The Ernies were a popular American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

ska punk Ska punk (also spelled ska-punk) is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. (sometimes spelled skacore) is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 tone and ska with hard ...

band from Richmond, Virginia. They released two albums on an independent label before signing to

Mojo Records Mojo Records was a California-based record label founded in 1995 by producer Jay Rifkin. It became a joint venture with Universal Records in 1996 and then sold to the Zomba Group in 2001, who placed it under their subsidiary Jive Records.

and releasing their third album entitled ''Meson Ray''.

History

The Ernies were formed in 1994 by four students of

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university in Richmond, Virginia. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virginia in 1854. In 1968, the Virginia ...

: Will Hummel, Tom Martin, Matt Goves, and Hayes Smith. Hayes majored in music education, learning the saxophone and the bassoon, and Matt majored in music performance, focusing on percussion. Will studied English, and was especially influenced by the

Modernists Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

of the early 20th century. The Ernies released their self-titled debut album on October 1, 1995. This album featured a three-piece horn section consisting of Steve Bider on alto saxophone, Stefan Demetriadis on trombone, and Hayes Smith on the baritone saxophone. In 1995, bassist Mike Hughes joined the band. On May 12, 1997, The Ernies released their second album, ''Dropping Science''. This album diverged from the pure

ska Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...

style present on their previous album. The first track, "Jive", addresses the style change with lyrics like "We're not ska-core or reggae, jazz or funk, we're not hip-hop or rock or pop" and "to pacify those of you who need a label, call it what you want, we know you'll kick it if you're able". Without Steve Bider in the band, the horn section on ''Dropping Science'' consisted only of Stefan Demetriadis on trombone, and Hayes Smith on the baritone saxophone.

Mojo Records and beyond

Chris Bondi joined the band in 1997, playing the turntables and

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

. While playing a show in Los Angeles during a tour across the United States, The Ernies were discovered by a record executive and signed to

. ''Meson Ray'' was released on

on April 20, 1999. With trombonist Stefan Demetriadis no longer in the band, the only horn section remaining for this release was Hayes Smith on a variety of saxophones. A remix of the song "Motivate" appeared during a scene in the movie ''

BASEketball ''BASEketball'' is a 1998 American sports comedy film co-written and directed by David Zucker and starring ''South Park'' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, along with Yasmine Bleeth, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Vaughn, Ernest Borgnine, and Dian B ...

''. This version of the song also appeared on the ''BASEketball'' soundtrack, released by Mojo Records. The song "Here and Now" was featured in the video game ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater'', released as ''Tony Hawk's Skateboarding'' in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe, is a skateboarding video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was released for the PlayStation o ...

'' in 1999, and has also been featured on various television commercials, including an advertisement for the American television show ''

CSI: Miami ''CSI: Miami'' (''Crime Scene Investigation: Miami'') is an American police procedural drama television series that ran from September 23, 2002 until April 8, 2012 on CBS. Featuring David Caruso as Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Emily Procter as Dete ...

'', the Australian television series '' Dangerous'', and a U.S. trailer of '' Cowboy Bebop: The Movie'' (Knockin' on Heaven's Door) in 2003.

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

also used the song for numerous in-store and DVD advertisements promoting

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

. On June 7, 2006,

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and va ...

featured the song "Polarized" as the theme for the one-time special "WWE vs. ECW: Head to Head episode". They also used "Here and Now" as the theme song to the DVD version of

Survivor Series 2003 The 2003 Survivor Series was the 17th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown! brand divisions. The ...

.The song "Organism" was the opening theme for

Wrestling Society X Wrestling Society X (WSX) is a short-lived American professional wrestling promotion and professional wrestling-based television series created in 2006 by Big Vision Entertainment. The weekly television series formerly aired on MTV, MTV2, MTV Tr3 ...

. The songs "Here and Now" and "Polarized" are also featured in a number of promotional training videos for the 2007 comedy ''

Balls of Fury ''Balls of Fury'' is a 2007 American sports comedy film directed by Robert Ben Garant, who also wrote the screenplay with Thomas Lennon, who also co-starred and produced with Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman. The film stars Dan ...

''; specifically the "Backhand Punch" and "Forehand Block" videos. In mid-2008 TGI Fridays used "Here and Now" as a background song for a run of television commercials. The song "Polarized" was featured as part of the in-game music of the 2018 video game

Far Cry 5 ''Far Cry 5'' is a 2018 first-person shooter, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft. It is the successor to 2014's ''Far Cry 4'', and the fifth main installment in the ''Far Cry'' series. Set in Hope County ...

. Hayes Smith was a guest saxophonist, recording with

The Pietasters The Pietasters are an American eight-piece ska/soul band from Washington, D.C., with additional members from Maryland and Virginia. History In 1990, Stephen Jackson and Chris Watt met at Virginia Tech, through mutual friend Tal Bayer, who was ...

on their 2002 album ''Turbo''. He is now playing bass and sax for a

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

-based band called Roy Bennett. Frontman Will Hummel currently works as a district manager for G by Guess and released a rocksteady-style solo project. Will Hummel, Matt Goves and Mike Hughes reunited and performed songs from ''Meson Ray'' together on January 3, 2013, at The Camel in Richmond, Virginia, along with Stefan Demetriadis and Chris Bondi.

Band members

*Will Hummel - vocals, guitar (1994-2001, 2013) *Matt Goves - drums (1994-2001, 2013) *Hayes Smith - saxophone, backing vocals (1994-2001, 2013) *Mike Hughes - guitar (1995-1996) bass, vocals (1996-2001, 2013) *Chris Bondi - turntables, theremin (1997-2001, 2013) (died 2020)

Former members

*Stefan Demetriadis - trombone (1994-1999) *Steve Bider (1994-1995) *Brian Knight *Damian Holton *Dave Warren *Tom Hummel *Tom Martin (1994-1996) *Jeff Fuquay *Jimmy McAvoy *Heath Losick *Derek Dorsey SunCoast: Alternative Pop/Rock – Dropping Science Ernies / CD / 1997
– Stefan Demetriadis listed in album credits

Discography

Albums

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ernies, The Musical groups from Virginia Musical groups established in 1994 Musical groups disestablished in 2001 American ska punk musical groups 1994 establishments in Virginia