History
The band formed in 1995 after the dissolution of a number of Southern California third-wave ska bands. Los Pantelones members Brian Mashburn (guitar/vocals), Bill Uechi (bass), Eric Zamora (saxophone), and José Castellaños (trumpet) joined with Larry vocalist Monique Powell, Nuckle Brothers trombonist Brian "T-Bone Willy" Williams, and drummer Marc Harismendy to form the original Save Ferris.
Financed by Uechi and Mashburn's families, as well as Powell's sister, the band released their debut EP Introducing Save Ferris on Starpool Records in 1996. Later that year, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences gave the band a Grammy showcase award for best unsigned band, earning them a recording contract with Epic Records. The band released their debut full length for the label in 1997. It Means Everything featured several re-recorded tracks from the EP, several new songs, and a cover of Dexys Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen," which the band released as a single. The band also released "The World is New" as a single which was featured in the film The Big Hit as well as being used in Tara Lipinski's program as a professional skater in the 1998 Skate TV Championships. The album charted on the Billboard Top 200 at number 75 that year.
The band toured extensively in support of the album, opening for bands such as Sugar Ray, The Offspring, and Reel Big Fish, and Powell also provided vocals on the Reel Big Fish song "She Has A Girlfriend Now." In April 1998, they made their television debut on HBO's music series Reverb and made an on-screen appearance in the film 10 Things I Hate About You and the TV-show Roswell in the episode "Heat Wave". The album proved to be a moderate success in the United States, selling over 400,000 copies, and spawned three Top Ten hits in both Japan and Mexico.
Winter 1998 saw the departure of drummer Marc Harismendy. Evan Kilbourne joined shortly thereafter, and the band began writing their follow-up to It Means Everything. The appropriately-titled Modified was released in October 1999, approximately one year later and charted at number 136 in the Billboard top 200 that year. The album saw the band moving away from their ska-punk roots and into pop-rock territory. The band toured with fewer ska-punk and pop-punk bands as a result, opening for bands like Lit.
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