The Bouncing Souls have one of the most apropos band names I’ve ever heard. With a distinctive sound, listening to The Bouncing Souls gives me an exuberant feeling that makes me want to smile, laugh, dance, and just move around in general. If you ever see me while I’m driving, and I’m bouncing around, slamming my hands against the steering wheel like it’s a drum kit, and singing along to something at the top of my lungs, there’s a damn good chance that it’s The Bouncing Souls I’ve got blaring through my car speakers.
I first heard The Bouncing Souls on Epitaph’s Punk-O-Rama III, back in the very late 1990’s/very early 2000’s. The entire Punk-O-Rama III compilation was great, but that one Bouncing Souls song stood out in a way the others didn’t; it was similar to things I had heard before, but never had it been done this well. I quickly consumed all The Bouncing Souls music I could find, and they are to this day one of the few bands I can’t overplay or get sick of listening to. If ever I’m feeling the slightest bit down, lethargic, or apathetic, their music is an almost guaranteed way of taking my mind off things and getting me dancing around like the uncoordinated moron I am deep down.
They’re an east coast band, and they sound like it. That may mean absolutely nothing to you, of course, but once you’ve listened to enough punk rock music from the different regions, you can hear certain influences and styles that are specific to each, and The Bouncing Souls are an east coast band. This is neither better nor worse than being a band from any other region…but there are times when I prefer one region to the other depending on my mood at the moment. They’ve been around almost a quarter of a century now, and they’re still going strong with their bouncy, vibrant punk rock sound. Starting in June, they’ll do a US tour with multiple dates in each city of the tour. Their plan is to play all 8 studio albums over four nights in each city. Their nearest show for me is in LA, in November, and I’m so tempted it hurts.
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As always, if there’s a band you’d like to see featured in the series, send me an email with the band name, a bit of history/backstory for the band, any experiences you’ve had with live shows or the band, where you first heard of them, and (if possible) links to some of their songs. I’ll edit it/put it together, and post it up with credit for the submission. I do, however, reserve the right to refuse any submission that I feel totally sucks. Hey, it’s my series, after all.
