Bowling For Soup Bowling for Soup playing in a concert Information Formed: 1994 Genre: Pop punk, punk rock, alternative rock, power pop Members Previous: Jaret Reddick

Chris Burney

Erik Chandler

Gary Wiseman Chris BurneyErik ChandlerGary Wiseman

Bowling For Soup (often typeset as ¡Bowling for Soup! or abbreviated as BFS) is an American pop-punk (although they refer to themselves as punk-rock) band which originally formed in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1994. Now based in Denton, Texas, the band is best known for its single (music) "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", (a 2003 Grammy Award nominee)[1][2] "Almost", "Punk Rock 101", High School Never Ends", and SR-71 cover "1985". They performed the theme song to Phineas and Ferb as well as its extended version, which they wrote additional lyrics to, "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day". In addition, the lead singer Jaret Reddick provides the voice of Danny from Love Händel. Their cartoon likenesses appeared in the episode "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo".

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History

1994-2001: Early years

Bowling for Soup was formed in Wichita Falls,Texas (they do, however, often name Fort Worth, TX as a hometown) in 1994 by Jaret Reddick (lead vocals, guitar), Erik Chandler (bass, backing vocals), Chris Burney (guitar, backing vocals) and Lance Morril (drums, backing vocals). Morril left the band in 1998 (on good terms) and was replaced by Gary Wiseman of Gary and the Wisemen. The band's name was derived from a comedy act by Steve Martin.[3] In 1998, the band relocated to Denton, Texas and recorded their second studio album, third overall, Rock on Honorable Ones!! (a reference to S.H. Rider's motto "ROHO"—Ride On Honorable Ones) in 1998 for Denton music label FFROE. Bowling for Soup released their first EP, Tell Me When to Whoa, through FFROE later that year. The album sold over 10,000 copies, prompting Jive Records to sign the band. Let's Do It for Johnny!!, Bowling for Soup's major label debut, was released on Jive Record in 2000. The album mostly contained re-recordings of their previous material along with a few new tracks and a cover of Bryan Adams' song "Summer of '69".[4]

2002–2003: Drunk Enough to Dance

Drunk Enough to Dance is Bowling for Soup's second album with Jive Records, released August 6, 2002. It was recorded at Tree Sound Studios and Sonica Recording in Atlanta and Big Time Audio in Dallas, Texas. One of the album's singles, (the other single was called Emily) "Girl All The Bad Guys Want", was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2003 in the "Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" category.

A re-release in 2003 added "Punk Rock 101", a cover of 1980s new wave band A Flock of Seagulls' "I Ran (So Far Away)", and "Star Song". An acoustic version of the song "Belgium" exists at the end of the album, as well as at the very end of the initial release. The cover of "I Ran (So Far Away)" was used as the opening theme song of the anime television show Saint Seiya in North America.

They appeared in the 2002 film Crossroads, playing at a graduation party.[5]

2004: A Hangover You Don't Deserve

A Hangover You Don't Deserve followed two years later, and has become the band's only Top 40 album. Sales of the album were driven in large part by the radio airplay of the single "1985", a song written by the band SR-71. Mitch Allan, lead singer of SR-71, contributed background vocals to the song and appeared in the music video. "1985" became Bowling for Soup's biggest hit in the U.S., reaching #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. A second single from A Hangover You Don't Deserve, titled "Almost", did chart on the UK Singles Chart, #46 on the U.S. Top 100, and #23 on U.S. Pop 100. Ohio (Come Back to Texas), better known as "Come Back to Texas", was released as a radio single in the U.S., but was not as popular as "1985" or "Almost", reaching only #59 on the U.S. Pop 100.

2005-2006: Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies, StarJam, and The Great Burrito Extortion Case

Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies, a compilation album of cover songs and contributions to movie soundtracks, was released by the band in 2005. Later that year, Jaret Reddick and Chris Burney made several appearances on VH1's "I Love the '90s: Part Deux". Bowling for Soup appeared briefly in the 2005 film Cursed. They appear at the start of the film, playing the song "Li'l Red Riding Hood".

They went on the Star 102.1 StarJam tour with Simple Plan in 2006 and were the opening act. Performing "Almost", "Trucker Hat", "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", "1985", "Punk Rock 101", "I Melt With Yo]", and more. Their cover version of Modern English's "I Melt With You" was used in the Disney movie Sky High and was on the movie's soundtrack. A music video of the song was made for the movie, was aired on Disney Channel and can be found on the movie's DVD. Once more Bowling for Soup was at StarJams 2007 with Quitedrive and Army of Freshmen.

Following the release of their covers album, Bowling for Soup spent most of 2006 readying their seventh studio album, entitled The Great Burrito Extortion Case, which was released on November 7, 2006. They released the first single off of that album, "High School Never Ends", to iTunes on September 19, 2006. The UK release of the album was on February 5, 2007.

The band released "I'm Gay" as the second UK single in early 2007. The release was on Cd and 7" vinyl. A music video for the single was released in the UK, made up of live performances of the song from the "Get Happy Tour", of which the band had performed in the UK during February 2007. On September 25, 2007 it was announced on the official Bowling for Soup forums that "When We Die" would be released as a download only single in the UK on the 22 October 2007 as the third single. Following this, the music video was added to the Kerrang television playlist, and was played on Scuzz TV. They created an album, (also on the label Jive,) called 'On Your Mark... Get Set... Smoke a Cigarette' which consisted of three songs, respectively: Bipolar, Somebody Get My Mom, Li'l Red Riding Hood.

2007-2008: DirecTV, Download Festival 2007 and live album

Bowling for Soup produced an hour-long special that airs on DirecTV's concert series and made an appearance at the Download Festival at Donington Park, England. Bowling for Soup co-wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's Phineas and Ferb, "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day". They briefly appear in one episode of Phineas and Ferb, called Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo. "Greatest Day" was the opening song to the Nickeleodeon film "The Last Day of Summer".

The band's first live DVD, Bowling for Soup: Live and Very Attractive was filmed over the course of the UK Get Happy Tour October 2007 and premiered at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. Advanced screenings took place on March 31 and April 2, with the DVD being released in the summer. The release date for the two disk uncensored, and the single disk censored edition for the UK is set to be the 7th of July. There was a limited edition pre-order deal for the DVD which included a T-shirt, drinks mug, exclusive poster and more besides the DVD. Jaret sang lead vocals and Erik sang backing vocals for the song "Endless Possibility" for the video game Sonic Unleashed.

2009: Sorry for Partyin' and other releases

On January 20, 2009, Jaret released a video onto the web via their Myspace page and both YouTube accounts about their new album. According to him, the band's eighth full length album is set to be released in September 2009, and that the band had very recently started recording. He has released the name of the album, saying that it is to be titled Sorry for Partyin'. The video was the first of a few that will be released during the recording process of the album. Also in one of their YouTube and Myspace videos you can hear part of one of the songs on the album called "I Don't Wish You Were Dead Anymore".[6] Two more songs were revealed on the bands website called "I Can’t Stand L.A" and "America (Wake Up Amy)". Another song is called "Choke". On February 25, Jaret Reddick posted a blog on Myspace announcing they were almost out of the studio and the album would be released soon.

Bowling for Soup decided to give out a new song titled "Amateur Night" for free on their street team site for a limited time, it is unknown whether it will make it on the new album. However, when opened with iTunes the album comes up as "Sorry For B-sides" [7]

Sorry for Partyin' was released on October 12, 2009. "My Wena" is the first promotional single from the album. The single was first previewed on May 5, 2009 on the Lex and Terry show. A viral music video for the song was filmed and the video was released on July 21, 2009.[8] The song was released to iTunes on July 28, 2009.[9] "No Hablo Ingles" was supposed to be the first single released to the radio for the album, however, Jive split with the band and shelved "Sorry for Partyin" after only four weeks of being on sale, thus no single was ever released to radio.[10]

Bowling for Soup released their first holiday album, Merry Flippin' Christmas Volume 1, digitally on November 26, 2009.

The band is also set to film a three-part documentary titled Bowling for Soup: My Home Town.

2010-present: Fishin' for Woos and future releases

Bowling for Soup released an acoustic album, Jaret & Erik 2010 UK Acoustic Tour Limited Edition CD, during Reddick and Chandler's acoustic tour in the UK in April 2010. The album was released after the tour on the band's online UK and US stores. Reddick has also stated that an acoustic album is very possibly for their next acoustic tour, planned for April 2011.

In an interview, Reddick said that after the band's current tour concluded he would begin writing material for a new record, saying that it might come out sometime during the summer of 2010.[11] Reddick said that he would like to release the band's next album later in 2010. Reddick confirmed May 8 on his Twitter account the band will start recording their eleventh album in June 2010.[12][13] On June 2, the band posted an update on their website saying that they had entered the studio and begun recording the album.[14] The band announced that they expected the next album to be released in Spring 2011.[15] The track list for Fishin' for Woos included "Let's Pretend We're Not in Love," "Dear Megan Fox" (written by Reddick and Mitch Allan), "Here's Your Freakin’ Song" (written Reddick and Linus of Hollywood), "Evil All Over the World," and "Guard My Heart."[15]

Reddick announced on September 24 via Twitter, "The bad news: The new EP release is being pushed back. The Good news: new FULL album sooner, a free song for you, & MUCH more! Stay tuned."[16] Later that same day, the song "Friends Chicks Guitars" was made available as a free download on the band's official site. The band released "Let's Pretend We're Not in Love" via their fansite in November 2010. Reddick announced via Twitter on November 15, 2010, that the new album has a tentative release date of May 3, 2011.[2][17][18] This was further confirmed two days later, via the Bowling for Soup Twitter, that stated Merry Flippin' Christmas Volume 1 would be released on iTunes and CD, the band's first two albums would be re-released, and there will be a new album and tour in May.[19] Reddick announced in his eleventh podcast that instead of releasing an EP before the band's next full-length album, the band would be releasing just the album, which is currently set to feature twelve tracks, be released on Razor & Tie records, and be titled Fishin' for Woos.[2] Legacy Recordings released a greatest hits album, titled Playlist: The Very Best of Bowling for Soup on January 25, 2011 as part of their Playlist music album series.[20] The band played what is said to be the first single off Fishin' for Woos, titled "S-S-S-Saturday" (also referred to as "Saturday Night"), live on ABC for the Professional Bowlers Association Tournament of Champions finals on January 22.[2][21][22] The album was ultimately released April 25, 2011, in the United Kingdom, and April 26 worldwide. In July 2011, the band released a 7" split EP with The Dollyrots, in which each band covered one of the other band's songs.[23][24][25] Reddick says the band has plans to release a lot of other music in 2011, "We are re-releasing our first 3 albums and working on another Christmas album. Erik will release a solo record. And my new band, People on Vacation, will release our first album. We are also trying to get a b-sides comp together. It is gonna be a great year!".[26] In October 2011, Bowling for Soup released a three-track single which included the new single "I've Never Done Anything Like This", which features Kay Hanley on vocals from their album Fishin' for Woos, as well as a re-recorded version of "The B Song" and a cover version of Stacy's Mom.[27][28]

In 2013, they launched their CD: Lunch. Drunk. Love.

Tours

The Get Happy Tour

The Get Happy Tour was set up as a joint venture with Bowling for Soup and Army of Freshmen. The original tour was planned with Bowling for Soup headlining, Army of Freshmen opening and two other bands (Punchline and Lucky Boys Confusion) playing between. The tour kicked off in Austin, Tex. on June 23, 2006 with The Vanished taking Lucky Boys Confusion's spot for the first three dates. They toured the U.S. over the summer and autumn of 2006 with the Get Happy Tour and ended on August 27, 2006 in Amarillo, Tex. This was followed by a UK tour in early February 2007. Coinciding with this UK tour was the UK release of "High School Never Ends". The tour included Bowling for Soup as main headliners, Wheatus, Son of Dork and Army of Freshmen on the 12 date trek, which concluded at Hammersmith Palais in London, on the 18 February.

Bowling for Soup confirmed during the Get Happy Tour that they would be performing another tour of the UK in October 2007, called the Get Happy Tour 2, gracing the U.S. over the summer and featuring support acts Melee,Quietdrive, and Army of Freshmen. The UK tour bands were confirmed at the Download Festival (Army Of Freshmen who played in the morning announced it first, and Bowling for Soup announced it later that afternoon), along with the line-up in Kerrang! on an advertisement poster for the new tour. The line up consisted of Bowling for Soup, Bloodhound Gang, Zebrahead and Army of Freshmen.

The Party in Your Pants Tour

To promote the release of Sorry for Partyin', Bowling For Soup embarked on a headline tour of the UK in October 2009 under the title of The Party in Your Pants Tour. Main support on the tour came from Zebrahead, with additional support coming from MC Lars (who is signed to Jaret Reddick's Crappy Records) and The Leftovers. During the last show of this tour at the Camden Town Roundhouse in London Jaret Reddick announced to the crowd that Bowling For Soup would return to the UK in "The Spring" and will be hitting the European summer festival circuit and then again returning to the UK for another headlining tour in the Autumn. On Christmas Eve 2009, BFS announced through their website, a UK Acoustic Tour in April 2010.[29]

For the military

In 2011 Bowling for Soup played at 3 US Navy Bases in Japan, which were Sasebo on July 2, Yokosuka on July 4 and Okinawa on July 13, the first 2 dates were part of the Independence Day Celebration.

Associations

The members of Bowling for Soup are good friends with the band SR-71. In fact, Bowling for Soup's hit song "1985" was originally written by SR-71's Mitch Allan. According to Reddick, Allen showed the song to him and instructed him to take it as his own, as it seemed more of a Bowling for Soup song than an SR-71 song. Bowling For Soup are good friends with the members[Army of Freshmen. In the video for "High School Never Ends" the boy clapping can be seen wearing an Army of Freshmen t-shirt, and Army of Freshmen themselves can be seen as part of the BFS Marching Band. Reddick does guest vocals on four tracks on Army of Freshmen's album Under the Radar.

In 2003, fellow Texan punk rockers Junior opened for Bowling for Soup when they played the club Trees in Deep Ellum. Reddick later co-wrote the song "She's So Amazing" for the band's album Are We Famous Yet?, and lends vocals as well. The Irish pop rock singer Lesley Roy lend her vocals for Bowling for Soup's song "Much More Beautiful Person" from the album The Great Burrito Extortion Case. Both Roy and Bowling for Soup are assigned to the same record label. Reddick is friends with MC Lars. Reddick has lent his vocals for MC Lars' single "Download This Song", and MC Lars is a part of Reddick's label Crappy Records. In 2009, Bowling for Soup cameoed in the music video "Telephone Operator" by The Leftovers, who are also a part of Crappy Records.

In 2001, Bowling for Soup performed the theme song for the Nickelodeon movie [Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Their version of the theme was based on the previously written television series theme song written by Brian Causey of Man Or Astro-man?. Also in 2001, Jaret wrote the lyrics for 'The Greatest Day' for the movie Max Keeble's Big Movie while the band did the music.[30] Bowling for Soup also performed the theme "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day" for the Disney Channel cartoon Phineas and Ferb, Reddick stars in the episode "Dude We're Getting The Band Back Together" where he is the lead singer of a fictional band called "Love Händel". The band itself also appeared in animated form in the episode "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo" in which they performed an alternate version of the show's theme with Phineas and Ferb for their futuristic nephews. On Cartoon Network, Reddick and Erik Chandler both played an acoustic show in 2006. And in August 2008 Reddick and Chandler filmed an exclusive video for Total Guitar magazine in the UK called "How To Write A Song In 5 Minutes." In 2008, Reddick teamed up with SEGA to work on the theme song for Sonic Unleashed, entitled "Endless Possibility". On Nickelodeon, Bowling for Soup is also guest starring in the Teletoon/Nickelodeon original series Wayside in the third season's Valentine's Day special.

New Zealand band 48May ran into legal issues and decided to take their song "Leather and Tattoos" off their debut album. The album was replaced with a "tour edition" of the CD with the questionable song missing. The melody was very similar to Punk Rock 101.

In 2006, Bowling for Soup covered Fergie's London Bridge for Pepsi Smash Cover Art on Yahoo! videos.

Music videos

It has become a running gag in Bowling for Soup's music videos to feature previous songs of theirs as an introduction for the video. This can be seen in "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", "Emily", and "High School Never Ends", which each feature music from "The Bitch Song", "Girl All the Bad Guys Want", and "1985" respectively.

Members

Current

Chris Burney — lead guitar, backing vocals (1994–present)

Jaret Reddick — Lead vocalist, rhythm guitar (1994–present)

Gary Wiseman — drums, percussion (1998–present)

Former

Lance Morril — drums, percussion (1994–1998)

Erik Chandler — bass guitar, backing vocals (1994–2019)

Discography

Bowling for Soup (1994)

(1994) Cell Mates (1996)

(1996) Rock on Honorable Ones!! (1997)

(1997) Tell Me When to Whoa (1998)

(1998) Let's Do It for Johnny!! (2000)

(2000) Drunk Enough to Dance (2002)

(2002) A Hangover You Don't Deserve (2004)

(2004) Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies (2005)

(2005) The Great Burrito Extortion Case (2006)

(2006) Sorry for Partyin (2009)

(2009) Fishin' for Woos (2011)

(2011) Lunch. Drunk. Love. (2013)

(2013) Drunk Dynasty (2016)