Punk-Tober: The Bouncing Souls

You may ask why the heading reads "Punk-tober" and that is because I've got a ton of punk to drop on you and because October is the only month that a heading like that works. Although Punk-uary is sort of cool too...

Another question you're probably asking is why I have such a fascination with punk and I think you deserve an answer to that. Good punk should not be about rebellion for the sake of rebelling or just to throw together as many crazy instrumental parts that it is hardly music anymore (like most people think punk is.) Real punk should be a opening to the social aspect of music, a more everyman's ballad showcasing a different side of music and society that is not commonly showcased and the revelry in the uniqueness that accompanies it. Don't think that punk means that everything has to sound like the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, or Bad Religion. I will try to keep this theme continuing this whole month and hope that you give some of them a try even if you would normally have passed right on by.

Long intro... Anyway, The Bouncing Souls is a great place to start for those not familiar with modern punk. They do a great job at varying from harder punk to an alternative sound with most of the music being really good. As I've said before, all punk can be really hit or miss from song to song no matter how good the band is but thankfully they have a lot fewer missteps than most other mainstream punk. Epitaph Records is a godsend for punk fans considering they house nearly every major punk band of this decade and offer free music for nearly all of them. The music is split based on the albums so you would normally have to do a little digging, if I wasn't doing all the work already. From the album Anchors Aweigh comes three tracks, from The Gold Record comes another two, How I Spent My Summer Vacation has one (glitched as two), Hopeless Romantic has two, Tie One On EP has one, and "The Bouncing Souls" has two (but avoid them...) My recommendations would go for the tracks from Anchors Aweigh, Gold Record, and Hopeless Romantic. And if that wasn't enough, once again Daytrotter has a session with the band covering a few of the songs found above but in a more relaxed acoustic setting. Great stuff too...



Trying something new in playlists featuring the featured music of the week. Should be a great way to preview the music without sitting through the youtube vids. Please contact me if it isn't working or has stopped working later. Thanks and enjoy!!!