Reel Big Fish

Reel Big Fish was one of the legions of Southern California ska-punk bands to edge into the mainstream following the mid-’90s success of No Doubt and Sublime. Like most of their peers, the band was distinguished by their hyperkinetic stage shows, juvenile humor, ironic covers of new wave pop songs, and metallic shards of ska. The group cultivated an underground following that broke into the mainstream in summer 1997, when their single “Sell Out” became a modern rock radio and MTV favorite. Their appearance in the movie Baseketball as the halftime band also gained them more fans and helped the bands popularity to grow. Still fronted by original lead singer and song writer Aaron Barrett, they continue releasing albums and touring relentlessly, playing more and more countries and bigger venues all over the world.

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Reel Big Fish recorded its self-released debut album, Everything Sucks, in 1995. Everything Sucks became a word-of-mouth underground hit in ska-punk and college circles, which gave the band enough leverage to sign with the indie label Mojo Records. Turn the Radio Off was unleashed in August 1996, and over the next year, the group continually toured in support of the album’s release, expanding their fan base all the while. In spring 1997, the single “Sell Out” began receiving heavy airplay from several influential modern rock stations in the U.S., which soon translated into MTV support for the song’s quirky video. By summer, the song had become a moderate modern rock hit, and the album had charted in the Top 100. The guys wound up on Jive Records in fall 2001 when their current label, Mojo, was bought by Jive’s parent label, Zomba. Reel Big Fish’s first release for Jive, a more rock-oriented record entitled Cheer Up!, appeared in mid-2002. The band’s next album, the cynical yet catchy We’re Not Happy ‘Til You’re Not Happy, was issued in April 2005.

Touring continued for the rest of the year, and Reel Big Fish happily parted ways with Jive in January 2006. That August the group self-released a double-disc live CD (along with an accompanying DVD) titled Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album. The band returned with some new material in February 2007, splitting an EP Duet All Night Long with their friends in Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer. Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free followed several months later, marking Reel Big Fish’s first full-length studio release since leaving Jive’s roster, and 2009′s Fame, Fortune and Fornication found the band covering songs by the likes of Poison, the Eagles, and Tom Petty. The band’s latest release is called A Best of Us for the Rest of Us. It includes a 22 song disc of re-recorded hits and classic fan favorites as well as a bonus disc of 14 acoustic or “SKAcoustic” versions. Reel Big Fish continues to tour non-stop, playing over 250 shows a year to thousands of loyal fans all over the world, gaining more and more underground popularity as the Ska scene continues to flourish.