And so here we are with something very special from Rum Bar Records! To commemorate 30 years of the world being fortunate enough to have The Kowalskis in it, a deluxe reissue of the band's debut album All Hopped Up on Goofballs is out today. Titled 30 Years Of Goofballs, this retrospective adds a whole slew of compilation tracks, album & 7" cuts, and unreleased tunes for a grand total of 25 songs. Go big or go home!
To me, The Kowalskis have always been criminally underrated. They were playing old school punk rock with '60s girl group roots way before it was cool — paving the way for so many of the garage/power pop/punk rock 'n' roll bands that we celebrate today. They arrived on the scene with the musical and spiritual DNA of the Ramones, Blondie, The Dictators, and Devil Dogs coursing through their veins. Along side the likes of D Generation, The Heartdrops, NY Loose, The Turbo ACs, FUR, L.E.S. Stitches, and The Prissteens, they were at the forefront of an exciting new era in New York punk rock. The songs on this collection epitomize everything that was great about the '90s punk scene. The sound is raw, exciting, and super-fun. Close your eyes, and you can feel yourself in the pit at an all-ages show or imagine yourself in your bedroom littered with 7" records, print zines, and cassette demo tapes. You just don't hear music that sounds quite like this anymore. And what could be a more fitting tribute to '90s punk rock than a compact disc with 25 songs on it? Even if you still own your original copy of All Hopped Up on Goofballs, you probably don't have all those old compilations in your possession anymore. So having all these songs carefully re-mastered by Kurt Bloch and packaged as a single album is an absolute treat for fans. And if the '90s were before your time, or you somehow missed out on these songs the first time around, 30 Years Of Goofballs still comes highly recommended. I'd put the likes of "Sunny Sunday Hangover," "Not Surprised," "100% Fun," "Kiss Me One More Time," and "First Date" up there with the best songs of just about any pop-leaning punk rock band past or present. And covers of everyone from Blondie to the New York Dolls to KISS to Cheap Trick give you a great feel for what The Kowalskis are all about.
I love that The Kowalskis and Malibu Lou have come full circle. In 1999, "First Date" was featured on the Melted Records compilation My So Called Punk Rock Life — one of the greatest punk rock comps from the heyday of great punk rock comps (seriously, check out the track listing on that thing!). And now The Kowalskis have joined the Rum Bar Records family. The greatest thing about being a music fan is that it's never too late to discover a band. So whether 30 Years Of Goofballs brings back fond memories of seeing The Kowalskis live or is your introduction to this amazing band, I declare that this is an album you need to hear and ought to own.
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