The Sublime family tree is one with many branches, but if we consider Sublime the root, then Long Beach Dub Allstars would be the trunk of this unique reggae-rock genre. They started in 1997 as a way for this special community of artists to come together around the untimely passing of their brother in Sublime front-man Brad Nowell who passed away in May of 1996. The group was created by surviving Sublime members; drummer Bud Gaugh, bassist Eric Wilson, along with producer and sound-engineer Miguel Happoldt and DJ/percussionist Marshall Goodman. The group was rounded out with vocals provided by new lead-guitarist Ras-1 and Opie Ortiz, who in addition to designing all of the Sublime material, also designed all of the L.B.D.A. art. Then there was the late Ikey Owens on keys who sat opposite of Jack Maness on keys (and occasionally played guitar) along with Tim Wu on sax/flute.

Following their first live performance in January of 1997, a buzz broke out with demand for more shows. So what started out as a tribute performance to support Brad’s son, Jakob, turned into a band of Brad’s fellow brothers and musicians that would continue to write, perform and further this new genre of music. When they would perform live, they would play a mix of Sublime songs and reggae covers around a collection of original material using that unique ingredient of Reggae, Ska, Dub, Hip Hop, Punk with shades of Pop. They always paid tribute to Brad Nowell during songs, would let the crowd sing “Santeria” and were known to play as a backing band for such artists as Half Pint, Barrington Levy and Born Jamericans. Back then, L.B.D.A. was the only group of its kind furthering the Reggae-Rock sound with influence. The band disbanded in 2002, but reformed 10 years later.