The Sugar Ray Story: Chapter 2
They began writing new material for the album. The band was very creative and with Mark's best friend, McG (producer and video director) behind the mixing desk, they began writing, mixing, and listening to their new material. The album's executive producer was House of Pain's DJ Lethal and the mixing engineer was Jason Roberts. When the album was completed, Sugar Ray dressed in football helmets, shoulder pads, jock straps, and combat boots into the Atlantic Records offices chanting, "Hut, hut, hut!" to present their new masterpiece.
The album was released in April 1995 and the first single was a song about Mark's 1986 "barf green" Cadillac called "Mean Machine." The album didn't belong to one genre, it had many. It's second single was a song about Mark's sexual performance called, "10 Seconds Down." And the third single was "Iron Mic" which was large in Europe. The album also had their old song "Caboose" on it.
All they needed was an album name now. The band and McG all lived in a house together in L.A. When they moved in, they found old pornos that the last owner had left all over the house. One magazine had an ad that had a young girl saying, "Try our lemonade and brownies. Try our tangy treats." The picture stayed on their fridge for months and they loved it so much that they called their debut album Lemonade and Brownies.
On its release in 1995, it sold in small numbers, barely passing the 60,000 mark. Most copies were sold because the cover shot, featuring ex-Baywatch actress, Nicole Eggert in a nude pose on shaggy carpet. Some record stores were hesitant to put the album on shelves so that kinda reduced sales.
The band noticed a DJ at the local radio station that had his own show called "The Beat" and they decided to recruit him as their turntablist/DJ for the road. The reaction towards him at the shows from the fans were so strong that they recuited him permanentally. His name was Craig Bullock a.k.a. DJ Homicide.
Sugar Ray spent most of 1995 and 1996 touring for the album. They played over 200 gigs and opened for bands such as Cypress Hill, The Toadies, Snot, The Urge, Deftones, KISS, and the Sex Pistols. The band also appeared on many TV shows such as MTV's 120 Minutes, Sound FX, The Jon Stewart Show, Beavis and Butthead, and the Howard Stern show where they played his song "Psychedelic Bee" from his old band Electronic Comicbook.
Lemonade and Brownies was still doing poorly and there were even rumors that Atlantic Records were considering dropping Sugar Ray from their label. Mark persuaded them that if they let the band work with producer David Kahne that they would do better. Atlantic Records gave them another chance and went with the deal. Sugar Ray's success depended on how the next album did.
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