OPM

OPM started out as Stash, and the story goes back to 1996, when John E. Necro, then scouting talent for Island Records, got talking to Geoff Turney, known as Casper, on a bus ride with their girlfriends. Turney was playing in a band called Alpha Jerk at the time. In 1997 Necro pulled him into some recording sessions with his brother-in-law of the time, Matthew Meschery, and a couple of years later the trio finally had songs. A three-track demo landed them a deal with Atlantic Records before they had ever played a show together. Gary Dean and Etienne Franc became permanent members in 2001.

According to Necro, the name stands for "Open People's Minds", though it started out as "Other People's Money", and nobody missed that it also sounds like opium. The music fits that grin: hip-hop, rock and pop drifting over laid-back reggae grooves, with ska punk and rap rock bounce thrown in, like a Los Angeles beach afternoon that never ends.

Menace to Sobriety came out on Atlantic in August 2000, and its single "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" charted around the world and took the Kerrang! Award for Best Single in 2001. Suburban Noize Records has since been home to the band as well.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.