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It's been a long and wild ride since SUBLIME played their first gig back in the summer of l988. Any local scenester will
tell you they were there, and that it was this performance that ignited the infamous "Peninsula Riot" of Long Beach
in an explosive July 4th engagement. SUBLIME, once the "below average garage punk band that every kid wants to play his
party," has steadily escalated from backyard beer buddies, into a prestigious musical entity. Their underground credibility
has landed them slots with everyone from The Melvins and The Vandals to Firehose, HR of Bad Brains and Eek-a-Mouse. They played
the "bar-b-que" band on the LA stop of the Butthole Surfers-Stone Temple Pilots "Endless Bummer" tour.
Sublime's recording history began in early '92 when they teamed up with Long Beach's legendary SKUNK RECORDS to create a cult
masterpiece '40 oz. TO FREEDOM.' Two years, three vans, and five tours later, the CD has sold in excess of 30,000 units.-
without a distributor! The "40 oz" record is still charting at the top of most local alternative retail charts two
years after its initial release. Front man Brad Nowell contends, "We practically distributed the thing out of the trunks
of our cars." Sublime's new release, 'R0BBIN THE HOOD' sold over 2,000 units in less than two weeks. Mixing an aggressive
blend of thrash punk ethos with ska and dub rhythms, SUBLIME creates their own blend of sonic definition. "Hurtling hard-core
punk passages are just the punctuation, not the entire grammar, of a band that also took significant cues from the reggae
of Bob Marley," proclaims Mike Boehm in the LA Times Calendar. SUBLIME is on a mad mission of sound, utilizing samples
off of everything from old Minutemen records, hip-hop fanfare, and conversations with street denizens, to just plain old bong
sessions in the garage. Both albums were recorded for under $l0,000. That they didn't even bother to court the major labels
says much for their refreshing, iconoclastic stance. The albums each contain nearly 20 tracks of Sublime's genre jumping "shtick"
Some tracks on the new CD were recorded at world famous Westbeach Studios. Others are strictly econo-core 4 track home recordings,
invoking the d.i.y. approach of say early Beastie Boys. SUBLIME have developed a nearly fanatical base of followers since
1989. SUBLIME is not just a band, but a direct representation of a culture inherent to Southern California's beach cities.
SUBLIME is a style and a vibe encompassing music, attitude, and alternative meets hip-hop, and surf-skate fashion which remains
most apparent in the young and growing audience which the band attracts at every show. Theirs is a definite "scene"
taking place at a SUBLIME gig, This scene knows the words to all the tunes, and relates to the many musical voices of this
versatile trio SUBLIME is the perfect musical accompaniment to adolescence, just ask your kids.
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