When Smash Mouth Was a Ska Band

2025-03-26

Back in the mid '90s, ska was on the rise in the United States. Ready to ride the wave, a new band formed in San Jose, California, that specialized in ska-punk and pop-punk tunes, and they called themselves Smash Mouth. Of all the ska tunes on their debut album, Fush Yu Mang, though, it was the non-ska single "Walking on the Sun" that became the hit. The band hasn't played ska since... until now.On this episode of In Defense of Ska, the crew chats with Smash Mouth bassist (and the sole remaining orig...

Back in the mid '90s, ska was on the rise in the United States. Ready to ride the wave, a new band formed in San Jose, California, that specialized in ska-punk and pop-punk tunes, and they called themselves Smash Mouth. Of all the ska tunes on their debut album, Fush Yu Mang, though, it was the non-ska single "Walking on the Sun" that became the hit. The band hasn't played ska since... until now.

On this episode of In Defense of Ska, the crew chats with Smash Mouth bassist (and the sole remaining original member) Paul De Lisle about the band's new ska cover of The Beatle's "Love Me Do," the legacy of Smash Mouth, and more. Listen now.

Elsewhere in the episode, De Lisle goes deep on the band's origins, the recording of Fush Yu Mang, and the band's big break. Along the way, there's tons of great San Jose references, like Taco Bravo, Dot 3, Frontier Wives, Cactus Club, Laundry Works, and Monkey.

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Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024.

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023.

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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