About Hoobastank
Hoobastank is an American rock band formed in 1994 in Agoura Hills, California, by lead vocalist Doug Robb, guitarist Dan Estrin, drummer Chris Hesse, and original bassist Markku Lappalainen. They were signed to Island Records from 2001 to 2012 and have released six albums and one extended play to date. Their most recent album, Push Pull, was released in May 2018. They have sold 10 million albums worldwide.
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 Chris Hesse to form Hoobastank.
The band has provided a variety of explanations for the origin of the band's unusual name, and it is unclear where it originated from. Claims have included that it is a mispronunciation of a German street, slang for someone who owns many sneakers, or a word the band came up with while they were "joking around."
Hoobastank started playing gigs at the local venue Cobalt Cafe along with Incubus and Linkin Park. They recorded their first full-length self-released album in 1998 called They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To, which features a saxophone section headed by Jeremy Wasser, who executive produced the 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, the band felt that the direction they were heading in would work best without a sax, so Wasser 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 released their self-titled debut album in November 2001. The first single was "Crawling in the Dark", which was a breakthrough hit, reaching No. 68 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on the Modern Rock chart, No. 7 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 1 on an MP3.com download chart in early 2002. Also, the 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 No. 44 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the Modern Rock chart, No. 9 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 3 on the MP3.com download chart. The Hoobastank album went Platinum due to these hit singles and reached No. 25 on the Billboard 200 album charts and No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseeker chart.
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