Bowling For Soup at Merced Fair
By Diane Booth Conway,
Merced County Fair Publicity Director

   They’ve done concert tours in the United Kingdom and performed at HBO’s U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen last week and Bowling for Soup will make their debut at the Merced County Fair.
   Bowling for Soup will bring their upbeat pop/ rock/punk music to the 2007 Merced County Fair, Wednesday, July 18 in the Toyota Outdoor Theatre.
   The fair previously announced Josh Gracin, "American Idol's American Patriot," will kick off the fair's opening day, Tuesday, July 17; singer/songwriter Phil Vassar will perform Thursday, July 19 and country star Collin Raye will headline at the fair, Saturday, July 21. The remaining headline entertainment acts will soon be announced.
   The fair runs July 17-22. All entertainment performing at the fairgrounds Toyota Outdoor Theatre will give one concert at 9 p.m. As always, all fair headline acts are free with the price of admission. The 2007 Fair theme is "Gateway to Great Cheese," a salute to cheese, one of the county's top agricultural products.
   Bowling for Soup recently released their ninth album, “The Great Burrito Extortion Case,” featuring smash hit “High School Never Ends”. Their other hits include “1985,” “Almost,” “Ohio (Come Back to Texas),” “When We Die,” “Val Kilmer” and “London Bridge”.
   Members of the four-man group from Denton, Texas are: Jaret Reddick, guitar and vocals; Chris Burney, guitar and vocals; Erik Chandler, bass and vocals and Gary Wiseman on drums. Together since 1994, Bowling for Soup was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2003 for best vocal performance by a duo or group for the song, “Girl All the Bad Guys Want.”
   Their 2004 album, “A Hangover You Don’t Deserve,” was gold-certified.
   A November 2006 Billboard review of “The Great Burrito Extortion Case” said “the album should elicit smiles and snickers all around. “High School Never Ends” is a hilarious social commentary with biting wit, a bit of truth and an absolutely infectious chorus. Lead vocalist Jaret Reddick has an engaging, personality-packed voice that makes every song an event.”
   The review continues, “In the song, “I’m Gay,” the band deflates rockers who take life a little too seriously, then implores “don’t hate us cause we’re happy! Throughout, clever songwriting, solid musicianship and manic energy combine to roll a perfect strike.”
   This band is all about making happy, upbeat music. “We calculated it and there are at least 12 verses worth of total joy for every sort-of-sad chorus about an ex-girlfriend on this record,” said Reddick, the band’s founder.
   Even the “bummer” songs on “Burrito” sound happy, he said, adding, “99 Biker Friends,” is a rollicking, sing-along statement condemning domestic abuse.
   “This is gonna sound corny, but the thing that’s kept us psyched about playing music isn’t fame or fortune or hit songs,” Reddick said. “It’s that we never lost that feeling of excitement we had the first time we sat down to write something together. You look at this band anytime from then to now, and we’re basically the same – just a bunch of fun, beer-drinking boys from Texas who got lucky. The fact that we’ve been able to parlay that into something that makes other people happy is payment in itself.”
   Their music has been heard in several movies including: “Ice Age 2: The Meltdown,” “Just Like Heaven,” “Scooby Doo 2,” “Freaky Friday,” “Dickie Roberts,” “Sky High,” and they co-wrote, recorded and performed the theme song for the movie, “Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius.”
   Bowling for Soup also wrote, performed and recorded theme songs for: “Laguna Beach,” “Knights of the Zodiac” on Cartoon Network, the Drew Carey Show and their song, “Greatest Day” is used on the 2006 films, “Nacho Libre” and “How to Eat Fried Worms.”
   The band’s songs also are included in a long list of music collections and other soundtracks including: Radio Disney Jams (2001, 2005 and 2006), “Crossroads” soundtrack, “Now That’s What I Call Music” (2003 and 2004), Disneymania 3 (2005), Disney Remix Mania (2005), This is Alice Music (2005), New Music Festival: Hurricane Benefit CD (2005), Ozzfest 10th Anniversary DVD and CD, “Cursed” soundtrack (2005) and the “Summerland” soundtrack.
   The band’s music is used in several video games including “Backyard Wrestling,” and “NHL 2004”. They have shared the bill on several big name tours including: Santana, Metallica, Blink 182, Rob Thomas, Kiss, Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Backstreet Boys, Nelly, Will Smith, LL Cool J, MatchBox 20, Third Eye Blind, Pussycat Dolls, Linkin Park, Kelly Clarkson, Black Eyed Peas, Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, Mariah Carey and Sting.
   Bowling for Soup has made numerous TV appearances on shows including: Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, Regis & Kelly Live, Carson Daly, Craig Kilborn, Nickelodeon, Malcolm in the Middle and Cold Case.
   For information, call the fair office at 722-1507 or email to Info@MercedCountyFair.com or fax at 722-3773. Visit the 2007 Merced County Fair’s award-winning website, www.MercedCountyFair.com

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