Hoobastank and Eve 6

Hoobstank, came together when Doug Robb, Dan Estrin and Chris Hesse decided to start a band. In the early stages of their career, they landed local support slots supporting bands such as Incubus. They released their debut album on their own in 1998, entitled “They Sure Don’t Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To”. Their reputation was growing slowly but surely, especially in the Southern California area, which caught the attention of Island Records, who signed Hoobastank in 2000.

Hoobastank released their eponymous official album on November 20th 2001, lead by the single “Crawling in the Dark”, which set the tone for the record and charted in the US, UK and Australia. This was followed by “Running Away”, which went to number 2 in the US Alternative chart.

Following international chart success and an international tour, Hoobastank made a comeback with their brand new album called “The Reason”, released on December 9th 2003. “Out of Control” was the first single to be released on the label, which went to number 9 in the Alternative chart. It was the title track of the album that became an international hit and the band’s trademark making it to number 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart charting in Australia, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and UK. The single went Gold whilst the album went 2x Platinum, peaking at number 3 in the Billboard 200.

The band’s third full-length album, “Every Man for Himself” released on May 16th 2006, made it to number 12 in the Billboard 200 and was certified Gold. The sequential album “For(N)ever” made it to number 26 on the Billboard 200.

On December 8th 2009, the band released a live album “Live from the Wiltern”.

In a way, debuting so early was the best and worst thing that could have happened to Eve 6. The band signed their first major label record deal when every member was still in high school, and while that gives you a fast track to genuine success and a shot at having a decades long career right off the bat, it also means growing up in public. In all seriousness, who wants to do that? Originally named Eleventeen, the band signed to RCA soon after their very first concert at the North Hollywood rock club Eagle’s Coffee Pub in 1995. Within a year, the band had changed their name to Eve 6 (a reference to the sci-fi TV show The X-Files, which the band’s drummer was a big fan of), and in 1998, the band released their self-titled debut album. The record was a platinum sellling success, helped massively by its lead single “Inside Out” hurtling into the Billboard Modern Rock charts at number one and eventually climbing into the top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100.

The band were comfortably on top of the world, and stayed there once the 2000 release of their second album “Horrorscope” came along. Their sophomore effort was a Gold-ceritified success with another mainstream hit single in the form of high school graduation standard “Here’s To The Night”. However, cracks had begun to show in the band and by the release of their third album “It’s All In Your Head”, singer Max Collins’ drinking had spiralled out of control and the sales of their newest effort were slow enough to get them released from their RCA contract in 2003. The following year, the band went on hiatus, citing a need to grow up a little more away from the public eye. Even though they’d been performing together for just under a decade, the average age of the band was still 26.

Three years later, after some low-key solo efforts from the band members, singer Collins and drummer Tony Fagenson came back together in 2007 for a few eagerly awaited live shows. The band resumed business properly in 2008, touring the world, writing new material and generally reconnecting themselves to their fan-base. Wisely, they waited until they felt truly ready to release anything and their first album since reconvening, “Speak In Code”, was released in April 2012. The record ended up getting the best reviews of their entire career, and ever since then, the band have enjoyed one of the most succesful career renaissance’s of any reunited band of today. For that, Eve 6 come highly recommended.