Reel Big Fish are a Southern Californian ska/punk band, who rode the third wave ska revival in the late 90s with their own brand of fun, party music. Their career has taken them full circle and after a detour to post punk, they came back with the smiles and energy of their early days.
Reel Big Fish started out as a three-piece covers band playing in and around the Huntington Beach area. Their introduction to ska gave them the inspiration to add a horn section to their line-up and they started to work on their own material. In 1995 they released their self-produced debut album. With the small quantities pressed, Everything Sucks was a limited success, though it did bring them to the attention of Mojo records who gave them a contract.
They re-recorded some of the tracks from their debut for Turn the Radio Off, but it was one of the new tracks, “Sell Out” which proved popular on the radio. When MTV picked up on the video, the extra coverage helped the take the album to the Top 100. Good reviews and an appearance on South Park creators Parker and Stone film BASEketball, helped Why Do They Rock so Hard? to the top 100. They followed this up with a revised version of their debut album, though it failed to chart.
By the time they came to release the Cheer Up album, the band’s sound had changed with more post-punk and less happy-go-lucky ska. The other thing that had changed was their relationship with the music industry. Their follow-up, We’re Not Happy ‘Til You're Not Happy, with track titles such as “Don’t Start a Band”, seemed to confirm their unhappiness.
They split with their record label and self-released a live album. Being independent suited the band and they returned to their earlier fun sound for the Monkeys for Nothing… album.
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