Bowling for Soup, Frank Turner, et American Hi-Fi

The seeds of what would blossom into the band Bowling for Soup were sewn when lead singer and principal songwriter Jaret Reddick met guitarist Chris Burney in their small town high school. The two friends grew up in the 80s listening to glam ridden metal acts like Quiet Riot, Mötley Crüe, and Ratt; however the two also reserved a certain respect for straightforward punk groups like the Ramones and Greenday.

Before forming Bowling for Soup, Burney operated a local coffee shop called the Refuge that housed a concert stage on which his band The Persecuted would often play. Future bandmates of Bowling For Soup, bassist Erik Chandler and drummer Gary Wiseman frequented the Refuge and eventually formed a friendship with Burney and Reddick. All the members where in different bands at the time such as the Folkadots, Gary & the Wiseman, Slaw, Terminal Seasons, and coolfork!.

It was not until the formation of Rubberneck that the initial stages of Bowling for Soup would really take form. Rubberneck consisted of Reddick, Burney, Chandler, and Lance Morrill. In 1994 the quartet changed their name to Bowling for Soup (a reference to a Steve Martin comedy sketch) and released their debut self-titled album on their personal record label Que-So Records. The band kept busy producing material, releasing a split album with the V.I.M.S. in 1996, a 2nd studio album “Rock on Honorable Ones” in 1997 and the E.P. “Tell Me When to Whoa” in 1998. The same year the band’s drummer Lance Morrill left the band on amicable terms and was replaced by a mutual friend of the band Gary Wiseman. 1998 was also the year in which the band moved from Wichita Falls to Denton, Texas.

The band’s career really started picking up in the early 2000s when they joined major record label Jive. On 16 May 2000 they released their album “Let’s Do It for Johnny!” (a reference to Francis Ford Coppola’s movie the Outsiders) and caught a glimpse of fame with their hit “The Bitch Song”. The band was on an upward slope to success after this release and with the output of their 5th studio album “Drunk Enough to Dance” they saw two of their singles become hit records “Emily” and “Girl All the Bad Guys Want”. The latter song was also a critical success and was nominated in the 2003 Grammy Awards for “Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal”. The band’s cover of Flock of Seagulls “I Ran (So Far Away)” was adopted as the theme song for the Japanese anime “Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac”.

The band went back to the studios in Atlanta with acclaimed producer Butch Walker to record their follow up album “A Hangover You Deserve”. This album went on to be the most successful release for Bowling for Soup generating three singles “Almost”, “Ohio (Come Back to Texas)” and “1985”. “1985” is considered to be the band’s greatest achievement. It was played incessantly on the radio, charting to No. 5 on Billboard’s Adult 40 chart and was nominated for a Grammy.

The band released “Bowling For Soup Goes to the Movies” the following year, which consisted of an assortment of originals and cover songs that were featured in movies such as “Sky High” and “Cursed”. Bowling for Soup further intertwined themselves in the media by recording the song “Greatest Day” for the movie “Max Keeble’s Big Move” and the theme song for “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius”.

The band launched their next studio album “The Great Burrito Extortion Case” with the uptempo single “High School Never Ends” and took 3 years before releasing their follow up “Sorry for Partyin’”. This marked the band’s longest gap of time between releasing studio albums; however, during this time frame they released a live album and capped of the year with a Christmas album. The band went on to release their second Christmas album “Merry Flippin’ Christmas, Vol.2” the same year as the completion of their “Fishin’ for Woos” album.

Not long after this release the band decided to take a break from touring Europe citing personal and financial strains as reasons. The group announced a 2013 Farewell UK Tour that consisted of 14 dates and put out their 12th studio album “Lunch. Drunk. Love” that year.

Frank Turner has an innovative way of blending the genres of folk, punk and rock with his intelligent lyrics to create quietly anthemic music. Often described as a social commentator, the Bahrain born, Meonstoke raised songwriter released his first album 'Sleep Is for the Week' in 2007 which was received well critically. 'Love Ire & Song' came in the following year and made Turner's first dent in the UK album charts, his reputation was growing quickly as his tours began to sell out by his loyal fan base. He supported The Offspring and The Gaslight Anthem on tours which developed his reputation further.

The next album 'Poetry of the Deed' debuted within the UK top 40 thanks to support from the likes of Kerrang and Q Magazine. This album gained him a nomination for an NME Award in the Best Solo Artist category. He became a regular on the festival circuit, playing Two Thousand Trees, Reading & Leeds and Cambridge Folk to support the release of 2011 album 'England Keep My Bones'. He won two AIM awards in the same year for Best Live Act and Hardest Working Artist.

In 2012 Frank and his support band The Sleeping Souls were personally invited as the warm up act to the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony where they played 'Sailor's Boots' 'Wessex Boy' and 'I Still Believe'. His biggest commercial album to date was released in 2013 and was titled 'Tape Deck Heart', it debuted in the UK at #2 and holds a MetaCritic score of 78/100. It also featured a hit single of sorts in 'The Way I Tend To Be' which became Turner's second ever appearance on the UK singles chart.

Not many artists ever get to stand in the immediate vicinity of The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, and even if they did, fewer still would have the guts to even talk to him. However, Stacy Jones was one of the lucky, brave people to talk to the rock legend during a chance meeting with him in a club in the late 90's. It's pretty much safe to say that it went pretty well for Jones. At the time, he was most known as a journeyman drummer who'd played with the likes of Veruca Salt and Letters to Cleo. However, while talking to the bona-fide legend Jones mentioned that he had formed a new band, but couldn't decide on a name. Keef paused for a moment, and then suggested American Hi-Fi. Being a reasonable human being, Jones immediately contacted the rest of the band to say that they now had a name.

Thanks to the connections Jones had made as a member of several seminal indie bands in the 90's, American Hi-Fi secured a record deal with Island Records shortly after forming properly. Their debut single “Flavor Of The Weak” was released in January 2001 and was an immediate commercial success, charting strongly on the Billboard Hot 100 and hurtling into the top ten of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart as well. February 2001 saw the release of their self-titled debut album which was another strong seller that seemingly set them up to be the next big thing on the rock scene. Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case. While not exactly tanking, their second effort, 2003's “The Art Of Losing”, did very similar business to their debut and by the end of the year, the band had been dropped from Island Records.

Ever since then, the band has remained a cult sensation, with a dedicated world-wide fanbase and three more hugely acclaimed albums to their name. They might not have changed the face of rock music, but all the same, American Hi-Fi come highly recommended.