Editing Sugarcult

{{short description|American rock band}}
{{BLP sources|date=November 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name              = Sugarcult
| image             = Sugarcult Poster.jpg
| caption           = An ad for the band's debut album ''[[Start Static]]'' (2001)
| image_size        = 
| background        = group_or_band
| alias             = 
| origin            = [[Santa Barbara, California]], United States
| genre             = {{flatlist|
* [[Punk rock]]
* [[pop-punk]]
* [[alternative rock]]
}}
| years_active      = 1998–present
| label             = {{flatlist|
* [[Avex]]
* [[Fearless Records|Fearless]]
* [[V2 Records|V2]]
}}
| associated_acts   = 
| past_members      = * Tim Pagnotta
* Airin Older
* Marko DeSantis
* Ken Livingston
* Ben Davis
}}

'''Sugarcult''' was an American [[Rock music|rock]] band from [[Santa Barbara, California]], formed in 1998. The band consisted of Tim Pagnotta (vocals, rhythm guitar), Airin Older (bass), Marko DeSantis (lead guitar), and Kenny Livingston (drums).

==History==
===Formation (1998-99)===
Tim Pagnotta met ex-drummer Ben Davis during a cigarette break at school. Davis (who then played bass) and Pagnotta started to play together on a regular basis. Pagnotta met Airin Older in a music class where Pagnotta was copying Older's work. They became good friends and Pagnotta invited Older to join his band.<ref>{{cite news
 | last = Allen
 | first = Jamie
 | title = Sugarcult boasts the sweet sounds of yesterday
 | url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/22/sxsw/sc.html
 | access-date = 2007-05-14
| work=CNN
| date=March 22, 2000}}</ref> Davis moved to the position of drummer and Older filled in for Davis on bass. Marko DeSantis was added into the band after meeting Pagnotta backstage at a [[Superdrag]] concert.

===Early releases (1999–2003)===
Sugarcult released their first collection of demo recordings, ''Eleven'', in 1999. Their second collection, ''Wrap Me Up in Plastic'', was released in 2000. In 2001, the band released their debut album, ''[[Start Static]]'', which featured the hit singles "Pretty Girl", "[[Bouncing Off The Walls]]" (also featured in the movie and soundtrack to ''[[National Lampoon's Van Wilder]]'') and "Stuck in America". In early 2003, "Stuck in America" won the Los Angeles Regional Poll in The 2nd Annual Independent Music Awards. ''Start Static'' featured several songs that had previously been released as demos on ''Wrap Me Up in Plastic''. In May 2001, the band re-released ''Wrap Me Up in Plastic'' with a new track listing that included songs from both ''Eleven'' and the original ''Wrap Me Up in Plastic'', as well as new artwork. In 2003, Davis officially left Sugarcult. Davis had been regularly missing shows since the release of ''Start Static'', and left Sugarcult to enter rehab to get help for his alcoholism. Pagnotta was close to Davis, and wrote the song "Champagne" about his addictions when he was forced to leave the band.<ref name="bvm">{{cite web
 | last = Black Velvet
 | first = Shari
 | title = All Roads Lead To Sugarcult
 | url=http://www.blackvelvetmagazine.com/sugarcult.htm
 | access-date = 2007-05-14 }}</ref>

===Later releases (2004–2008)===
On April 13, 2004, Sugarcult released ''[[Palm Trees and Power Lines]]'' and performed on ''[[Late Night with Conan O'Brien]]''. This album featured the [[MTV]] hits "[[Memory (Sugarcult song)|Memory]]" and "She's the Blade". Sugarcult successfully landed a spot on the [[Warped Tour]] 2004 main stage and they also supported [[Green Day]] on their [[American Idiot]] tour and [[Blink-182]] on their December 2004 European tour. They released ''Back to the Disaster'', a feature-length documentary film (with a bonus live EP), in late 2005. ''[[Lights Out (Sugarcult album)|Lights Out]]'', their latest studio album, was released on September 12, 2006. The release of ''Lights Out'' was immediately followed by two tours, a fall tour and a winter tour. Their fall tour included [[So They Say]], [[Maxeen]], [[Halifax (band)|Halifax]], and [[The Spill Canvas]]. Their winter tour included such bands as [[Meg and Dia]], [[Damone (band)|Damone]], [[The Pink Spiders]], [[All Time Low]], and [[The Adored]]. In 2006, Sugarcult song "Do It Alone" was featured on the CW's show ''[[One Tree Hill (TV series)|One Tree Hill]]'' during Season and in the film [[Employee of the Month (2006 film)|''Employee of the Month'']]. Sugarcult played at the [[Soundwaves (Australian music festival)|Soundwave]] Tour in 2008.

===Hiatus and occasional shows (2009–present)===
The band members took a year off in 2009 from Sugarcult for their 10-year anniversary to do their own side-projects. They were neither broken up, nor were known to be working on new Sugarcult material as of mid-2010.

At the end of 2010, they announced that they would play at least two shows in the United Kingdom and then perform at the Belgium music festival Groezrock, all at the end of April.

Sugarcult (with Davis) played a one-off show at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim, California on December 10, 2011, where they celebrated the tenth anniversary of the release of ''Start Static''. More recently, members of the group performed with members of [[5 Seconds of Summer]] (who have cited Sugarcult as a primary influence on their band) and past tourmate [[Goldfinger (band)|Goldfinger]] frontman and acclaimed record producer John Feldmann for Strange '80s, a benefit concert on May 14, 2017, at [[the Fonda Theatre]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.laweekly.com/music/strange-80s-benefit-for-concert-for-sweet-relief-musicians-fund-featured-finn-wolfhard-and-tenacious-d-8232232|title=Tenacious D, Weird Al and That Kid From Stranger Things Rock an All-'80s Night|work=LA Weekly|date=May 15, 2017|access-date=January 9, 2017}}</ref>

==Band members==

;Final lineup
*Tim Pagnotta – lead vocals, rhythm guitar {{small|(1998–2011)}}
*Airin Older – bass guitar, backing vocals {{small|(1998–2011)}}
*Marko DeSantis – lead guitar {{small|(1999–2011)}}
*Kenny Livingston – drums {{small|(2003–2011)}}

;Former members
*Ben Davis – drums, backing vocals {{small|(1998–2003, 2011)}}

'''Timeline'''{{#tag:timeline|ImageSize=width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
PlotArea   =left:100 bottom:80 top:10 right:20
Alignbars  =justify
DateFormat =dd/mm/yyyy
Period     =from:01/01/1998 till:{{#time:d/m/Y}}
TimeAxis   =orientation:horizontal format:yyyy
Legend     = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1998
ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1998

Colors =
 id:Lvocals       value:red         legend:Lead_vocals,_rhythm_guitar
 id:Bvocals       value:pink        legend:Backing_vocals
 id:Guitar        value:green       legend:Lead_guitar
 id:Bass          value:blue        legend:Bass
 id:Drums         value:orange      legend:Drums
 id:Reunion       value:yellow      legend:Reunion_show
 id:Studio        value:black       legend:Studio_album
 
LineData = 
 layer:back
  color:Studio
   at:21/08/2001
   at:13/04/2004
   at:12/09/2006

BarData =
 bar:Pagnotta   text:"Tim Pagnotta"
 bar:Desantis   text:"Marko DeSantis" 
 bar:Older      text:"Airin Older"
 bar:Davis    text:"Ben Davis"
 bar:Liv    text:"Kenny Livingston"

PlotData=
 width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
 bar:Pagnotta  from:01/01/1998 till:end color:lvocals
 bar:DeSantis  from:01/01/1999 till:end color:guitar
 bar:Older    from:01/01/1998 till:end        color:bass
 bar:Older    from:01/01/1998 till:end        color:bvocals width:3
 bar:Davis   from:01/01/1998 till:20/06/2003 color:drums
 bar:Davis  from:01/01/1998 till:20/06/2003 color:bvocals width:3
 bar:Davis   from:01/12/2011 till:10/12/2011 color:drums
 bar:Davis   from:01/12/2011 till:10/12/2011 color:bvocals width:7
 bar:Davis   from:01/12/2011 till:10/12/2011 color:reunion width:3
 bar:Liv    from:15/07/2003 till:end        color:drums}}

==Discography==

===Demo collections===
* ''Eleven'' (1999)
* ''Wrap Me Up in Plastic'' (2000)

===Studio albums===
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;"
|+
! rowspan="2" |Title
! rowspan="2" |Details
!Peak chart positions
|-
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:90%;"| [[Billboard 200|US]]<br /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sugarcult Chart History (Billboard 200) |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/Sugarcult/chart-history/TLP |access-date=May 14, 2025 |website=Billboard}}</ref>
|-
! scope="row" | ''[[Start Static]]''
|
* Released: August 21, 2001
* Label: Ultimatum
* Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming
|194
|-
! scope="row" | ''[[Palm Trees and Power Lines]]''
|
* Released: April 13, 2004
* Label: [[Fearless Records|Fearless]], [[Artemis Records|Artemis]]
* Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming
|46
|-
! scope="row" | ''[[Lights Out (Sugarcult album)|Lights Out]]''
|
* Released: September 12, 2006
* Label: Fearless, [[V2 Records|V2]]
* Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming
|64
|}

===DVDs/retrospectives/live albums===
* ''Action'' DVD (2002)
* ''Back to the Disaster: A Film About Sugarcult'' DVD/EP (2005)
* ''Rewind 2001–2008'' Japanese Exclusive (2008)

===EPs===
* ''Five'' Demo (1998)
* ''Get Street Cred'' Demo (1999)
* ''A Hard Day's Night'' Japanese Exclusive (2006)

===Singles===
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Title
!Album
![[Alternative Songs|US Alternative Songs]] position<ref>{{BillboardURLbyName|artist=sugarcult|chart=Alternative Songs}}</ref>
![[UK Singles Chart]] position
|-
|rowspan="2"|2001
|"[[Bouncing Off the Walls]]"
|rowspan="3"|''[[Start Static]]''
|align="center"|40
|align="center"|98
|-
|"Stuck in America"
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|91
|-
|2002
|"Pretty Girl (The Way)"
|align="center"|30
|align="center"|—
|-
|rowspan="2"|2004
|"She's the Blade"
|rowspan="2"|''[[Palm Trees and Power Lines]]''
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|-
|"[[Memory (Sugarcult song)|Memory]]"
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|-
|rowspan="2"|2006
|"Do It Alone"
|rowspan="2"|''[[Lights Out (Sugarcult album)|Lights Out]]''
|align="center"|40
|align="center"|—
|-
|"Los Angeles"
|align="center"|—
|align="center"|—
|}

==Media appearances==
* ''[[Burnout 3: Takedown]]'' (2004)
** "[[Memory (Sugarcult song)|Memory]]" was featured on the soundtrack.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/08/23/burnout-3-takedown-soundtrack|title=BURNOUT 3: TAKEDOWN SOUNDTRACK|work=[[IGN]]|date=August 23, 2004|access-date=February 15, 2016}}</ref>
* ''[[Burnout Paradise]]'' (2008) and [[Burnout Paradise Remastered]] (2018)
**Dead Living was featured on the soundtrack.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2004/09/30/nhl-2005-the-music|title=NHL 2005: THE MUSIC|work=[[IGN]]|date=September 30, 2004|access-date=February 15, 2016}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{sugarcult}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Musical groups established in 1999]]
[[Category:Pop punk groups from California]]
[[Category:Fearless Records artists]]
[[Category:Independent Music Awards winners]]
[[Category:V2 Records artists]]
[[Category:1999 establishments in California]]