Smash Mouth

Back in my SECOND year of 5th grade, in 1999, during the springtime there was a song that every kid seemed to be singing. It was a song called 'All Star' that all the cool kids enjoyed. I remember those days quite well, and they seemed to be the best of my life. The song was by a California band known as Smash Mouth. They had a lot of success, I wouldn't call them a household name (even though the song was known in most households), but a lot of great bands eventually go down hill. The album featuring 'All Star' was titled Astro Lounge, and since then, Smash Mouth, once a band rollin' out the hits, has dwindled to losing it's original drummer, second drummer, and third drummer, playing county fairs, and losing it's original lead guitarist and song writer.

SUMMER GIRL

I've been a member of the www.SmashMouth.com website forum for a long time. In 2006, to our surprise, Smash Mouth FINALLY released an album. All of us fans had heard bits from the album they were going to release, which was titled 'Old Habits' and all the songs had a nice rock vibe to it. BUT, Smash Mouth cut the contract to their label (Interscope) and re-did the album and added and ommitted some tracks, and a new album, Summer Girl, was released on September 19th, 2006. Hardly anyone except fans knew about it, as there were NO music videos, and NO retail singles. The songs 'So Insane' and 'Everyday Superhero' were released as promo singles to big city radio stations in hopes of airplay. The album sold about 6,000 copies. For a couple weeks, only in the biggest cities, could you find 'So Insane' and 'Everyday Superhero' being played on the radio. That's what usually happens when big bands decide to go indie. I must mention that when they re-recorded and/or mixed the songs from 'Old Habits' to be on 'Summer Girl', they gave them a much more poppier arrangement. Smash Mouth lead vocalist, Steve Harwell, was also having a cocaine addiction at the time as he later admitted to.

In 2008, lead guitarist/keyboardist/song writer Greg Camp, left Smash Mouth to pursue a solo career. Greg Camp has often been said to be Smash Mouth's "Brian Wilson" while Steve Harwell is Smash Mouth's "Mike Love"... as Greg is the genious in the band who can write songs, while Steve is the one with a big taste for commercial sounding songs, and is basically in it for the money. Greg's album, though very state of the art and well crafted, didn't make the top 200 and I imagine it only sold around 1,000 copies or less. He probably gave away more copies of the album than what were sold.

Still, Summer Girl is a great album. It doesn't really contain a big 'hit' sounding song, but it's great listening none-the-less, so don't be afraid to go out and purchase it.

Album Tracks
1. The Crawl
2. Everyday Superhero
3. So Insane
4. Girl Like You
5. Getaway Car
6. Story Of My Life
7. Right Side, Wrong Bed
8. Summer Girl
9. Hey L.A.
10. Quality Control
11. Beautiful Bomb

.......... I recommend you buy this album, as it might be the last you see of a 'great' Smash Mouth album, or any Smash Mouth album at all. They do now have a new guitarist, known as Leroy, who is also a great song writer, but his songs aren't in the same category as Smash Mouth's. Though Paul Delisle is a great song writer, and Steve Harwell can write sort-of catchy songs (as long as he has a song writing team with him), I don't know if they can pull off a new album without the band's original genious, Greg Camp.