Best Album Of All Times – Number 5: Hoobastank – The Reason
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Whenever I discuss music with friends and acquaintances about Best Album Ever, this comes up as one of those that should be on the list. With no big dips, and an album that shifts in tempo but still keeps it together as an album. Awesome.
The sound is on the more modern hard-rock style like Tool and Alice in Chains, but I think there’s also some similarities with Green Day, and even though I’m not a big fan of Green Day, I really like their sound. Easy Accessible Modern Hard Rock. This is not an album that will keep you occupied in analyzing the lyrics, and try to think about every single word, or note for that matter. But it’s really good in it’s simplicity and youthfulness.
So why the name Hoobastank and how did they end up together? I found this print-out from an interview where this was discussed:
Purcell: Let me start off with the obvious question, where did the name “Hoobastank” originate?
Lappalainen: Hoobastank was an inside joke between us and now we think there’s no real meaning of it. It’s like Jamiroqui. What is Jamiroqui? What does Jamiroqui mean? We have different interpretations of it. One definition is an ice-skating term for when you try to do a triple axle and fall on your butt. That’s Hoobastank. I heard a couple of kids on ESPN say that it’s two monkeys having sex. It’s up to your own interpretation.
Purcell: Why was the spelling of Hoobastank changed? I noticed it used to be HoobUstank and now it’s HoobAstank. What’s the deal with that?
Lappalainen: The whole thing with the “u” to the “a” was we just kept getting “Hoo-Boo-Stank” and there were totally different spellings of our name. It made it a whole lot easier with HoobAstank.
Purcell: That’s pretty interesting. Where’d you guys meet?
Lappalainen: Dan and I we met in ’92 and we used to be in a band called Idiosyncratic. Then Dan and I went our separate ways. When I left, Dan and Doug got together and started writing music. Then one day I saw Dan’s number in the paper and I called up and said “Hey Dan, what’s going on?” He was like “Ah nothing,” so they both came over to my house. Dan and Doug showed me some of their stuff. I thought “wow this is actually kind of cool.” I showed them my stuff and Dan and I just started clicking again. We found Chris a couple months later in a recycler (a newspaper for musicians). Three months later, Hoobastank was formed.
Source: http://hoobastank.no.sapo.pt/interviews/hoobustank-fan-source.txt
The band (at the year of this album):
Doug Robb – vocals
Dan Estrin – guitar
Markku Lappalainen – bass
Chris Hesse – drums
Saarimner.com 