The best CD from 2002, bar none. Bowling For Soup is a pop punk band out of North Texas that have been around for quite a while, but this is their first real major release (Jive Records re-released the Let’s Do It For Johnny! Indie release in 2000). Butch Walker (of Southgang and Marvelous 3 fame) turned me onto Bowling For Soup when he mentioned that he was producing Drunk Enough To Dance. One of these days I’ll review some of Butch stuff, but he’s an old school hair metal freak that made it thru the 90’s riding the line between pop punk and rock. Once he entered the new century he branched out into producing/writing for other up and coming bands (SR-71’s Right Now was written and produced by Butch). Jaret and Erik’s writing skills seemed to be reaching the break thru point on their previous release, and with the help of Butch, their skills have been honed into a well oiled machine. Chock full of simple catchy riffs and tongue in cheek lyrics, there music is pure good time rock and roll. Cross The Ramones with AC/DC and you’ve Bowling For Soup. I’d give the CD a 10, but it doesn’t break any new ground, and it was re-released in 2003 with an additional 3 songs (instead of releasing an EP they just re-released the CD with new songs). There isn’t one bad song in the 19 tracks (plus one bonus acoustic track). A great band to see live, but you are going to have to wait until next year to see them since they just finished the tour for this CD. During the summer they were one of the main bands on the Warped Tour, and have been touring the US and England constantly since the CD was originally released. If you haven’t had a chance to check out their videos, they are definite must see music videos. By far the funniest videos since the Twisted Sister videos of the 80’s. They have the following 4 videos:
The Bitch Song – from the Let’s Do It For Johnny! Release
Girl All The Bad Guys Want – you may have seen this one on MTV
Punk Rock 101 – One of the new additions to DETD
Emily – My all time favorite video, but due to its risqué content, it was only released in England
If you like the videos, you will love the CDs. Make sure you get the re-released version of DETD, it will have Punk Rock 101, Star, and I Ran (a cover of the Flock Of Seagulls song).
Jaret says the next CD will be called The Hangover That You Don’t Deserve.
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