TopJLax

Sometime moving into the year 2000, Pop Punk became momentarily 'cool'. Kids would walk around with their Sony Walkman (we're talking tapes here - old school recorded from a CD player like) and goofy old headphones, perfectly content with openly listening to Greenday, The Offspring, New Found Glory and Blink 182. Then something happened, I don't know what, but people started listening to Speed Garage and underground Hip Hop, and suddenly the kids that used to wear big Etnies with Vans jeans suddenly traded them in for Armani jeans with rubbish 'cool as FCUK' t-shirts.
Well, here at TopJLax we have always been proud of liking Pop Punk. It was the American Pie series that really enforced this, with babes in bikinis, lax jocks with backward baseball caps and ridiculous frat house parties that basically top any party we have ever been to. Ever.
This here is a tribute to that - enjoy!

So this tune actually did make an appearance in the first American Pie if I am not mistaken, and boy could a tune be more summer-esque if it tried. Everytime we listen to this song all we get is mental images of playing beer pong and smashing back pints. If we were in the US we may even throw a cheeky funnel or shotgun into there as well.
Not only that, but Blink 182 were revolutionary on the scene, they took old school 90's Punk and transformed it into something not angry, but happy, and 'commercial' (I use that term extremely cautiously). Any Pop Punk playlist without this band on would, in our opinion, be defunct.
Anyway, my point being this song is huge and cannot help but put a smile on your face. Ensure that you are listening to it in the sun (or at least with the sun outside) with a cold one (if you can smuggle one into work, do it, trust me it'll be worth it!)

So if we were to say that Blink 182 were the forefathers of Pop Punk, Fall Out Boy would be the prodigal sons. They put a new spin on a scene that was, in essence, running out of ideas and boy did they do it well. Sure, they managed to become one of the most hated bands because of people saying they 'were so 2004' or that they 'heard of them first but now they've totally sold out, man'. We at TopJLax think that attitude is, in essence, a bit ridiculous (but let it be know that we heard of Fall Out Boy first before anyone else did. In the world. Ever).
Anyway, enjoy this tune - it has individually amassed over 1000 plays on my iTunes playlist, and is in fact my most played song of all time. So yeah, it's pretty good.

I will always remember New Found Glory: they were one of my very first gigs back when I was a toddler and still thought crowd surfing was cool (and not what it actually is, which is in essence repeatedly booting people in the head while you look like a bit of a tit). This is one of their classics, one that you'll probably know. It's also an absolute winner. On that note, their newest album 'Not Without A Fight' released in late '09 is another brilliant album - so worth checking out!

The Starting Line personify Pop Punk for us. They are happy and catchy and generally wicked. This song in particular strikes a personal chord for us because it's about (yep, you guessed it) being 21, and absolutely shitfaced at 7 o'clock in the evening. There's probably some deeper sub text to it but frankly we don't care.

Cartel get a lot of air time in the Gamma Gamma Frat House, and are a massively understated band. In our opinion they're one of the best out there, consistently pumping out epic and occasionally ground-breaking tunes. This is by no means their best song, so if you had to pick one this is the band that I would say it's worth doing some investigation into the back catalogue. Their album 'Chroma' and 'Cycles' are both out of this world - so if you like this song show your support and buy it. Or download it. We're not bothered to be honest.

Ohio Party boys All Time Low are massively up and coming, and are fast become a household name in the Pop Punk genre. They make feel-good party tunes so check them out. Well done them. They've also done some other songs. These songs are also good.

That's it from me - hope you enjoyed it! We at TopJLax personally suggest setting yourself up a game of Beer Pong and putting these tunes on to play to - if you find any other awesome Pong tunes give us a shout!

Big love

Bo

What are your favourite Pop Punk songs and bands? Got any new bands for us to check out here at TopJLax?