Hoobastank (often stylized as h∞bastank) is an American rock band, formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California,
with singer Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and
original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They were signed to Island Records from 2001 to 2012 and have released five albums and one extended play to date. Their sixth studio album, Fight or Flight, was released on September 11, 2012. They have sold 10 million albums worldwide.
Early career (1994–2000)
Vocalist Doug Robb had known guitarist Dan Estrin for some time
before competing against him in a high school battle of the bands
competition and subsequently, they decided to form a band.[2] They then recruited Markku Lappalainen and Hesse to form Hoobastank.
Hoobastank started playing gigs at the local venue Cobalt Cafe along with Incubus and others. They recorded their first full-length self-released album in 1998 called They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To. It featured an unusual saxophone section headed by Jeremy Wasser, who executive produced the album and recorded the Summer Romance saxophone solo on Incubus' S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
album. The Incubus connections continued with Fourth Street Recording's
music producer Jim Wirt and logos and visual design by Brett Spivey.
By this stage, Hoobastank had developed a strong reputation in Southern California. This attracted interest from Island Records, who subsequently signed the band in 2000. At the time of signing, the band had completed a second full-length album, titled Forward,
also featuring Jeremy Wasser, however Island execs felt that the
direction they were heading in would work best without a sax, so Wasser
departed the band and the album was shelved. A few tracks were
rerecorded for release on the band's self-titled 2001 release. The
original recordings from the Forward sessions made their way to the Internet via peer to peer sites in late 2001.
Hoobastank (2001–2002)
Hoobastank released its self-titled debut album in November 2001. The first single was "Crawling in the Dark" which was a breakthrough hit, reaching No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on the Modern Rock chart, No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart[3] and No. 1 on an MP3.com download chart in early 2002. Also, the song was featured in the 2002 inline skating game, Aggressive Inline, appearing on the Xbox, PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and Gamecube consoles. The second single "Running Away" was even more successful, reaching No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the Modern Rock chart, No. 9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 3 on the MP3.com download chart. The Hoobastank album went Platinum due to these hit singles and reached No. 25 on the Billboard 200 album charts and No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart.
The album achieved recognition internationally with the band touring in Europe and Asia in support of the record. "Remember Me",
the third single released from this album, was a moderate hit, reaching
No. 23 on the Modern Rock charts. The band made a song titled "Losing
My Grip" for the soundtrack of the movie The Scorpion King.
The Reason (2003–2005)
In early 2003, in Myanmar the group contributed the song "Right
Before Your Eyes" to the Daredevil Album. The band then entered the
studio with producer Howard Benson.
Recording was disrupted for a month when Dan Estrin was seriously
injured in a minibike accident in August. Estrin had recovered by
October and the band headed off on a Nokia Unwired Tour with The All-American Rejects and Ozomatli in November.
In an interview, Chris 'soldier' Hesse was asked the same question
all ask: "How did the band come up with the name Hoobastank?" He
replied, "Doug's brother is the vice president of BMW Motorcycles and
lives in Germany. And there is this street out by his house that is
called Hooba Street or something like that and before Doug could
pronounce the name, he called it Hoobastank and it was kinda a cute
thing and his brother still teases him about it to this day. When we
were looking for band names it's almost impossible to find a band name
that hasn't been taken. Anything remotely normal has been taken already.
I don't remember how it came up but someone said it and we were like
yeah."[4]
Their second album The Reason was released in December 2003. It showcased a harder-edged vocal performance from Robb. The single "Same Direction"
was made available for download on the band's website. Doug Robb said
on the band's website: "A lot of it is about asking questions or
questioning all that people see. It's not all about religion. 'Out of
Control' is about that and about opening your eyes after being blinded
by being devoted to anything." "Same Direction" would reach No. 9 on the
US Modern Rock chart, No. 16 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 16 on
a composite World Modern Rock chart (based on the US, Germany, Sweden,
Finland, Canada, and Australia). A year later, the Let It Out DVD collected the band's videos. "The Reason" was put to a popular music video on Tangle.[5]
The title track was released as a single in the first half of 2004. It became a hit, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard
Hot 100, No. 1 on the US and World Modern Rock charts, No. 10 in
Australia and No. 15 in Germany. The song was also played during the
final episode of Friends.
In Canada, it spent 21 weeks at the top, setting a new record for most
weeks at No. 1. Meanwhile in the United States, the album reached No. 3
on the Billboard 200 album chart.
The band's international profile was increased by a support slot on Linkin Park's Meteora world tour in early 2004.
Every Man for Himself (2006–2007)
Their third album Every Man for Himself was released in May 2006 and debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard chart. Three singles, "If I Were You", "Inside of You", and "Born to Lead",
were released. Another single, "If Only", was planned to be released
but was canceled for unknown reasons, possibly because of the low chart
achievements of the first three singles. Despite this, the album has
been certified Gold in the United States.
On a 2005 co-headlining tour with Velvet Revolver, the band received a chilly reception from some audiences and rumors of a feud between Robb and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland were soon filling Internet message boards. "If I Were You" from Every Man for Himself addressed the whole affair.[6]
Robb later said in an interview with MTV News online that he has
nothing against Scott Weiland or any other member of Velvet Revolver.[7]
For(N)ever and The Greatest Hits (2008–2009)
In October 2007, Robb posted on the official Hoobastank message
boards and said that they have "set the bar very very high for this next
CD" and that they have "more ideas going into this CD than ever
before". On June 2, 2008, Robb posted an update on their temporary
website, announcing that the recording process of their upcoming album
was almost done and to expect a release date within a couple of weeks.[8] On September 19, Robb posted a MySpace bulletin announcing that the "new Hoobastank album is nearly done".
The first single from the album, "My Turn", premiered on radio October 13, 2008. The album Fornever was released on January 27, 2009, as announced by Doug Robb in a blog entry on the band's official website.[9] The song was featured as the theme song for TNA Wrestling's Destination X 2009 Pay Per View.
On April 20, 2010, a Vanessa Amorosi fan website revealed details of a collaboration between Hoobastank and the Australian singer, a duet version of "The Letter". On August 5, it was confirmed that there was another version of the song on Universal International. This one was a duet between Hoobastank and the American-Japanese singer, lyricist, actress and model Anna Tsuchiya.[10] The website, VanessaAmorosi.net,
also provided the duet version to be streamed in full for the first
time. The music video was shot in Los Angeles at Lacy Street Studio with
director Paul Brown. The video and single was serviced to Australian
media on May 4. While the single was released in Australia on June 19,
2009, featuring Vanessa Amorosi, the version of the song featuring Anna
Tsuchiya[10] appears on Hoobastank's greatest hits album "The Greatest Hits: Don't Touch My Moustache (Deluxe Edition)".
For(N)ever had its Australian release on June 26.[11]
The best of album The Greatest Hits: Don't Touch My Moustache was released on August 5, through Universal Records
in Japan. The Deluxe Edition's tracks were selected from their first
four albums by Hoobastank fans on the band's official record label
website.
Hoobastank was a support band on Creed's 2009 reunion tour.
Is This the Day? (2009–2010)
On September 2, 2009, Hoobastank announced on Twitter that they were recording an acoustic CD.[12]
On October 30, Hoobastank covered the song "Ghostbusters" for Halloween and a music video was released on Hoobastank's official YouTube channel.
On December 8, Hoobastank released the live album Live from the Wiltern, which was available exclusively through iTunes.
On January 19, 2010, Hoobastank released a new song entitled "We Are One" as part of a compilation from Music for Relief in support of the Haiti Earthquake crisis.
On February 12, Hoobastank released a new song entitled "Never Be Here Again" as part of the Team USA Olympics soundtrack.
In May, the band announced that they will be performing an acoustic
live tour at several places in Japan. They released an acoustic album
entitled Is This the Day? on August 4, 2010 in Japan,[13] but it has yet to be released in the United States.
Fight or Flight (2011–present)
Doug Robb provided vocals for Apocalyptica's single release "Not Strong Enough" on January 18, 2011.
On April 5, 2012, the band announced on Twitter that their new album's name was to be titled Fight or Flight. On May 3, the band revealed the first single "This Is Gonna Hurt" at http://thisisgonnahurt.hoobastank.com/. The album was released September 11, 2012.
To promote the album, two more singles, "Can You Save Me?" and "Incomplete", accompanied by a touring music video[14] and a lyric video[15] respectively, were released.
Musical style
Hoobastank's music has been considered a various of genres which are post-grunge, alternative rock, alternative metal, hard rock, nu metal, funk metal and ska punk[16] On their early independent releases, the band use a funk metal and ska punk sound and had a saxophone musician in the band.[17] In their major-label debut album self-titled debut album, the band's sound has changed and removed their saxophone musician and remained as a 4-piece rock band using a heavily post-grunge sound and although, despite the album having no rapping, the album had a few influences of the nu metal sound.[18] The band's sound matured in their third album The Reason which removed their nu metal influences sound and their post-grunge sound became more melodic.[19] Throughout their releases after The Reason, the band has retained their post-grunge and alternative rock sound.
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