How I Spent My Summer Vacation
As the third track onHow I Spent My Summer Vacationmakes abundantly clear, the Bouncing Souls are "True Believers," utterly uncompromising stalwarts of punk. By "punk," they do not mean the art-school flamboyance or anarcho-posturings of theSex Pistols, or the heartfelt, in-your-face raging ofHenry RollinsandBlack Flag. Rather, this is the simple peacetime punk of kids with energy to spare. It's about sunny days, pretty girls, BMX bikes, and playful pogoing. It's about loneliness, alienation, and the desperate conviction of teenage love. And, above all, it's about music as a force for good. The Bouncing Souls deliver a positivist, anthemic pop that's specifically designed to raise depressed spirits, as evinced lyrically by the two openers, "That Song" and "Private Radio," and the closing tune, "Gone." In this respect, they have much in common withGreen Dayand theOffspring, but they carefully avoid the deliberate frivolity of those bands, evidently aiming to reflect the lives and feelings of their fans instead of becoming rock & roll personalities themselves. Unfortunately, this realism makesHow I Spent My Summer Vacationincreasingly inconsequential as the tracks pass. But, in short bursts, it is what it intends to be--great fun.--Dominic Wills