Long Beach, CA · ska-punk · reggae rock · reggae-rock

Sublime

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Sun-bleached ska-punk-dub hybrid, now carried by Bradley Nowell's son with the songs left intact — '40oz. to Freedom' forever.

Sublime formed in Long Beach, California in 1988, built around singer and guitarist Bradley Nowell with bassist Eric Wilson and drummer Bud Gaugh. Wilson and Gaugh were childhood friends from the same Long Beach neighborhood, and Nowell had recently dropped out of the University of California, Santa Cruz. The band played its first show on July 4, 1988 in Belmont Shore, and when local venues proved wary of their eclectic sound, the group started its own label, Skunk Records, to appear more established.

The band's music pulled together ska, dub, reggae, punk and hip-hop, often within a single song, and was tied together by Nowell's loose, conversational singing and the group's habit of folding samples and borrowed riffs into their own material. Nowell's dalmatian, Lou Dog, traveled with the band and became a fixture of their live shows.

The independently released 40oz. to Freedom built a following through Southern California radio and word of mouth, followed by Robbin' the Hood in 1994. Nowell died of a heroin overdose in 1996, shortly before the release of the self-titled album that carried "What I Got," "Santeria" and "Wrong Way" to a much wider audience. That album reached number 13 on the Billboard 200, was certified Diamond, and the band's catalogue has sold more than 17 million copies worldwide, roughly 10 million of them in the US.

Wilson and Gaugh later continued in related projects. In 2009 they attempted to reform Sublime with guitarist Rome Ramirez, but a court ruling barred the new lineup from using the Sublime name without permission from Nowell's estate, so they continued instead as Sublime with Rome. That group released three albums before Gaugh's departure shortly after 2011's Yours Truly, and remained active into 2024.

In 2023, Wilson and Gaugh reunited again under the Sublime name, this time with Nowell's son Jakob taking over on vocals and guitar to front performances of the catalogue. The lineup recorded a fourth studio album, Until the Sun Explodes, which the band has said will be its final release.

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