Smash Mouth und Sophistafunk

Smash Mouth formed in 1994 when lead singer Steve Harwell, formerly of the rap group F.O.S., was introduced to guitarist Greg Camp and bassist Paul De Lisle by his manager Kevin Coleman. The trio along with Coleman on drums played under the moniker Smashmouth mainly playing ska and punk music getting their first break when a demo of their song “Nervous in the Alley” was played on local radio. Soon after the band signed to Interscope Records, changed the band name to Smash Mouth and released their debut album “Fush Yu Mang” in 1997. The album has since gone double platinum thanks to the singles “Walkin’ on the Sun” and “The Fonz”.

The sound of the follow-up album titled “Astro Lounge” represented a shift towards accessible pop and led to a huge increase in publicity for the band. “All Star” the band’s biggest selling single, which featured has featured in several movie soundtracks including Shrek, helped the album be certified as triple platinum. Soon after the release drummer Kevin Coleman departed the group due to back problems who was replaced by Mitch Marine for the “Astro Lounge” tour, after which Michael Urbana filled the position.

Smash Mouth’s self-titled third full-length album was released in 2001 and featured the well-received cover of The Monkees’ song “I’m a Believer”, the album however didn’t chart as well as the first two albums. The band was dropped from Interscope Records shortly after the releasee of their fourth album “Get the Picture?” released in 2003, it featured the singles “You Are My Number One” and “Hang On”. Shortly after Smash Mouth signed to Universal Records and released a greatest hits compilation and a Christmas album titled “Gift of Rock” and covered artists from the Kinks to the Ramones.

After many delays and setbacks, the band’s fifth studio album, intended to be titled “Old Habits” was eventually shelved and replaced with “Summer Girl” which got its release on September 19, 2006 on Universal Records. The band experienced a plague of line-up changes from then on and the release of their sixth full-length album “Magic”, after signing with 429 Records, did little to null the changing membership.