Smash Mouth
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| Smash Mouth | |
|---|---|
| Image:SmashMouth.jpg {{{caption}}} | |
| Origin | {{{origin}}} |
| Country | San Jose, California, USA |
| Years active | 1994 – present |
| Genre(s) | Alternative RockSka-Punk |
| Label(s) | Universal Records |
| Members | Steven Harwell Greg Camp Paul De Lisle Michael Urbano |
| Past members | {{{past_members}}} |
Smash Mouth is an alternative rock band from San Jose, California. Formed in 1994, the band is comprised of Steven Harwell (lead vocalist), Greg Camp (guitarist/songwriter), Paul De Lisle (bassist) and Michael Urbano (drummer).
Sometimes called "neo-ska" music, the band has adopted retro styles spanning several decades of popular music, as well as performing covers of popular songs like The Monkees' "I'm a Believer" and War's "Why Can't We Be Friends". The band's 1999 release Astro Lounge is their most critically and commercially successful album to date.
Contents |
Brief History
Smash Mouth first formed in 1994 in San Jose, California. Steven Harwell was a veteran of a disbanded rap group called F.O.S. (who only released one single, only available on vinyl "Big Black Boots"). His former manager was Kevin Coleman. Harwell wanted to get a rock band together, so Coleman introduced him to friends; guitarist Greg Camp and bassist Paul De Lisle, both veterans of a local punk band called Lackadaddy. The band had the first rehearsal later, with Coleman on drums. They named themselves Smash Mouth after a football play, and played for the most part the then somewhat popular ska-punk, although Harwell claims the band is variously influenced.
Smash Mouth got their break in 1996 when San Jose rock station KOME played a demo of their song "Nervous In The Alley". Sure enough, it became somewhat popular. They were signed by Interscope Records after a show, and Smash Mouth released their first album Fush Yu Mang the next year.
"Walkin' on the Sun" was Smash Mouth's first major single, released 1997. The song was thought by some to be loosely based on a relatively obscure song from 1966, "Swan's Splashdown" by Perrey and Kingsley. The lyrics in "Walking on the Sun" present an ironic and implied Generation X view of the hippie movement, extolling ideals of peace and love, and the subsequent conversion of those ideals into simple commercial fads.
The song was the lead single from Smash Mouth's Fush Yu Mang album, with a title and font suggesting Oriental characters. The album combined light-hearted fun with songs exposing a darker side, such as "Disconnect the Dots" and the aforementioned "Nervous in the Alley,". "Let's Rock" did moderately well as the third and final single, and the album went double platinum.
In 1999 Smash Mouth released their second album, Astro Lounge. This album involved much less of the band's previous ska influence, and was critically considered more laid-back, sophisticated and retro-sounding, and to a point, poppy. This was also the only Smash Mouth album that did not contain at least one swear word to any degree, which was particularly strange in that Fush Yu Mang was Parental Advisory. The band lost much of their orignal fan base by switching to this style, but gained many more new ones.
The Astro Lounge single "All Star" became popular in mid-1999, and it was featured on the soundtracks for the movies Mystery Men and later Shrek and, Rat Race; "All Star" was followed by a second single, "Then the Morning Comes", "Come On Come On" and "Waste" did moderately well as singles, and Astro Lounge sold triple platinum, proving the band was not a one hit wonder as they had been previously tagged by critics for "Walkin' On The Sun".
Kevin Coleman quit the band after Astro Lounge's release due to lower back problems. He was replaced by studio drummer Michael Urbano, who recorded on all of their subsequent albums.
In 2001 Smash Mouth covered The Monkees hit "I'm A Believer"; featured on the Shrek movie soundtrack. This was followed by the release of a self-titled album Smash Mouth.
Commercially, Smash Mouth did extremely well due perhaps only to "I'm a Believer", a smash single that even most critics say was better than The Monkees original. However, because Shrek featured this song on the soundtrack, this caused many people to buy that album over Smash Mouth's own. (Smash Mouth was not released until November, and the Shrek soundtrack was out as soon as the song was released as a single.) Nonetheless, Smash Mouth had moderate singles: "Holiday In My Head", "Pacific Coast Party" and "Shoes N' Hats" to support it, and the album managed to go gold despite this.
In 2003 Smash Mouth released Get The Picture?, which they expected to be their comeback album due to somewhat disappointing sales on Smash Mouth. Unfortunately, the album (especially compared to the way Smash Mouth has sold in the past), did miserably and still has yet to even go gold. Moderately popular single "You Are My Number One" attracted some attention, while the singles "Hang On" and "Always Gets Her Way" flopped. The album sold a disappointing 33,000 units, and, because of this, was dropped from their label, Interscope.
Now signed to Universal Records, Smash Mouth released a greatest hits compilation All Star: The Smash Hits in 2005. The album contained every popular song from previous Smash Mouth albums and movie soundtrack songs never released on any of the bands own albums.
In Decemeber 2005 the band released a Christmas album Gift of Rock. It featured mostly covers of chirstmas songs by many artists, including The Kinks and The Ramones, but featured one original song, "Baggage Claim".
Smash Mouth's fifth studio album, Old Habits, is due for a 2005 holiday season release. In September the band performed what is tentatively going to be the first single, "Getaway Car", on The Tonight Show.
Musical Influence/Style
Smash Mouth style and musical influence is a matter of debate by fans. Most people who only know the bands hit singles often label them as a 60's rip off pop band, however, the material on the bands albums is much more musically diverse.
Most fans consider them to be one of those "change" bands who change styles from album to album. Fush Yu Mang, in most peoples eyes, was very stictly ska/hardcore with the exception of "Walkin' on The Sun", which earned the band their false reputation as a "60's ripoff band".
Astro Lounge was by far Smash Mouth's softest release, and had a lot of space age/techno influences as well as sticking to a 60's throwback style. It also had some surf influences.
Their self-titled CD was basically a mix of everything the band had previously done, some poppy songs, some retro, some space agey, as well as a slight return to their punk influences on "Shoes N' Hats" and "Your Man", however, "I'm A Believer" furthered the false belief that they were a 60's ripoff band.
Get The Picture was for the most part a surf-pop/rock album, with most songs having surf influences to degrees no previous Smash Mouth album had, "New Planet" was somewhat punky, and the band bordered heavy metal with "Hot", but Get The Picture? was considered the bands most surf influenced album and had Greg Camp playing in a Dick Dale esque guitar style for most of the songs.
Overall, the band points a good deal of their influence to most classic rock, as well as Elvis Presley, Van Halen, The Beatles, punk acts such as The Buzzcocks and The Clash, and surf acts like The Beach Boys and Dick Dale. However, Steve Harwell claims "I don't care what you call us, I just want to be considered Smash Mouth."
Members
Current
- Steven Harwell - Lead vocals
- Greg Camp - Guitar, additional keyboards, main songwriting, backing vocals
- Paul De Lisle - Bass, backing vocals
- Michael Urbano - Drums (joined in 1999).
The band also contains members that are not exactly "in" the band, such as Keyboardist Michael Klooster and Percussionist Mark Cervantes
Past
- Kevin Coleman - Drums (left in 1999)
- Mitch Marine - Drums (joined and left in 1999, played on Astro Lounge tour)
Discography
- Fush Yu Mang, (1997) - US Sales: Double platinum (2,000,000) US #19
- Astro Lounge, (1999) - US Sales: Triple platinum (3,000,000) US #6
- The East Bay Session, (1999) - Collection of early material, independently released
- Smash Mouth, (2001) - US Sales: Gold (500,000) US #48
- Get the Picture?, (2003) - US Sales: No accreditation (33,000) US #100
- All Star: The Smash Hits, (2005) - US #96
- Gift of Rock (2005) -Chrats Unknown
- Old Habits, unreleased, coming late (2005)
