REVIEWS:
Mid 90s reggae/ska/punk/hip hop/hard rock trio led by very gifted guitarist and vocalist Brad Nowell, who tragically died of a heroin overdose before the band's third self titled album, their huge commercial breakthrough, was released. Rounding out the lineup were the surviving members, bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh. Prior to that album were their first two underground albums, 40 Oz. To Freedom and Robbin' The Hood. There exists several posthumous releases released after Sublime - including the remixes, unreleased songs and early demos compilation Second Hand Smoke, a live release Stand By Your Van and a greatest hits package.
--Nick Karn
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hey hey my name is Aliecha and i really really like sublime! they rawk my wurld! i stated to like them ever since my best friend Jessica got me into them my favorite song of sublime is "Cares Me Down" its funny and i really like it..my ex boyfriend also got me into them! man i really like them! haha well anyway i just wanna say that you ppl out there outa listen to the Rawk On Band Sublime!!! that picture says Sublime!!!
i would show you who i am but im not taking that risk!!! ahhahahahahahhahhahahahahhaahahahahahhahahahaahahhahahah
I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate this band. I can see why people like it, since the sound is a pretty cool fusion but I just can't stand Brad Nowell's obnoxious "cooler than thou" bohemian posturing. Especially that song where he bitches about the "crazy fools" who are always spoiling his fun and telling him not to smoke. No really Brad, go ahead and smoke, I insist. There's no law against it. I don't care if you develop lung cancer, actually, it's my gain because then I won't have to listen to your bullshit anymore. But for God's sake, do it on your own time. People aren't telling you not to smoke in public cause there a bunch of sissy spoil-sports, they're doing it because THEY DON'T LIKE GETTING YOUR FUCKING DISGUSTING SMOG BLOWN INTO THEIR FACES. Oh, I guess we might have forgotten that this affects other people. A lot of people see Nowell as a hip rebellious dude, but when it comes down to it he's just an egocentric prick. Yeah man, he doesn't listen to the cops, Brad Nowell does whatever he wants. ANARCHY!!!!
Oh, but the hilarious thing is that practically everybody I know who listens to this is some rich prep school kid wearing an Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt and singing along to a song about rioting on the street. Note that these are also the kind of people who purchase Che Guevera merchandise. "Santeria" is a pretty good song though.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
Oh yes, the humble beginnings of Sublime are here on an album that sold thousands of copies from the back of a van, a lead single called "Date Rape" which got airplay on K-Rock, and the inclusion of 21 songs spanning over an hour of music. Like hinted at before in the crappy intro paragraph, the numerous amount of material here seemingly included to make it difficult for us reviewers to concentrate on covers a lot of ground, ranging from ska, punk (or skate punk!), reggae, hip hop, hard rock and forays into acoustic territory. As to be expected for such an ambitious debut, it's not really all the way successful - the biggest problems here seem to revolve around the length of the album: while they're actually pretty good songs by themselves, inclusions on the second half of the album like "D.J.S.", "Ebin" and "Live At E's" almost seem to run together in such a formulaic mush that I can't even remember which one of 'em had the amusing Eric Wilson vocal appearance.
But other than the fact that there are a few too many midrange tunes like those (and silly stuff such as "Smoke Two Joints" and the half-baked punk of "New Thrash"), it's hard to really find fault with most of the rest here. A few of the songs in particular rival (and in some cases eclipse) the excellence of that self-titled thing. I'm particularly pointing at my personal favorite "Badfish", a completely excellent pop number with tinges of reggae within the sung parts and an acoustic flavor in the intro. Very, very catchy stuff, and what really brings it together is that fantastic echoey guitar solo. It's probably even my favorite tune in their brief catalog. "Scarlet Begonias" is a solid and quite catchy highlight as well - it has such a cool instrumental hook... but what is it produced by? Guitar? Organ? A random sample? Don't know, but this sure has a fun melody anyway. As does the aforementioned "Date Rape" single, which in this case has horns added to its' party rock style. Maybe the lyrics are a bit too straightforward (and towards the end, a bit ugly), but who cares? The groove it has is just fine.
If you're looking for a big highlight within the 'punk' side of things, look no further than the cover of Bad Religion's "We're Only Gonna Die For Our Own Arrogance" - Sublime really put their own stamp on it within the slower introductory guitar solo portion and verses, and sound forceful diving into the 'mosh pit', aggressive political ride of the song's remainder. Elsewhere, there's neat little grooves (the funky "Don't Push", the obnoxious but still memorably catchy "54-46 That's My Number" and "New Song", plus the slow, almost hip hop/techno hybrid "Waiting For My Ruca"), more pretty good pop-styled tunes (the title track and the dancey "What Happened", which has some nice horn breaks here and there), and two nice acoustic songs tacked on at the end ("KRS-One" and "Rivers Of Babylon", which has a nice, down to earth coffeehouse flavoring to its' atmosphere). Again, this album could have used a bit of trimming, as not all of it resonates too much, but 40 Oz. To Freedom is a good mix of songs as a whole, and certainly a nice way to start off a career.
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Perhaps rather unbelieveably, that catchy instrumental hook throughout Sublime's "Scarlet Begonias" was sampled from the second track- "I am stretched on your grave" of Sinead O'Conner's 1990 album I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got. They really know how to search out that perfect hook from such an obscure song and make it work. Just so you know...
I think 'Scarlet Begonias' is a cover of a Grateful Dead song from their album The Grateful Dead From The Mars Hotel. It's actually not that bad of a song.
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
The band's breakthrough release (a mixed blessing on account of their main songwriter Brad Nowell's death and the albums huge commercial success) is one of the very few albums released in the mid 90s that lives up to its' hype. The songs are not only all catchy but also very diverse and accomplished musically, with each of them a gem and hardly a weak track in the batch. This release includes forays into reggae (the groovy and upbeat "Jailhouse"), ska (the infectious ode to a prostitute in "Wrong Way"), surf punk (the short but very hard hitting "Paddle Out"), Hendrix influenced rock (the feedback heavy "Under My Voodoo", which has a great ending and awesome chorus), almost hardcore hip hop (the singalong "April 29, 1992 (Miami)"), acoustic territory (the awesomely catchy lead single "What I Got", which also has hip hop elements) and a slight hint of electronics (the drum sound of the nasty, sexual "Caress Me Down", which also features certain lyrics sung in Spanish).
Other major highlights here include the opener "Garden Grove", which has a mesmerizing bassline, awesome stream of consciousness lyrics and a 'ma-ma-ma-ma-madness' sample going along with an addictive groove to end the song, another smash single "Santeria", the ultimate highlight of the album which boasts it all - brilliant melody, clever lyrics, tight musicianship, and a great guitar solo, "Seed", which is an unstoppable combination of the punk and ska elements of the album, going back and forth from uplifting to hard-hitting, and "Pawn Shop", which repeats the same verse over and over for 6 minutes, but that verse is quite addictive - plus, there's some seriously underappreciated guitar soloing going on in that track.
The remainder of the songs also help Sublime secure its' place as a strong musical achievement of the 90s, with the socially conscious cover "The Ballad Of Johnny Butt" (with a chorus of 'we've got a brand new dance, it's called we got to overcome'), the rebellious lyrics and groove of "Get Ready" (which has defining lyrics of, 'Are you gonna call 9-1-1, and spoil all of my fun?'), the fast-paced ska and pessimistic lyricism of "Burritos", the reprise of "What I Got" that may seem pointless, but actually helps the album's flow and may be a bit better than the original, and the closing final single, the summertime anthem (literally - part of the chorus is sampled from the song "Summertime") "Doin' Time".
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Its fucking awesome
(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This is a compilation album of unreleased songs, remixes, and demo tracks, and while some of this material is quite good, it's not really a collection for casual fans to get into. The remixes of "April 29, 1992 (Miami)", "Garden Grove" and two different versions of "Doin' Time" (one of them a jazzy instrumental version with sax that opens the compilation) don't add anything to the originals (I don't know if I can say the same for the "Get Out!" and "I Saw Red" versions here since I haven't heard the album versions of those, though), and a few of the other songs (the cover of Bob Marley's "Trenchtown Rock", "Had A Dat", "Slow Ride", and the joke tune "Drunk Drivin'") are merely demo quality numbers.
"Romeo", "New Realisation" and the brilliant "Badfish" taken from 40 Oz., however, do show Brad Nowell's promise as a highly gifted and very witty lyricist and songwriter and are as good as anything off Sublime. The unreleased "Superstar Punani" from that album's sessions is also strong and entertaining, and the acoustic "What's Really Goin' Wrong" is decent. The closing "Thanx Dub", however, isn't - it's merely 6 minutes plus of pointless instrumental wanking and I don't understand why it was included in the first place.
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