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• Led by frantic singer/sax player Angelo Moore, Fishbone is a pioneering Alternative Rock band from Los Angeles, California. Fishbone's music is a wild mixture of Rock, Funk, Ska, Reggae and Punk. Though the band has maintained a longtime cult following, it achieved some mainstream notoriety in 1991, for its Top-50 album The Reality of My Surroundings and accompanying music video directed by Spike Lee.

• Cultural Significance

  As one of the few nationally-known African-American rock bands of the 1980s, Fishbone helped lay the groundwork for the far more famous Living Color, just as the band itself had been influenced by Washington, DC's Bad Brains.

• Influence

  Fishbone's eclecticism and emphasis on ska influenced an entire wave of younger Southern California bands, including No Doubt.

• Themes

  While Fishbone's sound is unmistakeably that of a party band, its songs have sometimes explored dark themes, including nuclear annihilation (on 1985's "Party at Ground Zero"), the effects of hard drugs (a cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Freddy's Dead), and subtle racism ("Subliminal Fascism").

• Current Band Members

  1. Angelo Moore—vocals/saxophone
  2. John Norwood Fisher—bass/vocals
  3. Rocky George—guitar
  4. Curtis Storey—trumpet/vocals
  5. John McKnight—guitar/trombone
  6. Dre Gipson—keyboards
  7. John Steward—drums

• Fast Facts

  1. AKA: Fishbone & Familyhood Nextperience
  2. Formed: 1979
  3. Hometown: Los Angeles
  4. First recorded release: 1985

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Sublime | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Jane's Addiction | George Clinton | Bad Brains | No Doubt | The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

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