Staind and Hoobastank

The band met and formed in Massachusetts in the mid-90s and started out covering songs by the likes of Rage Against the Machine and Alice in Chains which would help to mould their sound as they moved forward. The 5 piece line up consisted of Aaron Lewis, Mike Mushok, Johnny April and Jon Wysocki which remained a constant until Jon’s departure in 2011.

The band self-released a small quantity of their debut album ‘Tormented’ and, after opening for Limb Bizkit, made a new fan in frontman Fred Durst. With the help of Terry Date, Fred produced Staind’s major label debut ‘Dysfunction’ which, although a slow seller to begin with, began to pick up traction as the band toured hard and singles began to receive radio play.

The band really broke out with the release of third album ‘Break the Cycle’. As evidenced by hit single ‘It’s Been A While’, the band had started to blend more post-grunge sounds in with their nu-metal foundations with great results as the album debuted at number one in the album charts and eventually went on to sell 7 million copies round the world.

The band continued to release successful albums (all of which debuted in the top 10 of the album charts) and, after taking a brief hiatus in 2012, returned to touring in 2014 with numerous festival appearances.

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”.