For their sole major-label outing, Heads Are Gonna Roll, they ditched many of their ska-punk influences for keyboards and released the minor hit single “Wasting My Life” only to break up in 2002. Releasing their debut album, Forget The World, on formerly underground label Fueled By Ramen in 1997, the Los Angeles group almost hit the big time when they signed to Interscope Records in 1999. While frontman/guitarist Ariel Rechtshaid would eventually go on to be an A-list producer/songwriter for such acts as Adele, HAIM and Vampire Weekend, his ska-punk band t he Hippos were superstars in their own right. Either way, you have four ’90s LPs (and four post-’90s albums) to keep you company in the meantime. They definitely had the industry cred, as they were critical darlings for both journalists and fellow musicians, but it’s speculated that they may not have been metal enough for metalheads to truly embrace or were too metal for alternative kids to latch on to. Possibly the biggest band on this list, New York City’s alternative-metal rockers Helmet seemed to constantly be on the possible brink of a grunge-like movement. Fun fact: The original version of DHC had ex- Operation Ivy guitarist Tim Armstrong and bassist Matt Freeman in it just before the two of them formed a band you never heard of called Downfall and a band you most certainly love called Rancid. The sad truth that Berkeley, California’s Dance Hall Crashers never got as big as ’90s ska superstars t he Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake is an abomination. The best punk-ska songs that you never heard? Check. Two frontwomen who sing in perfect harmony? Check. It’s a shame, as ALL were a more than solid pop-punk group in their own right. But the band never truly climbed to the heights of their predecessor. ALL would forever be mentioned in the same breath and compared to Descendents, and they released nine sonically consistent full-lengths that sold respectable amounts. As blink-182 would say, pop punk wouldn’t exist at all without Descendents, and ALL are The Godfather Part II -esque quality sequel to themselves with a different singer but the same amount of power and grit.
0 kommentar(er)
