The Bouncing Souls "The Gold Record" (Epitaph)
By Abel Folgar
Tuesday. Oct 31, 1:05 AM
New Jersey roots with love a long time running.

The Bouncing Souls have been a unit since the late ‘80s. That they have managed to continue their ruckus across the world and never deviate from their inherent DIY punk rock spirit says enough about them… so whether you like ‘em or hate ‘em, bottom line is: they are still here and they are going strong.

I saw them right after they released their The Good, the Bad, and the Argyle record (maybe 1995?) in some Ft. Lauderdale dive, and I remembered them being fun and energetic and I bought a 7” (which some bitch would eventually “redirect” into her collection… but that’s besides the point). Some time after that, Maniacal Laughter made into my hands and I can’t really say that I was impressed. Sure, it was funny pogo punk stuffs with slight metallic touches, but it failed to capture the live glory I had witnessed some months prior. But whatever, to make a long story short, I lost track of The Bouncing Souls around then.

Yeah, I knew they were around, but I was never too compelled to go out and pick up one of their releases. That said, I’ll say the following: The Gold Record is a nice departure from the band I thought I remembered. Nicely produced, songs executed to fruition, good hooks, a natural ebb and flow between the pogo numbers and the reflective ones. This is a solid listen straight through! Nice acoustic work breaks the straight-forward punk and some songs I’m digging on a repeat basis are: “The Gold Song,” “Letter From Iraq,” “The Pizza Song,” and “Better Things.”

From all research, it still points to them delivering the goods onstage, which is phenomenal to hear, cuz these guys have been at it for a long time now (yes, you can now name them in the “influential list” of musicians who’ve come out of Jersey) and have – at least to my knowledge – on this record put together something extremely enjoyable. Shit, maybe I’ll go and pick up some other studio efforts.
www.bouncingsouls.com
www.epitaph.com

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Abel Folgar

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