How uncool are Bowling For Soup? Well, if it's any indication, I first heard one of their songs (one that I can actually remember) while grabbing some lemon hummus from Safeway. That's not even mall-punk - that's deli-section punk. So go ahead and scorn these Texans for their Grammy nomination, their Jive Records contract or their obvious debt to Blink 182 and the Offspring (who both ripped SoCal pop-punk in the first place) if you must but in their chart-aiming, kiddie-punk goofiness they do hearken back to the Dickies.
This song, "I'm Gay" gets points for a killer chorus, a reasonably witty take on the use of the word gay, some post-modern la-la's in the bridge and of course a few dead-clever lines like, "I think rock n' roll is really funny when its serious". Call me indiscriminate but a well-written song is is a well-written song; it doesn't matter about the band's overly wacky image, their less-funny-every-time-you-hear-it name, their token overwrought ballad or even their musical kleptomania. Just enjoy the uncoolness.
To hear the UK single (with extra tracks, including another of one of those dreaded" funky B-sides" - sorry 'bout that) or anything more, please see the links below:
MySpace
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Bloody hell, that cover is going to give me nightmares!
ReplyDeleteI heard song by these guys once which I liked. I had no idea they were so ugly though.
Yeah the ugly and not really embarrassed about it shtick is kind of a plus what with so many mall-punk bands being stocked with tattooed cutie-boys.
ReplyDeleteThese guys are a favorite of mine. Their lyrics are genius in a lot of ways, they have tons of references in their music. Like one that I'll mention right now, in "1985" by Bowling For Soup, they have a reference which only people who are into more Retro music would get. Things that are around 30 years old, at one point it throws out a "Video Killed The Radio Star" reference. I've never heard this song other than from the music video, so I don't know if it's a special for the video or not. But "Video Killed The Radio Star" was the very first music video on MTV.
ReplyDeleteAnd like it says in the song, "Whatever happened to music on MTV?"
And I'm getting sick of everyone assuming the band is gay JUST because they did a song called "I'm Gay", if you knew anything at all the original term for "gay" is "Happy". There's even an old 40's song(I think it was 40's, may have been 50's or 60's, but I very highly doubt 60's.) that said "I'm happy, I'm so very very happy and gay". Gay never meant homosexual until more recently, I'm not sure of the year that it started meaning that. These guys are only for people who are a bit nostalgic, people who like to look back to the past. If you don't like anything more than 10 years old, you're going to hate this band for a lot of things that you find to be stupid or immature.
Anon
ReplyDeletethanks for that spirited defense of an oft-derided band.