First Blog: Sublime introspective.

Hello, I’m Courtlandt or CJ whatever floats your boat. I love music like many and as an “art kid” I love to analyze and learn songs whether by ear or tabs. So, Sublime has a special place in my pseudo musician heart their unique mix of samples barred chords and poppy reggae, and ska creates a very fun style. This style is culminated between the three Sublime vocalists sharing unique similarities and differences. 

Bradley Nowell the bands original front man and lead singer has a powerful and almost childlike voice. He created what is considered “white boy reggae” an American take on the Jamaican rock style.  I personally find the difference in Jam Rock or Jamaican Ska to Nowell’s own style as content and instrumentation. Nowell was a firm believer of sampling and chopping over his songs creating a hip hop infusion to his already rhythmic style Sublime is the quintessential band t0 begin and uplift Ska in the United States. There wouldn’t be Reel Big Fish or No Doubt with Bradley. Sadly, Nowell would die of an overdose shortly after the birth of his Jakob at the age of 28 a point in his life were Bradley seemed to be at his musical peak and only getting better. 

  

Technically Sublime with Rome is a different band with a new front man and the members of the original group in Bud Gaugh and Eric Wilson. A bit of time passed after the death of Bradley Nowell so the Original Drummer and Bassist would get together to play with one another guitarist enter Rome Ramirez. Ramirez a native to California was a big fan of Sublime and the story of band would be incomplete without him. It’s almost like with Chad Channing’s Never mind demos Dave Grohl’s drums wouldn’t have filled out the album. Ramirez would release several musical projects with Sublime. Bud would eventually leave the band due to not wanting to play in Sublime without his best friend Josh Freese would join after to aid in the touring of Sublime with Rome. I find Rome’s voice as much more theatrical than Bradley’s as he had a more poppy ska hip hop voice. Where Rome could hit higher notes and use of vocal break downs. As a front man I find Rome as less interesting than Bradley Nowell. 

One thing I chose to mostly exclude from Bradley’s bio is that he struggled with addiction. A problem that would follow the senior Nowell  on stage leading to a bunch of memorable performance, but questions on Bradley’s character.

Like Father Like Son is often an odd sentiment. Jakob Nowell son of Bradley Nowell grew up very well aware of who his father was and his band. Jakob like his father struggled with addiction. Eventually Jakob would attend rehab doing something his father proved incapable of, staying sober. So as the story goes on Jakob would go on to become a musician having success in the Ska-punk band LAW. In 2021 his band LAW would breakup leading Jakob to take over as the sublime singer. At first he would join Bud and Eric for a few select shows while Rome was still fronting Sublime with Rome. Then the Announcement came Jakob Nowell would front the band moving forward.

In the comments recommend me music or albums to listen through.

My recommended listening to Sublime for each Era of the band go’s as following

Bradley Nowell era 

Santeria

Doin Time

Wrong Way

WITH ROME ERA 

Goin on tonight 

Black out 

Take it or leave it 

JAKOB NOWELL ERA

Warped tour live performance

Ensenada 

(Jakob and the gang are working on new songs so only time will tell what happens with that, but I have faith in the reggae rebels.)

BEST ALBUM 

Sublime (1996)

this has been heavily re edited to tone down somethings if you want the original manuscript or short hand version ask and I’ll show it to you privately.