There's something about really good punk music that makes you realize how much mundane day-to-day crap really doesn't matter all that much.
It's a sense of not really caring about other peoples' opinions, but there's more to it than that. Good punk music can open your eyes and relax your mind and do it all while blasting 4/4 backbeats, choppy guitars and vocals that would make Simon from American Idol hide under his piles of cash crying for a warm bottle.
Anchors Aweigh, the latest by New Jersey foursome, The Bouncing Souls, is really good punk. While many bands try to innovate and change the soundscape of punk rock, the Souls just do it. With singer Greg Attonito, Papillon on bass, Guitarist The Pete, and Michael McDermott on drums, the Bouncing Souls are ready to own any stage band members set foot on.
Anchors Aweigh is a heavy album full of dark subject matter and heart felt lyrics that talk about a range of topics from a life on the road to the death of a friend - all with uncompromising intensity.
"Todd's Song" takes an honest look at loss, "With a heart so big that you can't hide/ you took the path of a slow suicide/ and all those feelings that you had/ they killed you from the inside/ I'll see you when we all come home."
Of course it's not all doom and gloom as "Highway Kings" shifts the mood to a more celebratory one, "We are the highway kings/ chasing our destinies/ Cruising through a time zone as the world stands still."
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While practically every one of the 16 tracks could have become a sing-a-long punk anthem, the Souls have worked hard to keep them from becoming so. From the opening note of "Apartment 5F" the Souls show why it has survived so long in a world where MTV is a tool of the devil and mainstream success is just a metaphor for selling out. Band members have kept it pure and done what they love instead of making music just for the sake of MTV and radio.
The Souls have been around for a while, 15 years to be exact, and during that time have remained one of the mainstays in the emo-punk scene playing in practically every venue across the United States, Canada, Europe and even the Far East. The band's relentless touring and recording has paid off. Over the years, the Souls have released six full-length studio albums and has been on so many compilations that it's hard to count.
In an on line interview Attonito reflected on the Bouncing Souls impact on punk music and the band's lack of mainstream success in the face of the popularity explosion of punk music.
"Part of me goes to the negative side of it, and it's like man we worked harder than any of them, We toured for years," he said. "We're a really good band, you know, but we just don't have this popularity thing. I go there in my mind, but then I also realize the life that we've created up here together, it's so incredible, and I wouldn't trade it for anything."
