Austin, TX · pop-punk · ska-punk

The Impossibles

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Austin's beloved late-'90s pop-punk/ska outfit, all sugar-rush hooks and horns — a nostalgia hit that still detonates live.

The Impossibles started in Austin as a band called the Fat Girls before renaming themselves after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Gabe Hascall, previously a bassist in a hardcore band, joined as the group's singer and soon added guitar. Songwriting fell mainly to Hascall and Rory Phillips, who remained the band's constant core through changes in lineup.

Word spread through a demo tape and a split single with fellow Austin act Dynamite Boy, catching the ear of Less Than Jake drummer Vinnie Fiorello. He signed the band to his new label, Fueled by Ramen, whose first release was a reissue of the group's self-titled debut, originally self-released on Red Five Records.

Early on, the band's ska-punk conventions, upstroke guitars, horn lines and quick tempos, drew comparisons to a cross between Operation Ivy and Weezer, with further echoes of Avail and Nirvana. Over time the horns receded and the songs moved toward straight-ahead melodic pop-punk, with layered harmonies and hooks owing as much to power pop as to hardcore.

The band announced plans to split in late 1997 but kept playing until a Super Bowl Sunday show in 1998 at Austin's Liberty Lunch, alongside Less Than Jake and Riverfenix. Phillips and Hascall later formed Slowreader, also on Fueled by Ramen, following a second breakup in 2002.

The Impossibles have reconvened periodically since, announcing a reunion show in 2012 and a further return in 2026, playing to audiences who came to the records during the band's original run and to a later generation who found them second-hand.

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pop-punkska-punk