Wichita Falls, TX · pop-punk · comedy rock

Bowling For Soup

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Texas pop-punk comedians with better songwriting chops than the joke suggests — twenty-five years of hooks hiding under the punchlines.

Bowling for Soup trace back to Wichita Falls, Texas, where Jaret Reddick and Chris Burney met as high schoolers in the 1980s and played through a string of local bands, including Terminal Seasons and coolfork!, before settling on the name Bowling for Soup in 1994. The name came from a line in a Steve Martin comedy routine.

The band relocated to Denton, Texas in 1996, releasing a split album with local group The V.I.M.S. and, in 1998, the EP Tell Me When to Whoa, which sold over 10,000 copies and brought a deal with Jive Records. Drummer Lance Morrill left around this time and was replaced by Gary Wiseman.

The band broke through in the early 2000s with 'Girl All the Bad Guys Want' and '1985,' records that paired straightforward pop-punk arrangements with self-deprecating, joke-heavy lyrics. Further singles such as 'Almost,' 'Punk Rock 101' and 'High School Never Ends' followed, alongside a stint writing the theme song for Disney's animated series Phineas and Ferb.

That humour runs through their catalogue and their live shows, which lean heavily on between-song banter, but the songwriting underneath stays conventionally melodic and durable, drawing as much on the metal and punk records the members grew up on as on pop radio.

They have remained an active touring band for three decades, with a particularly loyal following in the United Kingdom. Guitarist Chris Burney retired in 2025, leaving Reddick as the sole original member alongside Wiseman and bassist Rob Felicetti.

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pop-punkcomedy rock