Sounds of the City

Earlier this month I was in a serious pop-punk mood. I went out and re-bought a couple of Blink 182 CDs that I misplaced sometime in the oft hazy life of a DJ. I got "Dude Ranch" (my favorite) and "Enema of the State." I remember back when each of those came out, I listened to them obsessively. And, just like before, once I re-bought them, I obsessed for a couple days. But now I'm over it. Not completely, just for now. So two weeks ago I was at a Best Buy picking up a Lil' Kim CD, and I decided I wanted some newer pop-punk stuff.

Recently I read about a new Bouncing Souls album called "The Gold Record." That one review that I read referred to it as their 'rock-opera' album like Green Day did with "American Idiot." I think that reviewer may have been hitting the pipe too much that day. "The Gold Record" is not a concept album. Or at least it doesn't sound like it. Simply, it is more of the well-written and well-performed punk/pop/rock that Bouncing Souls fans have come to know and love.

Listening to it opened up some good doors for me. I swear, every time a punk band covers a Kinks song, I (a) yet again realize how big of an influence the Kinks were on modern punk and (b) discover another Kinks album I hadn't heard before. On this record, the Souls cover Ray Davies' "Better Things" from the Kinks record "Give the People What They Want" (1981). And that's just the first door that opened. It's an excellent cover, by the way.

They also cover a song called "Lean On Sheena." I was reading the liner notes, and saw that it was written by J. Gittleman. Being a Mighty Mighty Bosstones fan from way back, I recognized he name right away. Joe Gittleman played bass in the Bosstones. But I didn't recognize the song. I know I haven't heard the past couple albums, but this didn't even sound like a Bosstones song. So I looked it up and found that when Gittleman left the Bosstones, he started up a band called Avoid One Thing along with members of other Boston bands like Darkbuster and Spring Heeled Jack. Their sound has been described as The Replacements meets Green Day. I can agree with that. But not completely.

See, this Bouncing Souls record fits in nicely with the poppier later non-ska stuff from the Bosstones and the later non-Irish stuff from the Dropkick Murphys. There's a common thread in all of that. I'm sure there are people who will disagree with me on this one, but I think that common thread is oi. Oi as in that 70s punkish rock n roll stuff like Cocksparrer and the Angelic Upstarts. Not the white-power soccer hooligan bullshit, but the feeling from the songs. The anthemic vocals and songs, and the lyrics that mean something.

By the way, Avoid One Thing recently broke up, but they have two excellent records out and I recommend picking up either one. You can find both real cheap on Amazon (used). The first one is the record with "Lean On Sheena." Click here to check out a couple of their songs.

"The Gold Record" is full of songs about growing up: "I heard someone say that nothing gold can stay, but there's love in our all our souls and it shines like gold." There are the songs about their roots in New Jersey, songs about old friends, songs about ex-girlfriends, songs about how much music means to them, and a song with lyrics written by a soldier stationed in Iraq.

Then there's another door. Every time I listen to the Souls, I remember this other related band, the World/Inferno Friendship Society. I guess back in the '90s there was a house down the street from the Souls, and the kids there had a band called Sticks & Stones. I still haven't heard anything from them, but they seem to be legendary in the New Brunswick, NJ music scene. Anyway, a man going by the name of Jack Terricloth left Sticks & Stones to form the World/Inferno Friendship Society. He is seemingly insane. But I could be wrong. His band's sound is much like Gogol Bordello, who have been getting more popular lately. It's a very Brooklyn/film noir/Eastern European/ska-ish/punk sorta thing. And that doesn't even begin to explain it. There's also a vaudevillian/theatre aspect to it as well. Your best bet is to check out the band by clicking on the link up there. They have a new album coming out soon. There was an older version of the website that had a crazy story on it involving talking cats and a man named Nosliw Pilf. Note that the name is Flip Wilson spelled backwards. The band's first album cover was a take-off of an old Flip Wilson record. It's strange shit, but somewhat captivating...

Back to the task at hand, the new Bouncing Souls record "The Gold Record" is a rock record. It's post-punk, but not in that Fugazi kinda way, more like that 'we're 35, been doing this for fifteen years, and we've evolved' kinda way. Check it out.