Say Something Nice or Interesting about: Smash Mouth (or possibly Sugar Ray)

Sugar Ray: second the McGrath music dork comment. Like Sugar Ray or not, after seeing some r&r celebs left clueless on R&R Jeopardy, it was a pleasure seeing McGrath come across as an obvious music fan.

wanna back that shit up, dude? Have you heard a Smashmouth album? What is SO innovative, imaginative and original about XTC and what so NOT about Smashmouth? Use nouns please.

XTC were a frenetic Beefheart influenced pop-punk band who were quite original in many ways, then became Beach Boys/Beatles/psych influenced orchestral AOR pop. Also, Andy's and Colin's vocal timbre couldn't be further from Smashmouth singer guy's (Steve Harwell?).

Smashmouth are a decent 90s pop rock band with awful singles, the best of which ("Walking on the sun") rips off that one Perry & Kingsley song that begins one of their greatest hits collections.

XTC = Smashmouth or Sugar Ray just doesn't compute at all, Anthony. And I say this without actively hating either band.

Hell, XTC have far more in common with Sublime than the above.

hey! you can do it!
hey! or they can do it to you!
hey! you can do it!
hey! or you can do it
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
everybody get the club

In a game where you ride on a motorcycle and beat fellow cyclists with implements like cattle prods, lead pipes, and, of course, THE CLUB.

Yes, I have Fush You, Mang. Largely yawny Cali rock with makes the Surf Punks first record sound like No New York.

XTC, by contrast, took the adrenaline and aggression of Brit Punk and Ska and fused it into an entirely original hiccupy style that many have attempted to replicate (from Oingo Boingo through Skeleton Key), but have never matched. They also bothered to write amazing songs in the process.

(x-post)

Mark McGrath made clear on some I Love The Whatever show that he can drop all the original Pretenders' names at the drop of a hat.

(x-post) yeah cause smashmouth didn't mix rock and ska in their sound, uh uh no way. also how could they sound like another band? they weren't original or authentic!

oh yeah, that was Smashmouth i was talkin about

that doesn't quite capture how he responded. he responded by having a 5-minute-long meltdown/tirade, all caught on camera, that suggests he's a lot less secure with himself than the average pop star. the heckler won that encounter easily.

Anthony's wrong, though; Third Eye Blind is the band that sounds like XTC.

I just did. (have both on my iPod). shrug?

Play "This Is Pop." Play "Till The Morning Comes." Play "Life Begins At The Hop." Tell me what's so goddamn different. And don't throw irrelevant terms like "orginality" in there. I'm talking about what you hear.

You're original claim: Smashmouth are the OC XTC.

Tell me how relevant "OC" is as an adjective, and I'll gladly claim "originality" is irrelevant in this discussion.

That said, it's a bit disingenuous to compare two bands just because certain songs from the newer band are familiar to a small fraction of the older band's oevre. Many many Lenny Kravitz songs sound like the Beatles, but with modern production and all that hoo-ha. Does that make Lenny Kravitz the "NYC Beatles"?

Also, XTC has had several more albums and several more phases than Smashmouth have had albums, period. This is not discounting Smashmouth by any means. I just think the comparison point is just really odd. Again, I think there was more similarity between Sublime and XTC circa English Settlement than any of the above, and that's saying something.

It's perfectly OK to say that Smashmouth has a lot of songs that ape XTC, but when you claim that "Smashmouth are the OC XTC", that's a re far more bold statement, and you'd better know damn well enough about both bands if you're going to validly support that claim.

How is my alleigance to Killing Joke any different from your constatn, foundation-free defense of Limp Bizkit, Good Charlotte and Warrant. If I'm a cartoon character, you're no different.

I know lots about XTC, Oah Sea. I've owned and heard plenty of albums throughout their career. There's reason I quickly amended my statement to reaffirm I'm discussing the early period of XTC (which, if I included English Settlement, would take up HALF of their Fossil Fuel comp), but the later years of XTC aren't very OC, so I'm tempted to say that part of Smashmouth being the OC XTC is that they turned into movie plug-in Burger King endorsers rather than boring reclusive puds (though Wasp Star was refreshing).

Qualify that. I'm only vitriolic at the claim that they are in some way equivalent to XTC. Smashmouth are otherwise fine little insects, but nothing more.

While I'd argue I've laid down plenty of foundation in the threads where these artists were discussed, if you read my post I was saying I found it odd you would use the same unwarranted techniques that are used upon you.

My friend, who has been to hundreds of concerts before, still insists that a late 1990's Sugar Ray concert was the best concert he ever went to.

I kinda have a fondness for Mark McGrath, he's got this Nic Cage-like thing about him where he can't say no to anything and he does it all with the same coke-driven intensity. He did a Sharknado movie (as a main character, no less!), he joined a weird Christmas band, and now he's palling around with Mike Love for some reason. All this stuff is awful but still, good on him. There's a video of "The Beach Boys" playing "Do It Again" in front of the Capitol and at one point he puts his arm around Mike Love, points to him and says "THAT'S MIKE LOVE!!" (his mic isn't on but you can lip-read this easily). Where else you gonna get that sort of enthusiasm for something so mind-blowingly awful?

McGrath's 4 year stint as a host on Extra! is to date the best thing the show has ever done.

he was also on a massively amusing show called Killer Karaoke. brought in to replace Steve-O!!

do you like this song?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c4madL-UA0

no, but have known people who probably do, they're alright, they have fun here and there

I will admit that I have somehow seen Smash Mouth live, two times (ask me anything), and they have at least two songs that are pretty good

also pretty cool to have a career resurgence because you were on the Shrek soundtrack and young people are weirdos

sugar ray is playing free in a park near me on 9/3. should i see them?

Harwell could be seen dropping his drinks, swaying back and forth onstage and flipping the bird while cursing multiple times.

“I’ll f—king kill your whole family, I swear to God,” he screamed to one fan in his audience.

Steve Harwell not doing too good...

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/smash-mouth-steve-harwell-hospice_n_64f522b8e4b08f6e30e9813d

what a strange career this band has had, I believe the only original member now is the bass player

wanted to confirm that so I looked up the Wikipedia entry and clicked onto the former guitarist/songwriter to see what he's up to, and that is some kind of supergroup called The Defiant featuring the lead singer of Mighty Mighty Bosstones

so then I wondered what that sounded like and found this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUbNkz9tIpU

oof

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewzs9gfpmu8

double oof

also the new smash mouth singer is no Steve Harwell, somehow

here's sugar ray kissing up to our trump-lite county executive, last night at the park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nqDcvogg4I

to be fair he did put on a good series of free concerts this summer incl. judy torres, nice & smooth, southside johnny, boyz II men, lords of 52nd st (bliiy joel's 70s backing band), eli young band, tabou combo, france joli, sugar ray.

no way was there 120,000 people there.

RIP Steve Harwell
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/04/arts/music/steve-harwell-smash-mouth-all-star-dead.html

damn, RIP

It’s sad that he had a son who died at 6 months.

https://banhmiverlag.bandcamp.com/album/all-star-mixtape

xpost yeah I'd drink myself to death too if that happened to me

the prospect of losing my daughter terrifies me. I’d probably drink myself to death too. Wasn’t aware of any of this prior to his death and now I feel depressed about the whole situation.

RIP steve. he deserves better than that nytimes obit imo

Music wise “staring at the sun” one of my favorite songs to hear on the radio when I was like 12. Wish that one was more popular with the new generations.

“All star” one of the most fun songs adopted by meme culture, I still see it used and it’s still funny for me. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to listen to it without feeling a bit sad now.

RIP

I definitely dug Walking on the Sun at the time, i liked the retro vibe

RIP

I always thought 'Walking on the Sun' sounds like what the Animals would have sounded like in 1997. Always dug that tune.

yeah that feels kinda otm, i like that

I always assumed it was built around a Doors sample.

now that you mention it, it does sound a lot like "Soul Kitchen"

As mentioned upthread they used a Vox Continental for that 60’s organ sound.

it’s groovy, man

Always loved the way the chorus mimicked an infomercial

and yea "All Star" had some real legs, can't really think of another 90s tune that's been memed/mashed up so much. wonder how much Neil Cicierega had to do with that. still speaks to what a well-written hit that was, just full of memorable parts to the point where you could quote any of it and people would instantly know what you were talking about.

The NYT "harder-driving guitars" is not a description I would think of for "All Star." (Perhaps accurate but the guitar is the most forgettable part.)

Like every other millennial the chorus plays in my head when I read the name and I chalk the longevity up to being a perfect kind of kid's song. "And all that glitters is go-ooh-ld/only shooting stars break the mo-ooh-ld" is tailor-made for a group of 7-10 year olds to sing along to.

"Walkin On The Sun" reminds me of Fastball's "The Way" - more energetic but both doing a '70s lounge thing.

Astro Lounge actually quite a bit more entertaining than I expected it to be. "All Star" doesn't really fit at all on it