Everyday Sunshine:

The Story of Fishbone (2010)

On the heels of “Beats, Rhymes & Life,” Michael Rapaport’s documentary on the hip-hop ensemble A Tribe Called Quest, comes“Everyday Sunshine,” a fascinating account of another musical group’s rise and fall, here the Los Angeles ska-punk rockers Fishbone. Near-rise might be more accurate, as Fishbone, despite a reputation for breathless live performance (vividly apparent in fleeting clips), has never enjoyed the mainstream breakthrough of regional peers like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Fishbone was an anomaly from the start: though its members grew up listening to Parliament Funkadelic, they fell in with the Southern California punk-rock scene of the early 1980s. Anchored by the furious bass playing of Norwood Fisher and the stage-diving charisma of its singer-saxophonist, Angelo Moore, the group was a black rock band in a white milieu. Columbia Records, its first label, had no idea how to classify it. Few bands have been so betrayed in the studio: no Fishbone single conquered the charts. Occupational hazards — ego battles, alcohol abuse — took a toll, as did the loss of a lead guitarist, Kendall Jones, to a Christian sect in 1993.

Today Mr. Fisher and Mr. Moore are all who remain of the original lineup, enduring a punishing touring schedule in 500-seat clubs. But the group’s influence — attested to by members of No Doubt, the Peppers and Jane’s Addiction, among many others — is indisputable.