The Bouncing Souls

The Bad, the Worse, and the Out of Print (Chunksaah)
by Scott Hefflon

Take a guess, genius, it’s a rarities release on The Bouncing Souls‘ own label. 22 songs totaling almost an hour is a lot of any band, especially if it’s a collection of early mistakes, covers, and other things most woulda taped over or denied ever existed (mysterious disappearances of old friends are easier to explain than why some of these song were recorded and kept). So you know what yer getting into here. Some songs sound like they were recorded in a basement because, well, they were. Covers of such seminal punk bands as The Misfits, T.S.O.L., Descendents, and, um, Simple Minds. And the funny thing is, the latter might just make the most sense… So each song has a quick blurb that says when it was recorded, what release it was on (or not), and maybe what they were thinking at the time. And yes, there’s a demo version of their best anthem, “Born to Lose.” Oi!
(PO Box 974 New Brunswick, NJ 08903)