NO MORE TO DO NO MORE TO SEE
SomeBODY once told me his liver was gonna roll him… The Internet of the early 2010s was arguably the last hurrah of Wild West Internet, when forums were still semi-prolific and before everything got condensed into three or four different social media conglomerates. One of the pervasive cultures of that era was an umbrella of Shrek memes mostly predicated on ogre puns, an ironic deification of Shrek, and the original movie’s introductory track, Smash Mouth’s “All Star”. “All Star” took a viral life of its own being remixed with everything from Super Mario to Simon & Garfunkel, and aughties Internet wunderkind Neil Cicierega released four mashup albums that heavily incorporated the song.
As easy it can be to forget, Smash Mouth did exist outside of the swamp. Steve Harwell co-founded the band in 1994 and the group’s brand of breezy rock had sizable hits including “Walkin’ on the Sun”, “Then The Morning Comes”, and the aforementioned “All Star”. Despite it being unavoidable movie fodder for years to come, the band needed to be persuaded to allow the Shrek producers to use the song – in the end they were won over so convincingly that they also recorded a cover of “I’m a Believer” specifically for the movie.
Harwell announced in 2013 that the health issues started coming and they didn’t stop coming with a cardiomyopathy diagnosis. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when he hosted a superspreader concert during the worst months of COVID, or when he performed intoxicated in 2021, and retired shortly after the latter incident. It was announced in September 2023 he was in hospice care, and one day later it was all ogre for him aged 56. The only shooting star to break the mold is Noz4news.
Steve Harwell
9 January 1967 – 4 September 2023, aged 56
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 👻 = 13 POINTS