 The band also referenced popular California-based rock bands and artists like Grateful Dead, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, 
Red Hot Chili Peppers, sixties underground and counter-culture icon, Frank Zappa, and even Swedish pop band ABBA.A few references are made to funk, R&B, and soul artists and bands such as James Brown, the Ohio Players, Aswad, as well as a smattering of Irish, Scottish and English bands like Boomtown Rats, the ska band The Specials, and Primal Scream.Sublime's music was highlighted by bass-driven grooves, reggae rhythms, elaborately cadenced rhyme schemes and transitions between paces and styles throughout a given song, sometimes alternating between thrash punk, ska and reggae within the same song (see "Seed").