Songoftheday 9/27/22 - Sometimes I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear, and I can't help but ask myself how much I'll let the fear take the wheel and steer...

 

 

"Drive" - Incubus

from the album Make Yourself (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)

Weeks in the Top-40: 23

 

Today's song comes from the rock band Incubus, who came together in the suburbs of Los Angeles as schoolmates. Lead singer Brendan Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, drummer Jose Pasillas, and bass player Alex Katunich started out as a funk rock band in the vein of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. After an EP (extended play single) release Let Me Tell You About Root Beer, the group put out  their debut full-length album Fungus Amongus independently in 1995, with their first music video "Take Me To Your Leader". With the buzz generated from those two sets, Incubus was signed to Immortal Records in the Sony Distribution arm. Adding DJ/turntablist Gavin "DJ Lyfe" Koppell, they released a second EP, Enjoy Incubus, with mostly re-recorded versions of Fungus songs with DJ Lyfe scratching on top, in the beginning of 1997, as they opened for Korn on tour. Probably influence by their tourmates, Incubus' first full-length album on the label, S.C.I.E.N.C.E., went for straight nu-metal, but shortly after, DJ Lyfe was tossed from the band acrimoniously, and replaced by Chris Kilmore, who has been with them ever since. 

It took two years for Incubus to re-emerge with their third studio album Make Yourself. Produced by the band with Scott Litt, most famous for working with R.E.M., the record was much more musically diverse and nuanced than their previous work. Lead single "Pardon Me", which arrived in the fall of 1999, had Boyd rap-singing the verses that is so common now but new in that time, and crashed onto rock radio hard, spending three weeks at #3 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock chart, as well as getting to #7 on the Mainstream Rock format, and "bubbling under" the pop Hot 100 at #102. The song even made the British singles chart at #61. That was followed in the summer of 2000 by "Stellar", which was much more spacious in production and in return took a week at #2 on the Alternative Rock chart, peaking at #17 on Mainstream Rock, and again "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #107.

 

The third offering from Make Yourself in the fall of 2000, "Drive", was the band's version of the "power-ballad" trope. With lyrics about overcoming fear to control your own destiny, the murky optimism of the words fit with the production, which toned their sound down tremendously to that of Sugar Ray trying to recreate Extreme's "More Than Words". Brandon's vocals over the "What's It's Like"-style acoustic guitar and Kilmore's scratches made a record that let you feel the words instead of having them hit you in a barrage without meaning, and radio and the public responded by giving Incubus their first and biggest pop hit. The music video is almost "Take On Me", with Boyd seemingly illustrating himself into the song...

After topping the rock radio chart that spring, "Drive" eventually crossed over to pop stations, and made the top ten on Billboard's Hot 100 in July of 2001. Before that, the song spent two months (eight weeks) atop the Alternative Rock radio chart, as well as getting to #8 on the harder Mainstream Rock list and #5 on the new Adult Album Alternative (or "Triple-A") rock format.. On the pop radio side, "Drive" went to #8 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart and #4 on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format spending 42 weeks there. Internationally, the single peaked at #4 in Portugal, and made the top-40 in New Zealand (#13), Australia (#34), and the United Kingdom (#40). The Make Yourself album,released in October of 1999, eventually reached a high of #98 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, but spent a hefty 98 weeks on the chart, going on to sell over two million copies.

While the band was touring behind the album but before "Drive" was released, they released an EP of live material, When Incubus Attacks Vol. 1, which came in at #41 on the Billboard 200. Also, Immortal re-released Fungus Amongus, which spent a week on that list at #118. 

Incubus returned in the fall of 2001 with their next album Morning View, which definitely took a cue from the success of the softer "Drive". The first single from the record, "Wish You Were Here", again was produced with Litt, again sounded like a more pensive Sugar Ray, and that clicked with rock radio, which had the song spend six weeks at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart, and #4 on the Mainstream Rock radio list, but it wasn't too hard to take seven weeks on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format with a peak of #36. On the main Hot 100, where mainstream pop stations were cooler on it, the single topped out at #60, though it became the band's first British top-40 hit at #27. The album, which spent a week at #2 on the Billboard 200, also sold two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2003, Morning View gave Einzinger and Litt along with Dave Holdredge and Rick Will a nominated for Best Non-Classical Engineered Album, which went to the team behind Norah Jones' Come Away With Me. However after their tour behind the album, Katunich exited the band, to be replaced by Ben Kenney, who is still their bassist today. 

 

At the time of recording their next set, A Crow Left Of The Murder..., the band was suing their label for better compensation in their contract based on their success. They also switched producers to Brendan O'Brien (who worked with grunge titans Pearl Jam and Soundgarden). After settling, the set came out in the beginning of 2004, and also took a week at #2 on the Billboard 200 (though spending half the weeks of their previous album), selling over a million copies. Lead single "Megalomanic" scored Incubus their first #1 on the Alternative Rock radio chart, staying there for six weeks, as well as getting to #2 for six weeks on the Mainstream Rock counterpart list. Showing the declining showing of hard rock on the pop radio format, the song stopped at #55 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was their highest-charting hit in the UK at #23 as well.  "Megalomaniac" gave the band their first and so far only performance Grammy nomination in 2004 in the Best Hard Rock category, losing to Stone Temple Pilots for their "Slither". 

The sixth studio release from the group, Light Grenades, became Incubus' first and so far only #1 album on the Billboard 200 in 2006, though so far it hasn't gone past gold status (500,000 copies sold). First single "Anna Molly" topped Billboard's Alternative Rock chart for five weeks and for to #4 on the Mainstream Rock list, while peaking at #66 on the main Hot 100. That was followed by "Dig", which went for the pensive hard-acoustic vibe of "Drive", and even sported an partly animated video. The song popped on to the Hot 100 at #94 (their most recent appearance), while placing on both the Alternative (#4) and Mainstream Rock (#17) chart, and even gave them their third hit on the Adult Top-40 format at #17. The fourth single from Light Grenades, "Love Hurts", topped the Alternative Rock chart for three weeks (their third and most recent one to do so), and was an unexpected top-40 hit in Germany (#29) and Austria (#14). 

Aside from releasing a hits collection Monuments and Melodies in 2009 that made #5 on the Billboard 200, Incubus took a long five-year break until their next album. In that time Boyd released a solo album, The Wild Trapeze, which hit #33 on the Billboard 200 in 2010. They returned in 2011, If Not Now, When?, which would end up being their last on Immortal Records. The record spent a week at #2, with first single "Adolescents" spending three weeks at #3 on the Alternative Rock chart and "bubbling under" the Hot 100 at #101 (missing the main list by one notch). A concert album, HQ Live which hit #100 on the Billboard 200, and a second collection Essential Incubus ended the band's stay at Immortal. Einziger and producer Brendan O'Brien created a side-project, Sons Of The Sea and independently released an eponymous album that spent a week on the Billboard 200 at #198.

Signing on with Island Records, Incubus released an EP Trust Fall (Side A) in 2015, which returned the band to the top ten on the Billboard 200 at #6, but only taking two weeks on the chart. Signalling a change in how rock radio had evolved, the single from the record, "Absolution Calling", was their first to do better at Mainstream Rock radio, just missing the top ten at #11, even though it was their most synth-heavy track yet. Two years later, an album arrived, 8, their most recent full-length release, which hit #4 on the Billboard 200. The sole hit from the set, "Nimble Bastard", again did better at Mainstream Rock stations, reaching #4 (as opposed to #22 on the Alternative side). Their most recent EP, Trust Fall (Side B), came out in 2020. From it the song "Our Love" went to #38 on Billboard's Alternative Rock radio chart.

(8/10)

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

Here's the band performing "Drive" on a show promoting the new album in 1999...

Next up, Incubus performing a stripped down take the song in 2001...

This clip is from the Rock Am Ring festival in Germany...

And a more intimate show in L.A. in 2011..

Finally, the group performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after the Democratic debate in 2019...

Up tomorrow: Country crossover star soundtracks a disaster.