An
album of
Sublime singer-songwriter-guitarist Bradley Nowell performing (mostly)
acoustic released
November 17, 1998.
Whether this CD “sucks” or not is (of course) a matter of opinion, but is largely based on what you are expecting. If you come from the crowd that religiously listens to Sublime (the self-titled 1996 album) and ignores everything else Sublime, you will be disappointed. The cuts that come from Sublime that appear on this CD really do suck. Here’s why: every song on this album is taken from a Nowell performance in 1995 or earlier (before Sublime was released). So songs appearing on Sublime were not finished and not in demand at the time of the performances. The overall sound is also rough compared to your average album, as it was compiled from different performances with varying recording methods.
However, if you are one of the more learned Sublime fans (yes, my attempt to sound elitist), this album is for you. This album showcases Bradley Nowell’s raw talent above all else. The quality of some of the recordings isn’t the greatest, but far better than your average bootleg. And that is what this album essentially is: a bootleg “best of.” Even the artwork for the CD is meant to look like an unofficial release: there is no cover or liner notes, and the CD is printed to look like a CD-R (my nomination for most original packaging of a single CD).
It contains a number of covers: “Saw Red,” “Rivers of Babylon,” “Marley Medley,” and “Eye of Fatima.” They all fit perfectly, and are easy to mistake for Bradley Nowell songs (especially “Eye of Fatima”).
Without further bullshit, the tracklist:
- Wrong Way (live)
- Saw Red
- Foolish Fool
- Don’t Push
- Mary/Big Salty Tears
- Boss D.J.
- Garden Grove (live)
- Rivers of Babylon
- Little District
- KRS-One (live)
- Marley Medley - Guava Jelly/This Train
- What Happened/Eye of Fatima
- Freeway Time In LA County Jail
- Pool Shark
- It’s Who You Know
All songs produced by Miguel except “Saw Red” and “Little District” produced by Paul Leary.
The origins of this
posthumous are also interesting (if unsuprising). The-powers-that-be wanted to
cash in on
Sublime one last time. In
1997 Gasoline Alley/
MCA offered surviving
Sublime members
Bud Gaugh and
Eric Wilson a new
record deal: 3 more albums. While
Wilson and
Gaugh had already stated they had no interest in further recording under the name
Sublime without
Nowell, they inked the deal, giving us this album as well as a
greatest hits record and the live
Stand By Your Van.
If you like this type of stuff, more can be found out on the great ol internet, including bootlegs from Sublime performances and other Bradley acoustic songs from some of the performances featured on this album. I’ll node all about this soon, with tracklists of the various unofficial albums.