I started listening to Sublime when I was around 17 - I have the distinct memory of a friend driving me in his beat-up Nissan Micra (I think we were going kick-boxing - seemed like a good idea at the time, think I went twice) and sticking the album 40oz to Freedom on the stereo and stating I was going to love it, he was right.
Sublime are a Ska-Punk band from Long Beach, California. Their lead singer died of heroin overdose long before I got into them. They have a cult type following but have a big influence on many subsequents bands and scenes. The album 40oz to Freedom is one of the highest selling independently released albums of all time.
I do have a bit of a weakness for Ska - it makes me happy, I like the fact that it came from Jamaica, goes 2 Tone in England before then picking up in West Coast America - all very clearly Ska influenced but all clearly very different.
Stanley Franc
40oz To Freedom
Lets start with the album title track - '40z to Freedom', just sets the scene for the general Sublime vibe, ska verses, kick in the distortion for the choruses.
Ebin
Check out the wicked bass line intro, so damn smooth. Great story but alas, its all nonsense https://www.thrashermagazine.com/articles/sublime-the-strange-tale-of-ebin/
What I Got
Probably the most well known Sublime song - a 2 chord classic, happy upbeat fun stuff. Works great as an acoustic cover.
Doin' Time
'Doin' Time' - I love this song, great groove, breakbeat sampled type drums - recently covered by Lana Del Ray (great cover version!)
April 29th, 1992
The Los Angeles riots told through song, paints such the clear picture without being trite - having tried to write songs like this myself is really, really difficult to do well.
Date Rape
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