12/19/09

Top Albums Of 2009

As the year nears a close and the battle for the Christmas number one ends tomorrow I thought I’d blog my top 6 albums of 2009. I always buy a lot of music and 2009 has been a good year for music so here is my favourites! (in no particular order)

1 – Bowling for Soup – Sorry For Partyin’ - This was the follow-up for ‘A hangover you don’t deserve’ the band never had, fantastic album full of Bowling for Soup fun – Read my full review here

2. Relient K – Forget & Not Slow Down - One drummer change later and Relient K release what is now my favourite of their career with a fantastic mix of beautiful sounding piano and pop-punk energy – Read my full review here

3. Newton Faulkner – Rebuilt By Humans - The follow-up to his fantastic ‘Handbuild By Robots’ is possibly even better…Newton Faulker does it again…not much more to say on this album…BUY IT!

4. New Found Glory – Not Without A Fight - I had anticipated and looked forward to this album ever since hearing that Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 fame was producing it and I was so right to do so…cracking pop punk album that takes the band back to their ‘Sticks and Stones’ days – Read my full review here

5. Mat Kearney – City of Black and White - I only discovered Mat Kearney this year and liked him so much I ordered both his albums at once. Mat Kearney has a fantastic voice and his music is nice and chilled yet uptempo at the same time…well worth a listen.

6. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me It’s You - I can’t stand her first album but I love this one…I never wanted to though! It’s got a good mix of catchy pop tunes with some interesting lyrics which make you very glad that you’ve never slept with Lily Allen! – Read more of my thoughts on her here

Overall 2009 has been a good year for music but there hasn’t been masses of it released in the pop-punk arena…I’m looking forward to a new Blink 182 album next year, a new Angels and Airwaves album plus a new Sum 41 album! Bring on 2010 music!

11/1/09

Album Review: Sorry for Partyin’ (Bowling for Soup)

As I mentioned the last week on my Bowling for Soup live blog I’ve been following Bowling for Soup for years and they’re music often reminds me of times gone by (in particular Benvolio singing loudly to ‘a hangover you don’t deserve’ on the way back from Norwich many-a-sunday night).

Their previous album ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ has always dissappointed me, it’s never had the same feel about it as their others and didn’t even include a version of their song Belgium (a bowling for soup tradition!).

However having followed their YouTube updates in the studio I had high expectations of this album and they’re really met those expectations. The album opens with a palm muted guitar and Jaret sining in a style that compares to the days of ‘Girl all the bad guys want’ and as the album continues it’s obvious that this is the album that ‘The Great Burrito Extortion Case’ should have been recapturing the pop-punk sounds of their albums ‘Drunk enough to dance’ and ‘A hangover you don’t deserve’.

Some of the best tracks on the album include the comically titled ‘My Wena’, ‘BFFF’ and of course a polka version of ‘Belgium’. As a fan of the band I’m so happy with this album and that the band seem to have captured their old sound again. Genius!

10/26/09

Bowling for Soup Live

On Friday night Jo and myself headed to the 02 Academy in Sheffield to see Texan punk-rock band Bowling for Soup who were being supported by The Leftovers, MC Lars and Zebrahead.

I first saw Bowling for Soup live when I was 17 in Norwich and they were infact my first gig so seeing them is always special and with their new album ‘Sorry for Partyin” seeing them return to true-form (I shall blog on this album later this week) I was really excited about this gig and even more so when hearing that the incredible MC Lars would be supporting them.

So we queued up outside the venue at half 6 waiting for the doors to open surrounded by a mixture of students and 14 year old emo’s all eagerly awaiting the gig. Upon entering the venue which I’d last been in during a Ben Folds gig it seemed very full in comparison and the balcony was open this time so we headed upstairs to get the best view of the bands.

The Leftovers opened the gig with a set of their high energy pop-punk which was let down by unbalanced vocals but they were good and having since listened to them on their myspace page they are better live than on their empty-sounding studio recordings.

Next up was ‘post-punk laptop rapper’ MC Lars who I’ve been following for a few years primarily thanks to ‘Download this Song’ which he recorded with Jaret of Bowling for Soup. MC Lars gave us a high energy set of catchy rap songs including ‘Hot topic is not punk rock’ all accompanied by some fantastic video/animations on the screen behind before introducing Jaret and concluding his set with a live version of ‘Download this Song’.

Third up were Zebrahead who I first saw live (and disliked) with Bowling for Soup back in 2007 and once again I was not impressed by them, their performance although energetic was hindered by a constant bass buzz that had Jo and myself clutching our ears and despite their best efforts Zebrahead still don’t cut it for me…even with an awful cover of ‘Girlfriend’ by Avril Lavigne.

Finally Bowling for Soup came onto the stage kicking off their gig with ‘The Bitch Song’ which was the only song from ‘Let’s do it for Jonny’ that they performed…surprisingly missing Belgium out of their set list. They continued playing a fantastic set of songs from all their other albums including the songs ‘Punk Rock 101′, ‘Come back to Texas’, ‘Girl all the bad guys want’ and ‘This song sounds like a dance song’ before concluding their encore with ’1985′. Unusually they even played their song ‘Two Seater’ which I’ve never heard them do live.

Their set was, as usual filled with energy and funny remarks to each other and as always they invited everyone to their houses in Texas. Bowling for Soup are one of those bands who in spite of their commercial success always seem to have fun during their gigs and never seem bothered about messing around a little bit, making them one of the most fun bands to see live.

During the gig I managed to take a load of photos which I was really happy with, here’s a couple:

One of the band