage

    For 1994's Robbin' the Hood, the band retreated into low-budget isolation, largely due to Nowell's worsening heroin addiction. They relied on a four-track recorder and cheap home setups to piece together a chaotic patchwork of bedroom acoustic tracks, harsh dub instrumentals, and spoken-word field recordings. It was a massive departure from the relatively clean ska-punk of their debut, swapping commercial polish for pure, unvarnished lo-fi claustrophobia. The record proved they were far more interested in experimental dub and hip-hop production than radio-friendly pop hooks.

  3. The Paul Leary Austin Sessions

    In 1996, MCA Records shipped the band to Pedernales Studio in Austin, Texas, putting Butthole Surfers guitarist Paul Leary in the producer's chair to corral the chaos. Leary cleaned up the frequencies, focused the rhythm section, and got Nowell to deliver his most devastatingly sharp vocal takes. The resulting self-titled album was a polished, multi-platinum juggernaut, but the triumph was instantly ruined when Nowell overdosed and died in a San Francisco motel room two months before its release. The record became a massive posthumous monument, defining the sound of late-nineties alternative radio through a lens of tragedy.

Influences

  • Bad Brains — Sublime covered 'House of Suffering' on 40oz. to Freedom and regularly lifted their lightning-fast hardcore punk tempos. You can hear the direct influence of HR's vocal delivery in Nowell's ability to pivot from a soulful reggae croon to a frantic, throat-shredding punk scream within a single bar. They took the Bad Brains blueprint of marrying authentic roots reggae with DC hardcore and brought it straight to the West Coast.
  • Half Pint — The hook of Sublime's biggest hit, 'What I Got', is a direct, uncredited lift of the vocal melody from Half Pint's 1983 dancehall classic 'Loving'. They also covered his track 'One in a Million' on their self-titled album. Half Pint's breezy, melodic dancehall style was the exact vocal template Nowell used to smooth out the band's harsh punk edges.
  • Toyes — Sublime famously covered their 1983 roots-reggae track 'Smoke Two Joints' on 40oz. to Freedom, using it as the lead-off single that broke them on Southern California radio. They took the original's laid-back groove and layered it with a drum break from James Brown's 'Funky Drummer' and samples from the movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It showed exactly how the band planned to rebuild classic reggae through a hip-hop sampler.
  • The Descendents — Sublime paid direct tribute by covering 'Hope' on their debut album, mimicking Bill Stevenson's hyperactive, driving drum style and Tony Lombardo's melodic, prominent basslines. The influence shows up in Eric Wilson's bass playing, which carries the melody of their fastest songs rather than just holding down the root notes. It gave their ska-punk tracks a muscular, pop-punk skeleton.
  • Barrington Levy — Sublime sampled Levy's 'Broad Word' on 'Caress Me Down' and frequently lifted his signature vocal improvisations and scatting style during live sets. Nowell's delivery on the studio track 'She's My Babe' borrows heavily from Levy's rub-a-dub phrasing and tone. They took his clean, powerful dancehall vocal style and dragged it through the dirt of a Long Beach punk backyard.

Discography

Related artists

Frequent collaborators

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