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It all started with Jane Crayle in 1975,when she met 14 years old Matt Levins in guitar class,and fell in love with him.Matt was oblivious to this,but the two became friends,and in 1978,Matt met another guy called Shaun Teven and the trio hit it off very fast as they realized they could now form a band,and they did in fact,but later in early 1979,with Jane on guitar and vocals,Matt on bass,and Shaun on drums,called "Interpolation".On January 1 1981,they released their first demo and sent it to the punk club that the underground legends Fat Blunt were using,and got accepted on first try.After playing a lot of shows on there and becoming favorites quickly,on June 15 1982,a friend of theirs got them into the studio of Insomniac Records(the record company of the club)and they began recording their first album.Things weren't going smoothly though,as Matt recently got way too into drugs and smoking and he had to ditch recording sometimes.Still,they kept going but they were out of budget,so it had to cut short.With only 8 songs,they split the album into two EPs,called "Snooky" released on January 1 1983,and "Terryform" one week later on January 8 1983.These EPs performed pretty well actually,selling 8.000 copies their first month,and spreading their name far and wide in the california punk scene.In late 1982,Matt was way into skateboarding and convinced his bandmates to go on with him.By early 1983,they did this regularly,and around that time got fond of skate punk,and decided that's what they will do.On March 4 1983 though,Matt got very sick and weak,and a week or so later he was in the hospital with fatal conditions,and said goodbye to the music making world,via telling his friends that he's out.They had to find a replacement,and it didn't come for a long time,rather they played as a duo between april 1 and December 19.In the latter year,a guy called Brian Day opted to become their drummer,as after hearing them on a show he realized how...well,not good of a drummer Shaun is.
The band was now complete,and on January 5 they went back into the studio,and started writing more songs for their debut album,and when that finished around April 1984,they began recording,which took from April 1984 to February 1985.With 3 singles,the band,now called "Purple Sky" released their debut album Authenticity on June 21 1985,and it somehow blew the fuck up,probably because people were now interested in punk more than ever after Punk Rock Is Dead.By the end of summer,the record already sold 230.000 copies,and the radios were playing their songs regularly,along with some songs from the album that weren't even released as singles.The album ended 1985 with 1 million copies sold.The band kicked off their first America wide tour on January 1 1986.
The band first inducted themselves into rock history on March 8 1986,when they played a show in Baltimore,Maryland and the venue was wrecked by them and their punk rock fans from the moment they arrived till they had to flee the city at around 4:00am the next day.
They returned to the studio two weeks after the tour finished on May 2 1986,and began recording their second album.Now they wanted to go further with their sound,so they experimented with ska punk,thrash metal elements and even synths and sound machines for christ sake.The result of their efforts was "Better Call My Lawyer" which they released on January 2 1987.This was also a smash hit,selling 3 million copies in 6 months now,but was nowhere near their debut,as that record had reached 15 million copies by that point.After 6 months of further recording,they released a single called "Impotent Snake",which became their biggest hit song just yet,reaching number 49 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts,and selling 2 million copies in two weeks.The music video for the song released on November 9 1987 pushed them further into the Rock and Roll History Books,as it became the first punk music video to absolutely dominate MTV,and it kept it up from November 1987 till March 1989.On March 17 1988,they embarked on a worldwide tour,which lasted between March and December of that year,and after two weeks,they embarked on a short tour around parts of America they missed for some reason-this lasted from January 1989 to July 1989.
Back at the studio,they continued recording and came out with 3 more singles by late 1989,all of which became big hits,but nowhere near as big as Impotent Snake.Then they released the album titled "Impotent Snake" on March 1 1990,and with that,their second most iconic album of all time,and their second best-selling as well,as by the time they released their 4th album in mid-1991,titled "Gut Inflammation",the album had climbed up to 13 million copies,and Authenticity had reached the glory of selling 37 million copies.But then again,they became exhausted,as they realized that all the adrenaline from touring didn't wear off for literally 4 years and they spent that time really just recording,writing,touring,press and not with their loved ones,so they all collectively apologized to them and the band went on an indefinite hiatus announced by their manager.At the end of 1993,Matt Levins returned and wanted to return to the band as a bassist,but they didn't want him to because of his pushiness and because of the panic attacks he always had before performances to 100-200 people-he wouldn't be able to perform to 66-80 thousand.Instead,he became their roadie.The band felt good that Matt was back at last,but they always checked on him to see if he's okay with all the pressure.
During this time,Matt was at the lowest,deepest,darkest corner of his addiction fueled by his schizophrenia and intense reoccuring health issues,and unfortunately with his stashes visibly present,the band managed to fall into the drugs,except for Brian,who was the only one who managed to keep his needs down.Shaun's wife,Greta absolutely refused to live under the same roof as a heroin and weed addict,so he moved in with his bandmates,and he could only visit his now ex-wife once every two weeks.Despite this,they finished recording their next album in March 1994 and released it with barely any modifications on May 6.It sold like there's no tomorrow.But the band now despised skate punk and the subgenre,so they decided to reinvent themselves-and they actually had some fun,pushing some soul back into their hearts.
This next album was called "Your Life Sucks" and followed the band taking on their form of pop punk:the mixture of Green Day and Fat Blunt they called "Real Pop Punk" but then became known as "Poppest Punk" which relied solely on catchy melodies,a very polished sound but still very much punk in tone,message and subject.The album sold better than any of their other albums before,even better than Authenticity,which it ended up passing in sales in 2007,as both reached 61 million copies,and nowadays,YLS is sitting at 95 million copies,and their debut at 66 million.Safe to say,they revolutionized punk again,and once more,furthered themselves in the Rock And Roll History Books.Afterwards,they went on their next worldwide tour and things went south fast,as they started in Mexico,and as their addiction worsened,and after a blowout on stage,the band canceled all of their other events and went back home only a week after leaving.Shaun was especially weak and damaged and he had to be taken into a hospital.But they saw the light in making more music.
By 1998,they released two more pop punk albums,and even though they got themselves clean,the albums were not received well by both the public and the critics,becoming their lowest selling albums ever.They didn't give up though,and decided to abandon their punk roots some more,and combine emo and soft rock on their 9th and self titled album,which they released on December 7 1999 and blew the audience out of the gate.In late 2000,they released a follow up that sounds exactly like the previous album,but with more bangers.But here comes the shock:On March 9 2001,the band announced that their next album would be their last. Luckily they went out on a bang:"Legends Die Last / Let Us Go" which is among the 30 most iconic albums of all time according to many rock historians,and established them as undeniable and unparalleled princes of Punk.
The band reunited on May 17 2010 when the band was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame and the entire world cheered them on.
