Smash Mouth

Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth at VMworld 2007
Background information
Origin	San Jose, California, United States
Genres	Alternative rock, pop rock, ska punk, surf rock
Years active	1994–present
Labels	Interscope, Universal, Beautiful Bomb
Website	http://www.smashmouth.com/
Members
Steve Harwell Greg Camp Paul De Lisle Michael Urbano
Past members
Kevin Coleman Jason Sutter Leroy Miller Mitch Marine

Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994,^[1] and was originally composed of Steve Harwell, Greg Camp, Paul De Lisle and Kevin Coleman as lead vocals, guitar, bass and drums respectively. They are known for such songs as "Walkin' on the Sun" (1997) and "All Star" (1999).

They have at times played third wave ska music, but have generally adopted retro styles covering several decades of popular music. They have also performed numerous covers of popular songs, including The Monkees' "I'm a Believer", War's "Why Can't We Be Friends" and The Beatles' "Getting Better." The band's 1999 album Astro Lounge is their most successful album, both commercially and critically, to date.

History

Early years

Smash Mouth was formed in 1994 when Steve Harwell, who had formerly played in a defunct rap group called F.O.S., along with his manager, decided to form a rock band. Harwell's manager, Kevin Coleman, knew guitarist Greg Camp and bassist Paul De Lisle, who had both played in a local punk band, and introduced the three musicians to each other. The meeting led to the group beginning rehearsals together, along with Kevin Coleman as drummer. The group soon developed themselves into a band, and named themselves Smash Mouth, a football term. During their early years, the band played largely ska punk music, which had some popularity at that time, although since then Harwell has claimed that the band has had various influences. The band's first publicity came when a demo of the song "Nervous in the Alley" was played by a San José radio station, KOME. Soon after, Interscope Records signed the band after a show, and the group's debut album, Fush Yu Mang, was released in 1997.^[2]

1997: Fush Yu Mang

The album Fush Yu Mang was the band's first full-length album and was released in 1997. "Walkin' on the Sun", as the first single from the same album, was the band's first major single. The third single off the album, "Let's Rock," did moderately well, and the album eventually went double platinum.^[2]

1999: Astro Lounge

The band's second album, Astro Lounge, was released in 1999 and marked a change in direction, as it had less of the previous ska influence. Rather, it was closer to a pop album, and was described as "laid back, sophisticated and retro-sounding." Despite the change in sound, which did alienate some of the band's original fanbase, the album led to more publicity for the band, and ended up being one of the most critically acclaimed albums from the group. Supported by the successful single "All Star," which was featured in several movie soundtracks, Astro Lounge was eventually certified as triple platinum.^[2] Also in 1999, The East Bay Sessions was released as a collection of early songs. Shortly after the release of the album, drummer Kevin Coleman left the band due to back problems. He was replaced by Mitch Marine for the tour supporting Astro Lounge, who was subsequently replaced by Michael Urbano at the conclusion of the tour.^[3]

Smash Mouth

In 2001, Smash Mouth covered the Reeves and Mortimer/EMF version of The Monkees hit "I'm a Believer".^[4] It was featured on both the Shrek movie soundtrack as well as the eponymous album Smash Mouth.^[3] The Shrek soundtrack was released before the album, which had only moderate success and sold less copies than the band's earlier works, eventually being certified gold.^[2]

Get the Picture?

Two years after Smash Mouth was released, Get the Picture? was released. Despite featuring a somewhat popular single, "You are my Number One," the album sold poorly, with only 33,000 copies sold. The other singles from the album, "Hang On" from the film The Cat in the Hat and "Always Gets Her Way" were generally badly received. Due to the low sales, as well as band concerns over loss of control in their sound, Smash Mouth was dropped from Interscope shortly after the release of Get the Picture?. That same year, the band performed a cover of the Sherman Brothers song "I Wanna Be Like You" for the animated film The Jungle Book 2.^[2]

Following Get the Picture?'s run, the band fell out of the public eye. For a few years the band members' whereabouts were unknown to the public, with the only hints of their existence being a few songs recorded for movie soundtracks by Steve Harwell, leading many to believe that Smash Mouth had broken up and Harwell had gone solo.

Following the band's signing to Universal Records, Smash Mouth released a greatest hits compilation All Star Smash Hits in 2005. The album contains some of the more popular songs from previous Smash Mouth albums, as well as songs from soundtrack albums which were not on the band's own releases. On certain networks and timeslots, the album was advertised as having 18 tracks, including "Flo" and "Beer Goggles". Smash Mouth played at Gumby's Birthday Celebration in August 2005.

Gift of Rock

In December 2005, the band released a Christmas album Gift of Rock. It featured covers of Christmas songs by many artists, such as The Kinks and The Ramones, and one original song, "Baggage Claim".

Hiatus, Old Habits

Smash Mouth's fifth studio album, Old Habits, was expected to be released in early 2006. The band had said that the album was much more like the Ska Punk featured on Fush Yu Mang and The East Bay Sessions. In September 2005, the band performed what was tentatively going to be the album's first single, "Getaway Car", on Last Call with Carson Daly. The album was delayed many times, in the hope of gaining publicity with Steve's appearance on the reality show The Surreal Life. Smash Mouth returned to the studio intent on making their new record better.^[5] Old Habits was shelved, replaced by Summer Girl, which included some remixed Old Habits tracks as well as new songs. After being delayed in much the same way Old Habits was for several months, the album was released on September 19, 2006. Smash Mouth let Sony Pictures use much of their music from Summer Girl and other songs for the movie Zoom, whose opening titles credit the film's music to the band.

Summer Girl and Future

Before the release of Summer Girl, the Smash Mouth community was surprised when drummer Michael Urbano left the band without warning on February 14, 2006 due to creative differences. The band found a new drummer, Jason Sutter, best known for his work with American Hi-Fi and The Rembrandts. The band released their new album, Summer Girl later that year. In early 2007, just one year after joining the band, Jason Sutter left Smash Mouth to play drums for former Soundgarden and Audioslave front man, Chris Cornell. Fill-in drummer Mitch Marine returned to Smash Mouth and had said that this time he would be a permanent member. However he was replaced in June 2009 when Michael Urbano returned.

In the summer of 2008, Greg Camp left the band and released his solo album Defektor. Smash Mouth recruited Leroy Miller to play guitar. Miller left after a brief spell and Camp returned to the band soon after.

In 2008, they headlined Downtown Palatine Street Fest, an annual outdoor festival in the downtown area of Palatine, Illinois.^[6]

The band is currently back in the recording studio, and according to Smash Mouth's MySpace blog, a new album was to be out sometime in early 2009, but due to delays the album is now set for release in 2010. According to a response to fan mail, the style of their next album will be close to that of Smash Mouth's earlier albums, Fush Yu Mang and Astro Lounge. The group recently appeared on the 2009 Darryl Worley album entitled Sounds Like Life on the track "Don't Show Up (If You Can't Get Down)".

Band members

Current members

Smash Mouth lead vocalist Steve Harwell performing in the Centrum Arena at Southern Utah University.

• Steve Harwell – lead vocals (1994–present)
• Greg Camp – guitars, backing vocals, turntables (recording only) (1994–2008, 2009-present)
• Paul De Lisle – bass, backing vocals (1994–present)
• Michael Urbano – drums, percussion (2000–2006, 2009–present)

Current touring members

• Michael Klooster – keyboards, programming, backing vocals (1997–present)

Former members

• Leroy Miller – guitars, backing vocals (2008–2009)
• Mitch Marine – drums, percussion (1999–2000, 2006, 2007–2009)
• Kevin Coleman – drums, percussion (1994–1999)
• Jason Sutter – drums, percussion (2006–2007)

Former touring members

• Mark Cervantes – percussion, backing vocals (1999–2008)

Guests

• Mark Camp – turntables (Astro Lounge)
• DJ Homicide from Sugar Ray- turntables (Astro Lounge)

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Song appearances

• "All Star" is played in the films Mystery Men, Digimon: The Movie, Shrek, Inspector Gadget and Rat Race.
• "All Star" is featured in the video games Guitar Hero: On Tour, the DS version of Ultimate Band, and in the Rock Band series as downloadable content.
• "Can't Get Enough of you Baby" was featured in the film Can't Hardly Wait.
• "Come On, Come On" is played in the movies The Cat in the Hat, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, Big Fat Liar, Snow Day, the TV show Kim Possible, and was used to promote the movie Monster House.
• "Hang On" was also featured in the movie The Cat in the Hat. In addition, a music video was made with a "Cat In The Hat" theme, featuring clips from the film.
• "I'm a Believer" is also played in the movie Shrek.
• "Diggin' Your Scene" is played in a season one episode of Alias.
• "Diggin' Your Scene" appears in the dance video game Mungyodance.
• "Everyday Superhero" was used in the movie The Pacifier and the movie Zoom: The Academy for Superheros.
• "Every Word Means No" appears in an episode of Friends, Season 5 Episode 7.
• "Holiday In My Head" is used in the movie Clockstoppers.
• "Pacific Coast Party" is played in the movie The Sweetest Thing.
• "Sorry About Your Penis" is played in the movie Orgazmo. Credited as Smashmouth with no space.
• "Virgin Girl" is played in the movie Half Baked.
• "Why Can't We Be Friends" is played in the movie BASEketball.
• "Walkin' on the Sun" is featured in the films Can't Hardly Wait, Made of Honor, Shredderman Rules and An American Werewolf in Paris.

Media appearances

• The band appeared on the Howard Stern Show at the Playboy Mansion in LA in 2001.
• The band appeared on Charmed, Season 6 Episode 1 miming an edit of "You Are My Number One" at a beach party.
• The band performed "Walkin' on the Sun" on an episode of The Larry Sanders Show.
• The band appears in the ending of the movie Rat Race in a charity contest, performing "All Star".
• The band performed "Pacific Coast Party" on an season 7 episode of The Drew Carey Show.
• The band made an appearance on the show What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
• The band is depicted performing the song "Come On, Come On" live in a school dance scene in the episode "Queen Bebe" of the animated television series Kim Possible.
• On the season 35 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Jennifer Lopez, there is a sketch where a little girl (Nasim Pedrad) is scared to go to sleep because that's when the band members of Smash Mouth (Bobby Moynihan as Steve Harwell, Bill Hader as Michael Klooster, and Fred Armisen as Greg Camp) come out of her closet (and later from under her bed and through her bedroom wall) to sing "All Star" (even though it's revealed near the end that the little girl loves the song).

References

External links

• Official website