The Bouncing Souls

The Bouncing Souls have made a lasting career out of playing anthemic, shout-along punk rock in the classic East Coast style, with lean but catchy melodies, passionate vocals, full-bodied guitars, and rhythms suitable for moshing or pogoing depending on your mood. Since they debuted at the tail-end of the '80s, the Bouncing Souls have been a band who won their following the hard way, through constant touring and building a close rapport with their audience. With the exception of the Misfits, the Bouncing Souls are arguably New Jersey's most popular and enduring punk rock band; in their early years, their music walked a line between hardcore and a more melodic pogo-punk sound with a dash of ska, coupled with playfully goofy tunes like "I Like Your Mom" and "There Are the Quotes from Our Favorite '80s Movies," as documented on 1994's The Good, the Bad, and the Argyle. By the time they cut their self-titled third album in 1997, the Bouncing Souls had gotten tighter and faster, with more heft in their arrangements, and they had established the essential attack that would define their music for decades to come. They displayed a growing lyrical maturity on 1999's Hopeless Romantic without losing their playful side, and though they would take the occasional stylistic detour for a song or two (such as the acoustic guitar and accordion arrangement of "The Pizza Song" from 2006's The Gold Record), the band consistently delivered the upbeat punk music their fans had come to expect.

The Bouncing Souls came together in 1987 in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, where Greg Attonito (lead vocals), Pete Steinkopf (guitar), Bryan Kienlen (bass), and Shal Khichi (drums) were friends who attended high school together. The four had played in various local acts before they decided to join forces and put together a band. After graduating from high school, the four collectively moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey, a college town that had a friendlier attitude toward punk rock than their hometown. Taking the name the Bouncing Souls -- a play on the "Bouncing Soles" slogan for Doctor Marten boots, a popular item of punk footwear -- they moved into a punk rock flophouse, began practicing regularly, and were soon playing parties, basements, and any bar that would give them a break