40 Albums To Freedom
What the world needs now is another Sublime record
— and another really contagious disease. For now, a new plague
will have to wait but, thankfully — or ruefully, depending on
which side you’re on — another Sublime release won’t. Just five
months after the release of the posthumous live album Stand By
Your Van and twelve months after the release of the rarities
compilation Second-Hand Smoke, the powers that be will put
out Sublime Acoustic: Bradley Nowell and Friends (November
17).
The album marks the third of at least four anticipated Sublime
releases to hit the marketplace following frontman Brad
Nowell‘s death from a heroin overdose in May ’96, just
prior to the release of the now triple-platinum major-label debut
Sublime. A “greatest hits” package will round out the
four, and that, according to Jim Nowell, Brad’s
father, is it. “We don’t have any more material,” he says.
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
Not exactly so, according to Miles Doughty,
frontman for the San Diego band Slightly Stoopid.
Four years ago, over the course of a couple days, Doughty and
Nowell jammed off-and-on in Doughty’s bedroom. There, says Doughty,
the pair recorded approximately eight hours worth of material, some
of which will appear on the upcoming acoustic record.
“We were just chillin’ in my room,” he says. “We’d sit there for
hours and hit the button on the four-track and start strumming
acoustics.” The bulk of those primitive sessions remain in
Doughty’s possession where, he says, they’ll remain, believing it
wouldn’t be appropriate to cash in on Nowell’s untimely death. A
medley of Bob Marley‘s “Guava Jelly” and “This
Train,” which Jim Nowell says “brings tears to your eyes,” will
appear on the new release.
Other material will be culled from a 1996 session Nowell did
with Sublime producer Paul Leary, recorded at
Willie Nelson‘s Texas studio, a solo acoustic set
Nowell performed at the Firecracker Lounge in
Anaheim, Calif., and a half-assed jam session Nowell did with
Sublime members Bud Gaugh and Eric
Wilson. The latter, which will represent the only true
Sublime material on the album, was recorded at Jim Nowell’s Los
Angeles home with Gaugh playing congo and Wilson on pump organ.
Songs expected to be included from the various sessions will
include “Wrong Way,” “Saw Red,” “Don’t Push,” “D.J.s” and “Garden
Grove.” Additionally, “Big Salty Tears,” contributed by Sublime
fanatics the Ziggens, will be tacked onto the
fourteen-track album, just for kicks.
The glut of Sublime material in the marketplace has been vexing
for former Sublime manager Jon Phillips, who calls
MCA Records, the label responsible for releasing
all of the posthumous records so far, a “really frustrating
corporate monolith.” Nowell, however, takes most of the blame for
rushing Sublime releases into the marketplace. “Being that I’m his
father and being that I have to deal with it every day,” he says,
“I’d just like to get it over with.”
Doughty adds, “it’s kind of crazy how many Sublime albums
they’ve released since he died. Too bad he’s not allowed to enjoy
all this success.”