So I'm sure anyone who went to high school or college in the late 1990's is going to be familiar with the group Sublime. These folks may guess what's coming here: a dose of nostalgia, to a relatively short lived phenomenon with a great impact. For anyone else, I can only recommend to check out this band, and not only the three songs I'm about to link in here, because their sound is just as deep as it is wide. In a way it's a lot more than one would expect from a band that is typically reduced to Californian skater music from the 90's.
"Me Gusta Mi Reggae, Me Gusta Punk Rock"
Characterizing music can be pretty challenging, especially if the style is all over the place, which is exactly the case with Sublime. Not only that, but they seem to combine all the most popular styles of the time: Smooth reggae, blended into rapid ska, hard thrashy punk, topped up with some hip-hop, and all without making it sound forced or artificial. Sometimes they even switch the rhythm right in the middle of the song, and still it sounds as kick-ass as you would expect.
Take the song Seed as an example: It starts out as some thrash-punk, but then switches to the choppy guitar rhythm of ska. Before soon, however, we find ourselves back in the headbanging mosh-pit, from where the guitarist takes us on a virtuous solo, reminiscent of some 70's glam-rock. It doesn't linger for long there either, but goes through the thrash-ska-punk routine a few more times. Truly incredible.
"Qualified to Represent the LBC"
Oh yeah, all the culture that gets amalgamated into something new and funky, down in Southern California. For these guys it is their home town of Long Beach City that serves as inspiration in their music. On the more working-class Pacific shores of the Los Angeles megalopolis there is a lot of surfing, graffiti, low-rider, custom cars and motorcycles, tattoos, skateboarding, and of course multi-genre music, combined into a sun-drenched living dream, particularly if you look back at it from twenty years later, representing your teenage years. It was not easy choosing one song to illustrate all of this, but Garden Grove should do the trick. I especially like the funky synth loop reminding me of something Dr. Dre would create.
"Mucho Gusto, Me Llamo Bradley"
Of course the biggest breakthroughs tend to happen after a tragic death, and that was not different with Sublime. Though the band has existed since 1988, it wasn't until 1996 that I got to hear about them, when their self-titled third album was released, shortly after lead singer and guitarist Bradley Nowell died of a heroine overdose. For me, however, as well as many of my contemporaries, this album became the defining music of my last year of high school, and even the following years I could not go to a party where they wouldn't at least play a few songs from this album. Of course I memorized the lyrics to many of their songs, since they were far from being simply carefree party music, tackling some of the messed up aspects of our times. One such example is April 29, 1992, relating to the Rodney King Riots that shook the US with violence and looting.
"It Will Be Revealed onto You in Sublime"
Given that this is a #treetunetuesday post, I should not post more than three tunes, right? And no matter which ones I pick, they are never enough to give you a complete idea of the musical scope of this incredible group. Their modest discography of three studio albums (plus a bunch of live and compilation stuff) will most certainly have a favorite for everyone who's ever heard of Sublime. And for those of you who haven't, please treat yourself to the entire Sublime - Sublime album. I promise it will be worthwhile, not just because of my own nostalgia.