Smash Mouth's roots trace back to 1990 when Steve Harwell and Kevin Coleman met, and four years later Smash Mouth was formed by Harwell, who had formerly played in a rap group called F.O.S. (Freedom Of Speech). Coleman was Harwell's manager at the time, and knew guitarist Greg Camp and bassist Paul De Lisle, so he introduced the three musicians to each other, and they bean rehearsing together along with Coleman, who played as the drummer. They soon developed into a band, and named themselves Smashmouth, an American football term, and after a demo of the song 'Nervous In The Alley was played by a San Jose radio station they were signed to Interscope Records, and they changed their name to Smash Mouth. The group's debut album, 'Fush Yu Mang', was released in 1997, featuring another member, as keyboardist Michael Klooster had joined by this time. The album eventually went double platinum, and they enjoyed some success with their first major single 'Walkin' On The Sun'. The band's second album, 'Astro Lounge', was released in 1999 and marked a change in direction, as it had less of the previous ska influence and more of a pop sound, and it ended up being one of the most critically acclaimed albums from the group. Supported by the hit singles 'All Star' (which was featured in several film soundtracks, most notably 'Shrek'), and 'Then The Morning Comes', it was eventually certified as triple platinum. Shortly after its release, drummer Kevin Coleman left the band due to back problems, with the drum-stool initially being taken over by Michael Urbano, who was himself quickly replaced by Mitch Marine for the tour supporting 'Astro Lounge'.
Their self-titled album came out in 2001, but sold fewer copies than their earlier works, although it was still eventually certified gold. In 2003 they released 'Get the Picture?', which included the singles 'You Are My Number One', 'Hang On' and 'Always Gets Her Way', but Interscope weren't happy with the band and dropped them from the label shortly after the album's release, although they still got their pound of flesh by releasing the greatest hits compilation 'All Star Smash Hits' in 2005. In December 2005, the band released a Christmas album 'Gift Of Rock', which featured covers of Christmas songs by many artists, such as the Kinks and the Ramones, and one original song, 'Baggage Claim'. The band's fifth album was originally to be titled 'Old Habits', and was recorded in 2005 and expected to be released in early 2006. It was purported to be much more like the ska-punk featured on 'Fush Yu Mang', and in September 2005 they performed what was tentatively announced as the album's first single, 'Getaway Car', on 'Last Call with Carson Daly'. However, the album was delayed many times, possibly in the hope of gaining publicity with Harwell's appearance on the reality show 'The Surreal Life', but also because the band wanted to return to the studio to improve the record. In the end 'Old Habits' was shelved, and was replaced by 'Summer Girl', which came out in 2006. This included five remixed tracks from 'Old Habits', but the rest were all new songs, meaning that a lot of the older material remained unreleased, until Greg Camp and Paul De Lisle used some songs for their solo albums. Despite being heralded as a return to their ska-punk roots, 'Old Habits' is a pretty straight-ahead indie-rock album, and for someone like me who is not that familiar with their earlier work it sounds pretty good, so I can't really see why it was abandoned.
Track listing
01 Hey LA
02 Getaway Car
03 The Crawl
04 Say When
05 Baby Please Don't Go
06 Quality Control
07 Old Habits
08 Sugar
09 Beside Myself
10 Duty Free
11 Beautiful Bomb
12 Never Let Me Down Again
