Simple Plan, 3OH!3, und Bowling for Soup

Formed during the members’ time in high school, Simple Plan is comprised of lead vocalist Pierre Bouvier, lead guitarist Jeff Stinco, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Sébastien Lefebvre, bassist and backing vocalist David Desrosiers, and drummer Chuck Comeau. Prior to the band’s earliest incarnation, Bouvier and Comeau had played in the relatively successful Canadian band Reset, who are known for touring alongside MxPx, Ten Foot Pole, and Face to Face. Rocking a pure punk-pop sound, Simple Plan performed at the 2001 Van Warped Tour, before heading to the studio to record their debut. With vocal assistance from Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden and Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, the resulting album “No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls” was released in March 2002. Aided by the singles “I’m Just a Kid”, “I’d Do Anything”, “Addicted”, and “Perfect”, the album peaked at No. 35 on the Billboard 200, later being certified double platinum. The album was supported by an extensive tour of over 300 worldwide shows, including a headline show at the 2003 Vans Warped Tour, and opening for Avril Lavigne.

The band’s 2004 follow-up, entitled “Still Not Getting Any…” was produced by Bob Rock and represented a more mature, less teenage angst approach to songwriting. Charting at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, the album earned strong reviews from critics and spawned the singles “Welcome to My Life”, “Shut Up”, and “How Could This Happen to Me”. The band embarked on a tour of the world in support of the album until February 2006, before returning to the studio.

Recorded in Los Angeles, U.S., Montréal, and Miami, Simple Plan’s eponymously-titled third full-length album was released in February 2008. Featuring a more romantic aesthetic than its predecessor the album peaked at No. 2 on the Canadian Album Chart, and No. 14 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The record was produced by Dave Fortman, known for his work with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland, and spawned the singles “When I’m Gone”, “Your Love Is a Lie”, and “Save You”. The band’s subsequent tour saw the band travel to Tel Aviv, Dubai, Estonia, and Poland all for the first time, as well as dates across the U.S., Canada, and the UK.

Simple Plan’s fourth full-length album “Get Your Heart On!” was released in June 2011. Featuring Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, Natasha Beddingfield, and Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low, the album equaled their highest-charting Canadian release, debuting at No. 2.

The duo is made up of Sean Foreman and Nathaniel Motte, who met while they were both studying at the University of Colorado Boulder. Both of them were already making their first attempts at creating electronic music at the time, so after they became friends, they decided to team up and see what they could create. They found that they had an abundance of creative chemistry together and decided to form a band together, and since both of them were native to Boulder, Colorado, they took their collective postcode, 303, as the name of the band. With a few alterations, obviously. In 2007 they self-released their self-titled debut album and made their live debut around Boulder, both proved so sucecsful that the band signed to Photo Finish Records, a division of Atlantic, within a few months of the record's release, and immediately started work on its follow up.

“Want”, the band's second was released in July the following year, and while the album itself was a reasonable hit, reaching the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100, nobody could have predicted the success of its lead single. After over 20 weeks on the chart, “Don't Trust Me” began a steady climb into the upper reaches of the Hot 100, powered by near-constant radio play, the song's popularity on YouTube and live performances of the track on network television. It would peak at number seven on the Billboard charts and for summer 2008, their were fewer pop acts in the world that were hotter than 3OH!3. Ever since then, the band have remained one of the ultimate guilty pleasure acts of today, with no other act in the world quite as adept at a ridiculously catchy hook and a chorus as crass as it is utterly genius.

The band have released a further two albums to date, and have collaborated with everyone from Katy Perry to Wiz Khalifa as well, and for remaining as dedicated to partying as they every were, 3OH!3 come highly recommended.

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.