Suburban Legends are an American ska punk band[1] that formed in Huntington Beach, California, in 1998 and later based themselves in nearby Santa Ana.

After building a fanbase in the Orange County ska scene through their numerous regular performances at the Disneyland Resort, a series of lineup changes in 2005 introduced elements of funk and disco into the group's style.

Since 2009, the band has gradually returned to its ska roots, and has also recorded cover versions of songs from Disney films and television series.

Influenced by artists such as Reel Big Fish, Michael Jackson and Oingo Boingo, the band was formed in 1998 as The No Tones, consisting of vocalist Tim Maurer, guitarist Brent Feige, bassist Justin Meacham, drummer Fred Johnson, trumpet players Vince Walker and Aaron Bertram, and trombonists Ryan Dallas Cook and Brian Robertson.

Later that year, vocalist Tim Maurer and drummer Jimmy Sullivan left the band, with the former being replaced by Chris Batstone, and the latter by Derek Lee Rock.

Sullivan and Meacham would later perform together as members of metal band Avenged Sevenfold, under the respective pseudonyms "The Rev" and "Justin Sane".

In 2001, the band released their first, self-titled, EP, Suburban Legends, on We The People Records, featuring some re-recorded songs from Origin Edition.

At the end of the year trumpet player Vince Walker and bassist Chris Maurer left the band, the former to go to college and the latter to get married.

At 12:25 AM on October 19, 2005, trombone player Dallas Cook was killed in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident on the Costa Mesa Freeway.

[3] A few days after the incident, a large group of Suburban Legends' fans and Dallas' friends and family gathered nearby the ESPN Zone at Disneyland Resort's Downtown Disney, where the band played their many performances in the early 2000s, to share their memories of Cook.

They released their first EP with Vince Walker on vocals, Dance Like Nobody's Watching, which showed the band's shift in style towards disco rock.

In early July 2007, the band started releasing videos on their YouTube account documenting progress recording new material in the studio.

The album continued the shift in style started with Dance Like Nobody's Watching, with ska being traded in for a pop-rock sound with disco and funk elements.

Fans were first alerted of this when Dallas Kruse posted a MySpace bulletin reading: " You all know just HOW MUCH suburban legends have been through throughout the years!

My idea was to find someone with money who would be able to immediately front them an investment for gear and work out terms for the band to pay that person back.

While insurance issues were still being resolved, the band apologized to the fans for any shows they missed and stated that they would be back on the road again.

In July 2011, it was announced that Suburban Legends was cast as the house band for Pick-a-Split, a retro-themed bowling game show pilot hosted by Neil Hamburger.

The band has not abandoned their earlier sound, though, regularly performing older material alongside their current work.

[11] Further supporting the band's transition back to ska, less time was devoted in live performances to songs found on more recent albums, such as Infectious, with the band reintroducing older songs such as "Alternative is Dead," "Gummi Bears," "I Want More," and "Waikiki," all of which were found either on Origin Edition (1999) and Suburban Legends (2001).

In 2009 the band also started performing a new ska song, "Open Up Your Eyes", which later appeared on their 2010 Going on Tour EP and their 2012 Day Job album.

The band released an EP consisting of Disney covers in October 2013, including "DuckTales", "Kiss the Girl", and others.

The band's Disneyland performances have also featured "Build Me Up Buttercup" by The Foundations, "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang, "Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder, "Rubberneckin'" by Elvis Presley, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by Frankie Valli, "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)" by Gary Glitter, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond, and an excerpt of "Moves Like Jagger" by Maroon 5 as a segue into the band's own "All Around the World".

During Chris Batstone's tenure as lead vocalist, a recording of "Rose Tint My World" from The Rocky Horror Show was made for an abandoned Rocky Horror tribute album (which would have also featured fellow ska artists such as Chris Murray and Pain), and was eventually released in MP3 format by the band.

The band began performing The Gregory Brothers' and Antoine Dodson's "Bed Intruder Song" at live performances in 2010, eventually releasing a studio recording on a 7" single backed with "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" by Five Iron Frenzy as part of Asbestos Records' Ska is Dead 7" Club series in 2012.

After an album and live DVD, Maurer left again after the 2005 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon to spend more time with his family.

He was replaced by former trumpet player Vince Walker, who returned to the band in the same performance, oddly switching roles from horns to vocals.

He can also be heard doing lead vocals in several of the band's songs, such as "Desperate", "Powerful Game", "This Cherry", "So Fine", "Love Fair", "I Just Can't Wait to be King" and "Girlfriend's Pretty".

He recently left the band in 2012, and temporarily filling in on drums were Max McVeety and Reel Big Fish's Ryland Steen.

Bertram was the band's main backing vocalist before he left, and has also provided lead vocals for several songs such as "Gummi Bears", "Rose Tint My World" and "Powerful Game".

Kruse served as producer for Dance Like Nobody's Watching: Tokyo Nights, Infectious, and Let's Be Friends and Slay the Dragon Together.