Sublime Discography * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1992 40 Oz. to Freedom Sublime 1992 MCA 1. Waiting For My Ruca 2. 40oz. To Freedom 3.

Smoke Two Joints 4. We're Only Gonna Die For Our Arrogance 5. Don't Push 6. 5446 That's My Number/Ball And Chain 7. Badfish 8. Let's Go Get Stoned 9. New Thrash 10. Scarlet Begonias 11. Live At E's 12. D.J.s 13. Chica Me Tipo 14. Right Back 15. What Happened 16. New Song 17. Ebin 18. Date Rape 19. Hope 20. KRS-One 21. Rivers of Babylon 22. Thanx ---------------------------------------Ska music has been deeply ingrained in the punk rock culture since the Clash ado pted their rude boy stance near the end of the British punk invasion and the 2-T one label put ska on the map. Suddenly, punks stopped kicking the crap out of ea ch other long enough to dance. The debut release by Orange County, California's Sublime is a positively infectious record that marries varied styles of dub, reg gae, rap, sampling, scratching, and badass dancehall ska with old-school punk ov ertones. Musicianship on this record is exceptionally tight, featuring Brad Nowe ll's innovative guitar work and bright, soulful voice. Packed with 40 oz. of roc k (21 tracks) including the ultimate pot-smoking anthem "Smoke Two Joints" and t he novelty hit "Date Rape." ---------------------------------------With their debut, 40 Oz. to Freedom, Sublime attempt to have it both ways. The g roup wants to appeal to alterna-punks, but they want to cut a little deeper and make some sort of social statement, both with their lyrics and their self-consci ously eclectic music. Since the group has a knack for combining dancehall reggae with hardcore punk, the music can be nervy and invigorating, but their joyous b lend of cultures falls apart at the lyrical level. No matter what you look at it , "Date Rape" isn't a bold, ironic satire on macho mores -- it's frat rock that' s bound to be misinterpreted, especially with its homophobic "I don't feel too s orry for his kind/now that he gets it in the behind" conclusion. Lyrics like tha t prevent 40 Oz. to Freedom from being the cracking, skanking skatepunk record t hat it had the potential to be.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1994 Robbin' the Hood Sublime 1994 MCA 1. Waiting for Bud 2. Steady B Loop Dub 3. Raleigh Soliloquy, Pt. I 4. Pool Shark [Original] 5. Steppin' Razor 6. Greatest Hits 7. Free Loop Dub/Q-Ball 8. Saw Red 9. Work That We Do 10. Lincoln Highway Dub 11. Pool Shark [Acoustic] 12. Cisco Kid 13. Raleigh Soliloquy, Pt. II 14. S.T.P. 15. Boss D.J. 16. I Don't Care Too Much for Reggae Dub 17. Falling Idols 18. All You Need 19. Freeway Time in la County Jail 20. Mary 21. Raleigh Soliloquy, Pt. III 22. [Hidden Track] ---------------------------------------Pieced together rather quickly, Robbin' the Hood wasn't really intended to be th e followup to Sublime's debut 40 Oz. to Freedom, but what is shocking is how muc h better the record is from its predecessor. Boasting a wider range of influence s -- including elements of reggae and old-school hip-hop -- the record is a loos e, infectious blend of styles that rides along on its own sense of energy. Brad Nowell's songwriting might still be at a rudimentary level, but the group sounds more muscular and musical than before, demonstrating that the breakthrough of i ts sole major-label record, Sublime, wasn't an accident. ---------------------------------------Long Beach garage kings Sublime rode the cresting wave of late-'80s/early-'90s C ali punk to a well-received 1996 major-label debut whose success was overshadowe d by tragedy: frontman Brad Nowell died of a heroin overdose just a month before its release. This 1994 album was their freshman indie outing and the record tha t largely secured their ticket to the majors. Instead of building on the energet ic, if formulaic, punk-reggae fusion of their 1992 40 Oz. to Freedom (with its s ometimes awkward, too-dumb-to-be-ironic lyrical bent), Robbin' displays a Nowell whose slow evolution as a songwriter is more than compensated by an eager plund ering of old-school rap influences and ska beats. It's a record that moves the b and beyond often-stultifying punk clichs to a true musical adventure whose buoyan t sense of discovery is almost palpable, and one that proves that their '96 biglabel breakthrough was no accident. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1996 Sublime

Sublime July 30, 1996 MCA 1. Garden Grove 2. What I Got 3. Wrong Way 4. Same in the End 5. April 29, 1992 (Miami) 6. Santeria 7. Seed 8. Jailhouse 9. Pawn Shop 10. Paddle Out 11. Ballad of Johnny Butt 12. Burritos 13. Under My Voodoo 14. Get Ready 15. Caress Me Down 16. What I Got (Reprise) 17. Doin' Time ---------------------------------------For all his tattoos and bulked-up frat-boy persona, singer Bradley Nowell had re al soul, which made his fatal heroin overdose even more tragic. There's more to this Long Beach, California, trio's debut, released shortly after Nowell's death in 1996, than white suburban punks imitating Jamaican ska music. The band comes up with great songs, notably the catchy MTV hit "What I Got"; spooky dub-reggae undertones, produced by the Butthole Surfers' Paul Leary, to go with the snappy horns; and surprisingly progressive lyrics that attack sexism and other social ills, especially on "Wrong Way." Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone, ob vious forebears, Sublime become slightly tiresome after 17 songs, but the band i s great in short doses. ---------------------------------------Sublime's eponymous major-label debut arrived a few months after the band's lead er, Brad Nowell, died tragically of a heroin overdose. As a show of sympathy, th e album tended to be slightly overrated in some critical quarters, who claimed t hat Nowell was an exceptionally gifted lyricist and musical hybridist, but Subli me doesn't quite support those claims. The trio does have a surprising grace in its unabashedly traditionalist fusion of Californian hardcore punk, light hip-ho p, and reggae. Switching between bracing hardcore and slow, sexy reggae numbers, Sublime display supple, muscular versatility and, on occasion, a gift for ingra tiatingly catchy hooks, as on the hit single "What I Got." What they don't have is the vision -- either lyrical or musical -- to maintain interest throughout th e course of the entire album. Sublime sags when the band delves too deeply into their dub aspirations or when their lyrics slide into smirking humor. The low mo ments don't arrive that often -- by and large, the album is quite engaging -- bu t they happen frequently enough to make the record a demonstration of the band's blossoming ability, but not the fulfillment of their full potential. Of course, Nowell's death gives the record a certain pathos, but that doesn't make the alb um any stronger. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1997 Second Hand Smoke Sublime

November 25, 1997 MCA 1. Doin' Time [Uptown Dub] 2. Get Out! [Remix] 3. Romeo 4. New Realization 5. Don't Push 6. Slow Ride 7. Chick on My Tip 8. Had a Dat 9. Trench Town Rock 10. Badfish 11. Drunk Drivin' 12. Saw Red 13. Garbage Grove 14. April 29, 1992 (Miami) [Leary] 15. Superstar Punani 16. Legal Dub 17. What's Really Goin' Wrong 18. Doin' Time [Eerie Splendor Remix] 19. Thanx Dub ---------------------------------------Most posthumous albums are shrouded in a sense of morbid nostalgia and grim curi osity. In Sublime's case, there was also some cruel irony to contend with: the C alifornia nuevo-punk outfit's promising self-titled major-label debut and commer cial breakout was released barely a month after frontman Brad Nowell's death fro m a heroin overdose--and their de facto demise. But such was the Long Beach band 's longtime following that raiding the vaults, however sparse, was inevitable. R eleased 18 months after Nowell's death, Second Hand Smoke more than lived up to its title, cobbling together a collection of outtakes from their debut and paddi ng them out with (sometimes multiple) remixes of old tracks like "Doin' Time," " April 29," and the Gwen Stefani duet, "Saw Red." There's a standout cover of Bob Marley's "Trenchtown Rock," but a lot of the rest feels like the incomplete dis cards and second (or third) choices they obviously were. ---------------------------------------The success of Sublime was both a blessing and a curse for the band -- a blessin g because the group and its lead singer/songwriter Brad Nowell were celebrated a fter his tragic death, and a curse because there's no way the rhythm section cou ld successfully produce a follow-up. There was only one thing to do -- release e verything left in the vaults as quickly as possible, since their audience would fade even if they waited one year. So, in 1997, a live and rarities EP entitled What I Got was released in September, followed less than two months later by Sec ond Hand Smoke, a hodgepodge of unreleased tracks from the Sublime sessions. The re's a reason why these weren't released: they're not very good. The cover of Bo b Marley's "Trenchtown Rock" is OK, but the originals are repetitive and not ver y catchy, and the remix of the Gwen Stefani duet "Saw Red" is simply unnecessary . Only hardcore fans will find things of worth here, and even those will be mino r pleasures. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1998 Stand by Your Van [Live] Sublime

June 23, 1998 MCA 1. Don't Push 2. Right Back 3. New Thrash 4. Let's Go Get Stoned 5. Greatest Hits 6. Date Rape 7. S.T.P. 8. Badfish 9. D.J.S. 10. Work That We Do 11. Poolshark 12. Ebin 13. All You Need 14. Waiting For My Ruca 15. Caress Me Down 16. KRS-One ---------------------------------------...[A]s necrophiliac exploitation goes, Sublime Live isn't half bad: Nowell's un ruly genius stumbles through. He leads a cheer for Lou-Dog; scats, raps, even si ngs; tosses in hardcore and Toots and the Maytals before "Date Rape." The fragil e dignity that sustained him never collapses.... ---------------------------------------[E]xpect to be impressed with the way these well-recorded, beer-saturated club c uts capture the late Brad Nowell's endearing jerk charm and the band's stage pow er. ---------------------------------------A little over two years after Bradley Nowell's tragic death, Sublime released it s second posthumous album, Live: Stand by Your Van. Sublime never had the chance to tour the material from Sublime, which turned out to be their most popular al bum. That means that all 16 tracks on Stand by Your Van are taken from their fir st two albums, before Nowell's songwriting had truly come into its own. Neverthe less, he had several good songs on 40 Oz. to Freedom and Robbin' the Hood, and b y consolidating the best moments from those two relatively uneven albums, the li ve record offers something of a "greatest hits" of their early years. If the per formances aren't that different from the studio versions -- they're simply a lit tle rawer, a little faster, a little looser -- they're still strong and energeti c, capturing the essence of the group's live show. Ultimately, that energy is wh at makes Live: Stand by Your Van the best posthumous Sublime record to date. Nob ody outside of hardcore fans needs this record, but the quality of the music is better than either the What I Got EP or the haphazard outtakes album Second Hand Smoke, and that alone makes its release somewhat noteworthy. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1998 Acoustic: Bradley Nowell & Friends Sublime November 17, 1998 MCA 1. Wrong Way

2. Saw Red 3. Foolish Fool 4. Don't Push 5. Mary/Big Salty Tears 6. Boss D.J. 7. Garden Grove [Live] 8. Rivers of Babylon 9. Little District 10. KRS-One [Live] 11. Marley Medley [Guava Jelly/This Train] 12. What Happened/Eyes of Fatima 13. Freeway Time in L.A. County Jail 14. Pool Shark 15. It's Who You Know ---------------------------------------A couple of bright spots glimmer ... but there's far too much murk between them. ---------------------------------------Between November 1997 and November 1998, the Bradley Nowell estate, MCA and the surviving members of Sublime released no less than three albums of outtakes, rar ities and live tracks, culminating with Acoustic: Bradley Nowell & Friends. At f irst glance, this appears to be the least interesting of the three albums, since it doesn't have outtakes like Second Hand Smoke or document the band in their l ive prime, like Stand By Your Van. Strangely enough, that's the reason why it's the most engaging of any of the posthumous Sublime releases. Throughout all thes e recordings, many of which are decidedly lo-fi, Nowell and a variety of support ing musicians run through Sublime favorites, toss-offs and covers. It's relaxed, funny and, funnily enough, quite moving, because it captures a human, touching side of Nowell that only surfaced in glimpses on Sublime's offical albums. Of co urse, this is something that will be of interest primarily to hardcore fans, not fellow travelers who only owned Sublime, but that's the reason why Acoustic is the best of all the Sublime records released after Nowell's death. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1999 Greatest Hits Sublime November 9, 1999 MCA 1. What I Got 2. Wrong Way 3. Santeria 4. 40 Oz. To Freedom 5. Smoke Two Joints 6. Date Rape 7. Saw Red 8. Badfish 9. Doin' Time 10. Pool Shark ---------------------------------------12 track, 1999 collection that is deleted in the US. Includes 2 videos 'What I G ot' & 'Wrong Way'. Universal.

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