I fully believe that had Brian Wilson would have been gunned down in New York back in 1980 instead of John Lennon and Eddie Vedder had put the shotgun in his mouth instead of Kurt Cobain, The Beach Boys would have been regarded as the most influential band ever while The Beatles would be arguing over the name throughout the nineties and Vedder would have been the voice of a generation while Nirvana would be putting out it’s comeback record this year. Yes, there is no better marketing strategy than dieing before your time from James Dean to Tupac (although that doesn’t seem work anymore as Aaliyah and TLC have wondered into obscurity).
We may never know if that was is the case for this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame, Sublime with their self-titled break out album that was released just weeks after lead singer’s Bradley Nowell fatal overdose. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a hit without the sob story surrounding the release, but then again, maybe the ska tinged band would have had continued success like fellow So-Cal band that made similar music, No Doubt granted I would like to think that Nowell wouldn’t have recorded a solo album featuring a song that made every girl in Middle School across the nation curse while singing along. But anyways.
The album is anchored by the three big hits from the album starting with the one that started it all for those who did have a radio station cool enough to play the Date Rape song off their previous album was the life is good anthem What I Got. There were two versions of the song on the album, and actually I’ll even take the Reprise version over the original. Then there was Santeria, a great sing-a-long for when you’re drunk. Then there was Wrong Way, which is the most similar track on the disk to Date Rape with it’s upbeat sound and sarcastic lyrics about a guy who can’t get any but in this case decides to pay for it as opposed to forcing himself on a girl.
But as great as the singles were, by no means was this album top heavy. Each song intertwines between ska, reggae, dub, and punk without watering down that genre. Even April 29, 1992 (Miami) has a twinge of hip-hop in it. Under My Voodoo is more of a straight ahead rock song with obvious shades of Jimi Hendrix. Paddle Out could have been a mosh pit anthem had it had a chance to be played live and Pawn Shop could have been a great live staple too with its jam band like groove to it.
I also had a chance to listen to the two disk tenth anniversary version of this album. The first disk is essentially the same album but it starts off with a cover of Trenchtown Rock and has a different sequencing than the orginal. Before any purist start complaining, my sources tell me that the new track list is closer to the one that Bradly Nowell wanted before his death. The second disk is just a hodgepodge of remixes (including five different ones of Doin’ Time) as well as a few other rarities. For those who enjoyed the short career of Sublime, may I suggest checking out the Long Beach Dub All-Stars comprised of the surviving members of Sublime as well as some other artists the band regularly collaborated with.
No comments:
Post a Comment