40 Oz. to Freedom

Like Jeff Buckley and Kurt Cobain, Bradley Nowell’s music career was cut short at its peak in the 1990s, but his band Sublime has lived on as one of the most lucrative reggae franchises of the last two decades, spurring a veritable cottage industry of tribute bands like 40 Oz. to Freedom. Named after Sublime’s 1992 debut album, this San Diego group tours the country playing Sublime’s drug- and alcohol-drenched reggae-punk for fans, partiers and frat boys too young to have experienced Sublime first hand. They’ve been giants of the Sublime tribute scene for years, though they may begin to feel some competition now that the remaining Sublime members have reunited, however dubiously, with a new singer.