With the additions of Chris Kilmore (turntables/keyboards/sound effects) in 1998 and Ben Kenney (bass), formerly of the hip hop phenomenon The Roots, and Pasillas and Einziger's band-mate from 2001's side project The Time Lapse Consortium, Incubus has even been able to grab hip hop and nu metal fans all the same. Since their genesis in 1991 while still high school students in Southern California's San Fernando Valley town of Calabasas, just a quick jaunt over the mountain from the sunny beaches and plastic faces of Malibu (that played a huge role in 2001's Morning View, an album title taken from the street name on which their live-in recording studio was located, just blocks from the beaches that inspired the predominately surf rock inspired album), Brandon Boyd (vocals), Mike Einziger (guitar), and Jose Pasillas (drums), the nuclear core at the center of the band, have continually shape-shifted between genres, recruiting fans from across all musical tastes along the way.

I must admit that while the band has led me through all of their diverse musical meanderings, I cannot honestly say I have loved every twist and turn.

The beauty of an ever-evolving band with such broad and widely appealing inspiration is that fans never truly know what to expect from the next record - progressive rock, pop, funk, metal, psychedelic rock, jam-banding, surf rock - all of these elements have been a part of past Incubus albums. For lifetime Incubus fans like myself, the past two years have been spent in anxious anticipation for something new, wondering when we can next get our fix.

Incubus band mates