Hoobastank

Hoobastank biography

Hoobastank is an American rock band, best known for their 2001 hit "Crawling in the Dark" and other singles such as "Running Away" and "The Reason". They formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, with singer Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They are signed to Island Records and have released four albums and one extended play to date. Their fourth and most recent studio album, For(N)ever, was released in January 2009. They have sold 10 million albums worldwide.

History

Early career (1994-2000)

Hoobastank formed in the Los Angeles County suburb Agoura Hills in 1994. According to drummer Chris Hesse, 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. They then recruited Markku Lappalainen and Hesse to form Hoobastank.

Hoobastank started playing gigs at the local venue Cobalt Cafe along with Incubus, 311 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 said 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 Jeremy 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 their self-titled debut album in November 2001. The first single was "Crawling in the Dark" which was a breakthrough hit reaching #68 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Modern Rock chart, #7 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #1 on an MP3.com download chart in early 2002. Also, this 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 #44 on the Billboard Hot 100, #2 on the Modern Rock chart, #9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #3 on the MP3.com download chart. The Hoobastank album went Platinum thanks to these hit singles and reached #25 on the Billboard 200 album charts and #1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart.

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