'Kooky' band has Ohio in mind -- and in song

The Texas-based band's newest effort showcases many forgotten tunes.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
If looking for a word to describe punk-pop outfit Bowling For Soup, singer-songwriter Jaret Reddick knows the answer.
"Kooky," said Reddick, calling from Texas. "We actually walk hand in hand with the word kooky."
Confirming this notion is the Texas band's latest compilation "Bowling For Soup Goes to the Movies," which features a cornucopia of lost songs, most of which are soundtrack tunes time may have forgotten.
"We sort of just accumulated this whole arsenal of songs that weren't available at this point to the general public," Reddick said. "And we were about to have a little bit of time off and go in and do a new album, so it was like, 'Why don't we put these out there as like a collection?' But it's not like we're putting this out there to try to sell a load of records or anything like that. It's more of an album for the fans and to say, 'Hey man, here's a bunch of stuff that we've done.'"
Among the track list are theme songs to "Gilligan's Island," "Jimmy Neutron" and "Five O'Clock World" (The Drew Carey Show). There's also covers of Britney Spears' "...Baby One More Time" and Modern English's "I'll Melt With You."
While the spectacular former cover track belies its bubblegum notoriety, it's the latter song that fits perfectly into the band's love affair with all things '80s. This was confirmed on the group's hit song "1985," from its 2004 album "A Hangover You Don't Deserve," which dropped plenty of Reagan-era pop culture references (Snakeskin mini-skirts, "Breakfast Club" and Whitesnake).
Early on, the band had to know the kitschy "1985" would be a hit with the nostalgia- hungry audiences.
"Definitely not, there's just no way you can tell," Reddick said. "And being a songwriter, I think every song that I write is great. Each one of them has a little special place in my heart and that song to me I thought was great and very catchy but I thought that there were better songs on the album."
A different name game
One of those songs is "Ohio (Come Back to Texas)," which references the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame city.
"The thing about it is I knew I wanted to put the name Leyland in a song and the only town I could think of that rhymed was Cleveland," Reddick said. "And I thought it was real cool for us to pay homage to Drew Carey because he was really nice to us early on and let us do a song for his show back in the day before anybody paid attention to us. So, it killed a couple of birds with one stone."
You know, Anton rhymes with Canton? After all, the band, which performs Dec. 16 at the Canton Palace Theater, played a gig a few years ago at Thurman Munson Memorial Stadium.
"That would have not been such a good name," Reddick said. "I could have said Clayton and he went to Dayton."
And what about Cincinnati?
After a brief pause, Reddick said proudly, "That's why I didn't use Cincinnati."