Submitted by MessyTapes1 t3_10dkg3r in Music
I was born in ‘05 so I wasn’t really around for their airplay or when they were “big” so for those who may have been in high school or older how big was sugarcult back in the 2000s? Let’s say 2001 when “Start Static” came out?
Weird.
I was around at the time and never heard of this band before. I don't know, maybe--maybe--the name sounds familiar, but yeah, no clue.
Oh they’re great, they’re a pop punk band. I’d definitely check out their 2001 album “Start Static” It’s one of my favorite albums ever.
Even more weird because I love pop punk.
Cool. Gonna check them out. Thanks!
I remember seeing the video for "Memory" all over the music channels (on real TV!) in 2004. I even bought Palm Trees and Power Lines. Didn't see/hear them much before or after that though.
Yeah, I'm in the same boat actually - they sound vaguely familiar...
OP, there were a lot of pop-punk bands around that time. A LOT. You'd see entire festival line-ups that were pretty much just 100 pop-punk bands, a bit of ska, and maybe some nu-metal thrown in.
These guys probably had a following that any guitar band today would die for, but due to the sheer level of competition, didn't really capture wide attention.
Low mid-tier alternative band…I think when I saw them live at the local radio festival they were mid afternoon on a side stage.
It really was pop punk's heyday wasn't it?
Uh I’ve heard of Sugar Ray
They were more popular with the teeny bopper crowd, like middle school aged kids. They had a few hits but they weren't huge. I do remember they had enough hits for a block of just their music videos for an episode of Loaded, a show on fuse (or maybe then it was still muchmusicusa?) that was a half hour block dedicated to one bands music videos. I remember the song "Pretty Girl" being EVERYWHERE for a while and there being two different music videos for "Memory."
Not only was I "around" at the time but I was working in the music industry.
And I've never heard of them.
You can just call me Tapes. And I’ve done research on that era. It makes sense. I wonder why pop punk was so big then?
It truly was. God the gigs were so much fun.
Id say if you were into pop punk or skater culture then you knew them, otherwise probably not much. Most teens probably would recognize Bouncing of the Walls but wouldn't be able to name the band.
>Low mid-tier
Frankly, that's being generous.
Or “Pretty Girl”
You had to be in to the genre, but even then they were crowded out with bands like Simple Plan, NFG, and All American Rejects. All considering, they did good for themselves.
The Tony Hawk games played into that some. They were really popular and had a lot of skate/pop-punk songs on the soundtrack.
I saw them open for Reel Big Fish in the late 90s / early 00s. I liked them, bought their cd. I think I saw a music video of theirs a year or so later and then they vanished.
Not big at all. If you weren’t into pop punk you probably didn’t know them. I saw them in concert three times and they were always a supporting act.
I thought it said SugarLoaf. Love me some green eyed lady.
I have never heard of them until this post, so I'll go with.........not that big.
I went to warped tour 04 or 05 and they were playing early afternoon to a small crowd. I think they were same time as Matchbook Romance who I chose instead.
just a hair over "bands that only had one song"
I'm bouncing off the walls again WHOAHHH I'm looking like a fool again WHOAHHH 🎵
Pretty girl is suffering while he confesses everything ..pretty soon she'll figure out what his intentions were about. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR FALLING AGAIN YOU CAN NEVER GET HIM OUT OF YOUR HEAD 🎶
This may never start, don't wanna be your MEMORAYYYYYYY 🎵
Honestly not that big tho. Like a much less popular all american rejects.
Never heard of them.
Not sure how "big" they were, but consistently on the radio for a few yeara anyway...
Bouncing Off The Walls was a certified banger, but don't remember much else. I was only in like 2nd grade though so not like I was illegally downloading music on limewire yet.
I've honestly never heard of them and I was born quite a few years before the 2000s.
Having a song in Van Wilder was their peak, which they rode through the next 2-3 years with a few more hits like Pretty Girl and Memory. I never saw them in concert but still have 4-5 of their songs in rotation.
So bigger than your average one hit wonder, but not by much.
Skateboarding culture.
Not very big.
Green Dey was the first gigantic punk band of the 90s. A lot of kids, including myself, learned to play because of them. Blink was another huge band that got tons of kids playing. Those two bands were responsible for a LOT of rock music in the late 90s through the 2000s.
It was just such a perfect match for the vibe of the time.
It was a really optimistic time in a lot of senses. A world of primary colors (before everything gradually got darker with 9/11 and the resulting war on terror propaganda), and the music mirrored that perfectly.
Smash Mouth's All Star video is almost like a Rembrant painting of what the mood was as a teenager back then. Ha.
Music scene and "popularity" was different then since not everyone had a great internet connection and we were still at the tail end of the brick and mortar stores selling CDs. It also varied depending on your region because getting a single on the radio or on whatever music tv channel in your local market was dependent on record company marketing strategy and budget whereas now anyone with a popular enough YouTube following can self publish and get millions of views. Lots of pop punk bands at the time like Sugarcult such that they were dime a dozen: Lit, Treble Charger, American Hi Fi, All American Rejects, Sum 41 etc etc. because record companies were really cashing in. Listen to basically any teen comedy soundtrack of the 2000s and its all gonna be this type of stuff. Sugarcult had a couple international singles and then dropped off the face of the Earth from what I remember.
They were known to people who looked up the soundtracks to Van Wilder or American Wedding. I loved em, but would never have known about them without those movies.
I don't recall them being huge at any point. Doubt they were headlining arena tours but may have been doing the theater circuit
>I was born in '05
Fuuuuuuuuck I'm old.
Is OP secretly a member of Sugarcult looking for an “I told you so!” to tell his kids?
Keep in mind there was no internet as you think of it today...kids and teenagers got all their music recommendations from MTV and the radio. If you were really into music you might pick up magazines or hang out at the record store to listen to a bunch of random things.
Pop music was dominated by boy bands and a whole bunch of cheese in the late 90s. Then Green Day and Blink-182 blew up on MTV...it was vulgar, aggressive, and appealed to teens sick of the bubblegum pop. Record labels do what they do anytime a style becomes big and sucked up every pop punk band they could. Sum 41, Sugarcult, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, New Found Glory, and a hundred others. Those are the bands that got promoted (still "pre-internet") and fed to teens as the next big thing.
Memory was a decent sized hit in 2003-2004. I fucking LOVE it’s parent album “Palm Trees and Powerlines” to this day.
I was a teen in their heyday. I could tell you the name of one song, and only because it was on the radio. They were the walmart version of All American Rejects.
They never really made it as big as many other bands of that scene but they had some really nice produced records, and the singer is a great producer now as well
I have no memory of them.
You keep crying, crying, crying till you can not sleep at all.
She's the blade and you're just paaaaperrrr
I thought AAR was the Walmart version of AAR
i agree that it's being generous. If i was seeing a concert and looked at the poster, Blink 182 or someone would have been headlining, so they had the top billing and HUGE letters... Sugarcult would have been in the bands where they git 30 bands in the same amount of space as the headline at a 10 font.
I think it depends where you were from and how into the pop punk / emo scene you were. If you’re a normal pop / top 40s person they were a blip on the radar. If you were into the “scene” went from seeing them in tiny clubs to being on MTV and playing festivals you have a different perspective.
More like the Target version. Marginally better, but neither were great.
Memory was their biggest song
They weren’t overly popular, just some alternative station fodder.
I graduated in 03 and have always been a huge music fan across many genres and I have never listened to this band.
Entry level, a couple soundtrack songs but never “popular”.
gen xer here - same, never heard of them.
Going by the venues available at Setlist.fm, they were big enough to headline House of Blues-sized venues, but when they opened for Green Day, they were the opener that warmed the crowd for New Found Glory. They didn't really break into the mainstream, but had a better run than most.
I went to college in Santa Barbara from 99-02 and was also really into the skatepunk scene all through high school. I knew of them mainly cause they were local to SB, opening for other bands from the genre/scene touring through. They had a following in town, but beyond that it seemed like they were pretty unknown outside of Southern California.
Bands like them really benefited from fests like Warped Tour in those days. I remember being slightly surprised when I lived in FL a few years after leaving SB and friends out there had heard of them.
Not very relevant, but I listened to them in high school. I believe they had some songs in major motion pictures, like (a true classic now) Van Wilder!
Side note, Van Wilder was based off Bert Kreischer! I enjoy him, but women may not! He has a movie coming out this year! I recommend you watch The Machine!
Mom and daddy got the best cocaine!!!
Who?
I love "Hate Every Beautiful Day"
Early 00s pop-punk one hit wonders. I was really into that stuff at the time and definitely remember them.
I have never heard of them, so not huge.
I loved them. I graduated highschool in 05, so thanks for making me feel old.
But yea, stellar band, and the few times I met them they were always super cool dudes.
I’ve only heard of them because I did IT for a school district around this time and used to delete mp3s from our file servers all the time. It was on the list of bands that I collected the metadata on to help me find stuff they tried to bury.
For as big as they weren't, I'll always have a soft spot because they were incredibly friendly. I went to radio music fest where every band had a time slot at the autograph tent. Their timeslot happened to be during a headliner so there was no one in their line. I was an awkward 13 yearold with a bowl cut and they sent out of their way to make a good impression on a fan. I'd never listen to them anymore but I'm certainly never going to bash them
12 year old me and my friends loved them. We were heavy into pop punk and used to jam out to Start Static all the time. It’s hard to say how popular they were universally because the internet was just popping off at the time. I know they had a couple videos on Mtv at the time. 🤷♀️ Ahhh, simpler times.
Memory was in burnout 3? Maybe revenge? Maybe takedown? One of those. That’s probably my initial exposure.
Stuck in America, anyone?
2 hit wonder. Had a song on the Van Wilder soundtrack that was a little hard to escape on alternative radio stations (before streaming services, we listened to the radio...the way back times.) Followed up with an attempt to break through with their next hit Memory but they never had enough individuality to set them aside from the giant pack of pop punk/ emo/ alternative rock bands that were popping up at that time. I liked them enough, but they were never destined to be a huge band.
They had an iTunes single of the week, that’s how I found them!
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I was a teenager in 05. Never heard of them
They opened for blink 182 when I saw them in the early 2000s. Hadn't heard of them before that though
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I was 16 in 2005. They weren’t on the level of blink 182 or sum 41 at the time but they had a following. They would do the warped tour circuit and all that but they didn’t get much radio play. I remember I liked a few of their songs in high school.
who?
Fun fact: I designed and managed their MySpace page when I was a teen lol
Same, I was 13 in 05 and I’m like "who?!"
Was a fan and saw them live. Believe me, there were dozens of us, Dozens!!!
They had a couple of singles that got played on the alternative stations but never got that popular or well known.
Stuff that wasn't on the radio is better
I have no memory of the band. I read the wiki on them and had a chuckle to myself. Members of the band met backstage at a Superdrag show, and then formed Sugarcult. Same number of letters, and the words even look similar. here you go
Edit: unclear if they were already a band at that show, still get a chuckle from it.
I had not heard anyone mention this band for a decade and a half until you posted this.
They had that song bouncing off the walls again and then they vanished.
It was in Burnout 3: Takedown. That game had a banger soundtrack.
I saw them supporting Blink 182 in the UK, if that’s any measure.
That was my favorite song for a long time due to that game.
Absolutely love Start Static. Still listen to it to this day.
Here's the LineUp to the Leeds Festival 2003, which can be seen as representative for that time:
Sugarcult played on Friday, on the main stage but as the very first band of the eight bands playing that day, followed by The Used, LostProphets, Good Charlotte, Primal Scream, Sum 41, System of a Down and Metallica. So "very low mid-tier" would be pretty accurate. 2001/2002 was their heyday in the US, with the touring in Europe 2003 still running on their debut album material, supporting the Europan release of the album, two years after its US release.
I was born in 1971. Never heard of them.
American Pie too! Those soundtracks can more or less show you what the kids were listening too at the time
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I loved them in my early years of high school- had their CDs and saw them live at a small local punk rock venue. That was when I was listening to them Rooney, Something Corporate, Nada Surf etc etc
Not huge, but they did get Ryan Reynolds in one of their music videos. So… that’s something they can tell people.
I think van wilder brought them some fame too since bouncing off the walls was featured in the movie
I was going through an old box of high school crap last year and found a signed shoe from someone in Sugarcult. I believe it was from a small club show they played in Central CA, but can’t be positive.
They were never huge, but anyone into the pop punk scene between 00-05 would likely know of them.
I think they had a song on Van Wilder OST. That was around 2000/2001, so they would have been somewhat mainstream at that point. I wouldn’t say big, I’d say like 2nd Stage Warped Tour.
Ohh I remember them. My bff in high school (we graduated in ‘05 lol) was really into them. Not super popular tho.
17 at 2000 and: "who?"
I gather from the comments that "Bouncing off the walls" was their one big hit? Just listened to it and I don't recall ever even hearing that.
So afaik mainstream airplay, little to literally none.
Who?
I'm 40 and have never heard of them.
Pretty Girl was my favorite song for YEARS 🖤
I was heavy in the pop punk/emo scene in that area. They were good, had a few popular songs. Mostly toured as an opening act.
Idk if this means anything but my sister listened to them when I was pretty young so I heard them in her music, pretty girl is one of the first songs I remember listening to with her alongside stuff like my chemical romance -I’m not okay (before black parade), and like yellowcard- ocean avenue so probably circa 2004-2005. I wouldn’t say she was into any really obscure music either so I feel like they were played a decent amount around then if you were into that type of music.
If anyone here wasn't really a fan of their better-known pop punk stuff but is willing to give them another shot, I highly recommend their last album Lights Out. It's a well-written power pop album that completely flew under the radar.
An unfortunate thing that happens to some bands is that they have a certain sound that gets them written off entirely. Then when they evolve that sound for the better, nobody cares.
I was there. Never heard of them.
I only discovered them in my twenties (born 1985) thanks to a boyfriend who loved them. I absolutely loved them and still listen now :)
Graduated 2004. Small enough that I totally forgot about them until this moment but big enough that I'm super excited you reminded me about them. Thank you!
I think sugarcult was at their peak before the bands you mentioned. Just after barenaked ladies and chumbawamba.
Bouncing of the Walls was a small hit. I saw them play in a 800 capacity venue in Amsterdam. They opened up for Alien Ant Farm and some street musician they picked up during the day. It was not sold out by far.
Big isn’t a word I would use to describe them. If you were interested the skate punk scene, you were likely aware of them and may have enjoyed a song or two for a short period.
One of their members is also a member of a much, much better band called Bad Astronaut, though.
Also Burnout Paradise.
Their mostly remembered for Memory nowadays, and the majority of people who remember it are the ones who played Burnout 3
I only know who they are because of Van Wilder, and I was a skater in the early 2000’s. I don’t think they were ever “big” as you put it..
Haha! no I wish I just really love music. Just wanted to know If they were seen the same way I see them If that makes sense. Thanks for the comment though. Gave me a good laugh.
I haven't thought about them since high school. I put them in some PowerPoint for class and another student liked the song. Not sure if they knew the band, but I definitely remember them. I don't think you would have seen them on MTV. Honestly, I'm not sure how I knew about them. Probably through the internet; Napster, Limeware, Kazaa, or maybe just MySpace.
Listened to their lights out album a lot when i was in college, usually while gaming. My wife has always been into emo and has several of their songs on normal rotation.
I have no idea who they are and I listen to a lot of 00's bands. That being said, once I looked them up I knew a few songs, but they are not a name that I would consider "big".
That might be because I didn't listen to them too much and they never grew on me, but I was more of a Hoobstank, Limp Bizkit, System Of A Down, Korn, Yellowcard, etc so I don't know if I should know them better or not.
I still turn on pretty girl when I’m feeling extra angsty
Don’t forget about the Offspring. They were huge and on a punk label at the time.
Who?
They had fairly decent radio & mtv play for a year or 2 so they did better than a large chunk of pop punk bands. From a ‘main stream’ perspective At one point they were In The same breath of the 2nd tier of early aughts pop punk bands like sum41, new found glory, jimmy eat world and yellowcard but all those bands kept climbing and sugar cult stayed stagnant and (at least in my mind) remained in the crop of ‘1 hit wonder-ish” rock bands like unwritten law & red jump suit apparatus
Saw them at a radio fest show in 2002 on a killer lineup of: ok go, breaking Benjamin, sugarcult, NFG, and jimmy eat world headlining.
Met the singers of both sugarcult & NFG that night and they were both dicks.
Never had any hits that crossed over into pop radio and never really excelled within their own genre either.
I was listening to a lot of new music at that time, and I have never heard of them.
They weren’t huge. My friends who were into pop punk knew them, but no one else did.
I saw them when they were supporting Good Charlotte (I think) at a mid size venue and then on their own tour at a tiny venue in London.
I was really into them in highschool but I didn’t know many people who listened to them, I think bands like good charlotte, sum 41, simple plan that had similar music were alot more popular but I think it’s because they came out when that type of music was really popular and sugar cult was a bit earlier so may be why it’s not as popular since they hit the scene early. Also I should note i was 14 when their first album came out so just starting highschool. Also thanks for making me feel old 😂
Not very big, but God DAMN did they release some bangers. Palm Trees and Powerlines is such a good album.
Yea I think that’s why they weren’t as popular if they had come out when those bands were popular(like 02 to 04) then they would have probably been a bigger success.
Bouncing off the Walls was everywhere, but you probably didn't know the band's name. Just within their genre, they were competing against Blink 182, Sum 41, Offspring, and Green Day. They also would've been overshadowed by Evanescence, Seether, Shinedown, Linkin Park, Three Days Grace, Puddle of Mudd, Three Doors Down, System of a Down, Godsmack, Nickelback, Saliva, and Breaking Benjamin on pop radio and music video channels. And that's only their competition from the rock genre, plenty of rap and r&b was on the pop channels as well.
I'd probably put Sugarcult on par with a band like Bowling for Soup or Smashmouth, minus Smashmouth's extended longevity as a meme. A couple widely recognized songs, probably enough success to make a decent living, but never getting enough traction to really become famous.
If you have heard any of their songs, it would be one of:
Memory
She's the Blade
Bouncing off the Walls
Granted it's quite likely you haven't heard any of those songs, but if you wanted to check those would be the songs to check.
I almost never heard them on the radio, only ever in specific places. For comparison sake, I'd say Lit was a bit bigger.
I was in high school 2001-2005 and I’ve never heard of them. Just looked them up and have heard the song bouncing off the walls, it’s not good and I can see why they were never hugely popular based on this one song.
Same realm as New Found Glory/Motion City Soundtrack but not as popular even. I don't think they even received airplay on Canadian radio at all, other than the occasional time on college stations maybe.
Does Mest fall under the same umbrella?
I’ve never been a gamer but loved that game and that soundtrack killed.
I think my intro to them was Memory on a punk goes acoustic compilation album. But hard agree with a generic AAR comparison
I’m 2002 grad. I’m totally off to listen to them now…
I liked them! Memory was one of the bigger hits...I remember seeing the video on Fuse a lot (the MTV for punk/emo music in the early 2000s). They were not huge, like Blink, Sum 41, Alkaline Trio, AFI, etc., but I'd say they were known (or their hits, at least) by the crowd into that non-mainstream music.
My friends & I in high school loved Sugarcult, but I would only say they were moderately popular.
Tbh , I heard the name and ignored the music. Never heard it again until now.
I think you had to be in the pop-punk world to be aware of them. I often caught them live secondarily as support for another band. Outside of that, people didn’t really know who they were. I do recall Stuck in America getting some burn on MTV at the time. The general consensus about them was “meh” as there were a lot of contemporaries doing something similar and often times, better.
I think after Pretty Girl (The Way) they kind of faded away from whatever public consciousness there was about the band—at least, I stopped seeing them mentioned as much after that.
Looking back now and not being a little shithead "scene" kid I can better appreciate their hits. At the time, admitting you liked them wasn't "cool" and you would have probably classified their hit singles as "guilty pleasures."
Me and my mates cranked this for the memes in middle school. We cranked reel big fish and Thursday for real =p.
THREW AWAY MY REPUTATION ONE MORE SONG FOE THE RADIO STATION
Yo Thursday is my fav band I have the dove tattoo LOL
niche pop punk. most people recognized them after i think van wilder came out? but they didnt have a big following
who's that
its in my memory. i was mid 20's then. yeah. it was right when music changed to emo tho, and everyone went with the black parade soon after.
They weren’t a huge deal, they were kind of commercial so they got songs into video games and were in magazines. One friend of mine was a sort of fan so we did catch their set at VooDoo fest in like 03-04. The guitarist accidentally broke his guitar trying to be cool. I guess his thing was to throw the guitar to his tech at the end of the set but this time he was standing on the cable so it flew about 20 feet before slamming into the stage and exploding. They threw the pieces into the crowd, we ended up with the bridge.
This is what’s playing in my head after I read the title
No idea, literally never heard of them
I only know them from playing Burnout 3 Takedown. They had Memory in the soundtrack. So get back back back where we lasted
Takedown did have a great soundtrack. SSX3 did as well. EA did good with the licensed music back in the day.
Toooooooday!!!
Born in ‘05 means they’re … -5, at most? How can they be writing?
Not very, Memory was semi popular but not much
They got some radio play but they were not big time by any means
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They got some radio play, the 2001 album was their best.
Lol nice, I worked on their website for a while when they were mainly still big in Japan/overseas
I’d say they were regular human sized musicians
I saw them in 2002 with The Ataris, Rufio and Autopilot Off.
I was in my early 20s at the time & I really enjoyed them, but agree -- other than a handful of songs, they didn't really stick.
ETA: In short, I don't think the people outside of my group of friends knew who I was going to see at that show. If I had said I was going to see them two years later when they were opening for Green Day? Different story
I was obsessed with Palm Trees and Powerlines but no one else that I knew listened to them
Such a random question. This past week a neighbor threw out a large replica cd of Sugarcult. About 5 to 6 foot in circumference.
These are their only songs.
I’ve never heard of them either. Tbf he’s asking about 2001 and I was 10 so unless your parents or an older sibling introduces you it’s too young. I was jamming to Drops of Jupiter that year, not punk.
Right around their prime in 2005 I saw them at a venue in Portland that only held one or two hundred people and they weren't even the headliner if I remember correctly.
I've always liked them, but they were not big at all.
My friend listened to Pretty Girl a lot growing up so that’s how I knew them.
Is it?
Start Static sold 300,000 copies. What tier would you put that in?
They’re from my hometown, so I got to watch up close as they went from bar band to getting as big as they did, which… their debut label album sold 300,000 copies and they toured the festival circuit for a few years, so that’s my answer to about how big they ever got.
My understanding is that their major shot at the big leagues was snuffed out because their first single “Stuck in America” got yanked off of the radio right after September 11th due to the lyric “Everybody’s talking about blowing up the neighborhood.”
Back then, earning a Gold record (500,000 units sold) was still a big measure of success, so I’d say they did have a shot at becoming much bigger, by still did just fine. Their singer also went on to write mega-hits and produce for Neon Trees, Walk the Moon, etc. and the bass player founded Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
I was born in 89. My group of friends loved Sugarcult, especially me. It makes me so happy to see this post. We were emo / scene kids.
They were small venue big when I was in high school (graduated ‘03).
omg bowling for soup
​
I just went somewhen
When I saw Green Day on the American Idiot tour, Sugarcult was the first of three bands.
My memories of their set was them playing to a stadium full of people still trying to find their seat and the singer taking a hit of a joint from somebody in the crowd.
This was September 2004. If you ask me, being on a tour that scale (coupled with their sync placements in Burnout 3 that same year) was probably their “shot” to become synonymous with the genre.
I don’t remember them at all, but maybe they didn’t make it to regular UK airplay.
These comments make me sad. I love them, one of my favorite bands and I want them to come back really badly!
Sure doesn’t really matter to me
I would probably recognize one of their songs, but I have no clue who they are, and I was in my early 20s during that time.
Who?
I was around (was 30 in 2000) & into rock/metal I’ve never heard of them. 😕
I only remember them from thr Van Wilder movie on DVD. They had 2 songs on there.
I’m actually 17 I was born in 2005
[deleted] t1_j4lwqn3 wrote
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