Formed in Long Beach, California in 1988 as a garage-punk 
band, Sublime grew to fame in the mid-'90s on the back of the 
Cali punk explosion engendered by Green Day and the Offspring, 
though Sublime mixed up their punk rage with reggae and ska 
influences. The band released just two albums during its first seven 
years, finally finding a hit with the self-titled third. It was Sublime's
last, however, as lead singer Brad Nowell died in May 1996, just 
two months before the album's release.The trio which comprised 
Sublime -- vocalist/guitarist Nowell, bassist Eric Wilson and drummer 
Bud Gaugh -- played their first gig on the 4th of July 1988 at a small 
Long Beach club (a show which sparked the infamous Peninsula Riot). 
The group began aggressively touring around the area with an 
increasingly substantial following, especially among the surf/skate 
beach crowd. After four years of concentrating strictly on live shows, 
Sublime's first album (40 Oz. to Freedom) was recorded in 1992. The 
LP was released on Skunk Records -- the label formed by Nowell with 
Sublime manager Miguel -- and sold at shows, but really started to 
break when KROQ began playing the single "Date Rape" two years 
after its initial release. Mostly due to the radio exposure, Sublime 
signed to MCA for 1994's Robbin' the Hood, which revealed an 
experimental ethic more in keeping with cut-and-paste dub than the 
well-tuned rage of the Cali punk revival. The album performed well at 
college radio, and set the stage for the breakout success of their self-titled 
third album. On May 25, 1996, however, Brad Nowell was found in a 
San Francisco hotel room, dead of a heroin overdose. The band collapsed, 
but Sublime was still slated for a July release. On the strength of the 
alternative radio hit "What I Got," the album was certified gold by the end 
of 1996. A number of posthumous releases followed, among them 1997's 
Second Hand Smoke, 1998's Live: Stand by Your Van and Acoustic: 
Bradley Nowell and Friends