Sublime - The Sound of Long Beach

What I really want to say, I can’t define

Well, it’s love that I need, oh

My soul will have to wait

Brad Nowell (guitar, vocals), Eric Wilson (bass), Bud Gaugh (drums): Sublime. Just a few words are enough to define one of the most exquisitely underground phenomena of the Nineties: 30,000 records sold in two years without a distributor — a success that, as it turned out, anticipated an even bigger, if posthumous, embrace from the wider public.

Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh had known each other since childhood, good neighbours back in their native California, more precisely in Long Beach. They formed the Juice Bros, later joined by Bradley Nowell, a young man who had just dropped out of college. Nowell, already a guitarist in Hogan's Heroes — a band in which Eric Wilson had also played — introduced his bandmates to ska and reggae, not without some difficulty. As the Los Angeles Times reported, their first attempts, including a version of UB40's "Cherry Oh Baby", were a flop.

The underground years: late-night rehearsals and the debut

Sublime began their adventure on 4 July 1988, playing live at the "Peninsula Riot" in Long Beach, leaving local audiences generally puzzled by their crossover style. Their quiet rise built slowly before exploding in '92, the year they signed with Skunk Records — the most famous independent label in Long Beach, co-founded by Nowell himself along with Michael "Miguel" Happoldt. The band's prehistory is made up of appearances at parties and small clubs across Southern California, sharing bills with acts who would go on to far more mainstream success, like No Doubt. During this period, spanning 1988 to 1990, they recorded a series of demos distributed in makeshift, amateur fashion, fuelling word of mouth. The energy of that era can be heard on the cassette Jah Won't Pay the Bills (released only in 1991), which captures a legendary session of late-night rehearsals at the school where Happoldt was studying.

The result was their official debut, 40 oz. To Freedom (1992): the album, 22 tracks that became 23 on the cassette version, still stands today as one of the best-selling underground records ever, and was recorded in amateur fashion, essentially at home. Nowell recalled those days fondly: "We used to sell our records around, out of the car." It was a lethal mix of dub, reggae, ska, punk, funk, rock and hip-hop that established the group — and we're talking here about a real group of friends — in the local scene and beyond. From the opening of the very first track, "Waiting For My Ruca", it's clear their sound was like nothing else around: a bass solo so dub, so reggae, mixes with a drum hit, and Brad's voice rises amid a couple of scratches straight out of hip-hop — this is essentially the true essence of the band.

The album continues with the title track, in which Nowell's guitar surges between reggae rhythms and pure rock riffs, while the third song, "Smoke Two Joints" (a cover of The Toyes), with a nod to rapper Eazy-E, makes the dominant mood clear from the title alone. It's with tracks like "New Trash" and "Hope", on the other hand, that the band embraces punk, before shifting again toward a dub intertwined with hip-hop on "Don't Push" (which heavily quotes a Beastie Boys lyric) and "Let's Go To Be Stoned".

The blazing ska-punk of "54-46: That's My Number/Ball & Chain" (a reworking of a Toots & the Maytals classic) and "What Happened?" are almost routine for Sublime, who hit their peak with the near-ballad "Badfish" (an anthem for every Long Beach band that would follow in their wake) and the surprising "hit" "Date Rape", which tells the story of an encounter between a boy and a girl that doesn't exactly end well.

The second-to-last two tracks, recorded live in front of a group of friends and mixed at a later date, are surprisingly acoustic: "Krs-One" is dedicated to the rapper of the same name, one of the band's key influences, while "Rivers Of Babylon" is a tribute to reggae. Closing the album is "Crucial Thanks", a superb, vaguely Middle Eastern-tinged dub track, full of thanks and shout-outs.

Initially known only through distribution at shows, the band's new album and new sound became famous thanks to airplay on radio station KROQ. It would go on to sell more than two million copies, though only a small fraction of that in the months immediately following its release. Still, that spark of success was enough to ignite their career and launch one of the most original adventures in ska-punk. All things considered, alongside Offspring's "Smash" (1994) — fellow Californians — it stands as one of the all-time best-sellers of the independent world.

Success and tragedy: the cruel timing of Brad Nowell's fate

Sublime kept busy with touring and promotion, releasing their second album, Robbin' The Hood, in 1994, later reissued by MCA, a much bigger and more influential label that would effectively be their gateway to the mainstream with their next record. Again recorded "at home", the album is made up of 22 tracks, mostly in a short dub/rap style lasting anywhere from one to three minutes, with few actual vocal parts, but certainly striking ones: "Greatest Hits" says it all, and "Saw Red" (a schizophrenic ska number) even features No Doubt. "Freeway Time In La County Jail" is a slow, melancholy blues that's genuinely moving, while the real gem of the whole record is "Boss Dj", Brad Nowell's acoustic confession.

Robbin The Hood sold 2,000 copies in under two weeks and seemed to be slowly propelling the band toward well-deserved fame, helped along by the simultaneous success of the single "Date Rape". Throughout 1994 and 1995, Sublime toured almost non-stop. They also took part in the Vans Warped Tour, though things didn't seem entirely under control: they were politely asked to leave after some unrest. Gaugh summed up their routine for Time as one of heavy drinking and a decidedly biting sense of humour. They also played the Three Ring Circus Tour (later documented on 2013's 3 Ring Circus – Live at The Palace) and the SnoCore Tour, all while preparing their major-label debut with a self-titled album.

Tragically, excess and heroin abuse led to Brad Nowell's death: on 25 May 1996, the day after their final show in Petaluma, he was found dead in a San Francisco hotel room, just a few months before the release of the new record. Nowell had nonetheless been able to take part in the entire recording process. At just 28 years old, he joined the tragic roster of musicians destroyed by their own reckless lives before they could fully realise their talent.

The band's third and final album, Sublime, shot into the Billboard Top 20 and, by the end of 1997, had sold more than two million copies, thanks above all to the single "What I Got" (awarded "Best Alternative Video" at the MTV Awards), likely nodding to the Beatles' "Lady Madonna" and certainly to Half Pint's "Loving". As of 2022 it has gone five-times platinum in the United States. It's a record made amid an even more unsustainable climate of excess, between heroin and endless parties. First-hand accounts describe serious risks of the building where the band had gathered to rehearse and record going up in flames.

Other standout tracks include: "Santeria", a catchy ballad; "Caress Me Down", classic-style reggae; and "April 29, 1992 (Miami)", one of the finest dub/rap tracks they ever cut.

The most innovative songs are certainly "Same In The End", in which the band devastatingly blends punk-rock with ska, and above all "Doin' Time", a danceable melody built around George Gershwin's "Summertime".

From rising stars to cult band: the posthumous releases

Eric and Bud, the other members of the group, went on in the following years to release a collection of unreleased tracks and remixes titled Second Hand Smoke (1997), the live album Stand By Your Van (1998), and above all Sublime Acoustic: Bradley Nowell & Friends (1998), a collection of entirely acoustic songs featuring Brad on guitar performing tracks from his own repertoire and a particular medley dedicated to Bob Marley; the sound quality isn't the best, but the material is excellent and compelling. Released in 1999, Greatest Hits does the job of summing up the band's brief career in ten tracks: it's a great introduction to the group, a fine compilation to pique the curiosity even of those less inclined toward this sound. The idea is so good that 20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Sublime (2002) shamelessly repeats it. The much more extensive compilation Gold (2005) and the collector's box-set Everything Under The Sun (2006) exhaust whatever was left to release. Less significant compilations followed, such as Playlists Your Way (2008), Icon (2008), and the remixes on Sublime Meets Scientist & Mad Professor Inna L.B.C. (2021). Over the years there have been tributes, videos, side projects and a whole range of activities kept alive by the passion of an unshakeable fanbase.

The Sublime sound was the synthesis of the natural youth culture of Long Beach and Southern California. A body of work that took off in the American underground circuit of the '90s, but that would have deserved wider recognition too. After twenty years, perhaps, that recognition can be said to have arrived, if belatedly: over 17 million copies sold are there to confirm it, so much so that in 2019 a cover of "Doin' Time", sung by Lana Del Rey, was used to promote a documentary about the band and chosen as the fourth single from the acclaimed "Norman Fucking Rockwell!". Sublime's life may have been cruelly short, but the mark they left behind is destined to endure even decades later.

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