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

Sublime

3 upcoming festivals

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. 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.

The independently released 40oz. to Freedom built a following through Southern California radio and word of mouth. 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. Wilson and Gaugh later continued in related projects, and in recent years Nowell's son Jakob has fronted performances of the catalogue.

ska-punkreggae rockreggae-rock