“Skunk was just something that we made up. Technically the album was originally released under the Skunk Records imprint, but according to bassist Eric Wilson, Skunk wasn't much of a label. to Freedom first gained popularity as an independent album it was not widely released until MCA Records re-issued it in 1994. It's music you can pit to, or chill out and light one up to, or put on when you're pissed off at your parents or your boss.Ĥ0oz. You have to wonder if what made Sublime so enduringly popular was their versatility. “Badfish” was played at every party, local punk bands covered “New Thrash.” And it's not just in South Bay or in their hometown of Long Beach that the band enjoys that kind of reverence - they're celebrated all over. I grew up in the South Bay years after the record first gained real popularity, and, especially among beach people, it was ingrained into the local culture. Obviously this is partly because of what the symbol represents: the music of 40oz. It has become a symbol of disruptive youth, of drug use, of surf culture, of an anti-authoritarian attitude.

Although Ortiz was a member of Wilson and Gaugh's next band, Long Beach Dub Allstars, one suspects that his most enduring - and certainly most widely distributed - creation is the sun motif. The cover art was created by muralist and tattoo artist Opie Ortiz, a close friend to the band he gave Nowell his “Sublime” tattoo, which would become iconic on a subsequent album cover, 1996's Sublime, released after the death of Nowell. Tattoos, stickers, skateboards, doodles in class - the drawing of the forlorn mushroom sun is replicated everywhere.

In the South Bay, where Sublime still has a massive loyal following, this particular image is ubiquitous.

Sublime 40 oz to freedom