Just a Simple Plan

As most artists will tell you at the drop of a hat, Filipinos are a hard audience to please. We are the kind who can be indifferent, lazy, or even hostile. In fact, I’ve seen big stars from abroad cower under the Pinoy’s passive reaction to their performance. On the other hand, Pinoys can also be loyal and enthusiastic fans who will stick to their idols as long as these artists continue to churn out the stuff they enjoy. Among those enjoying their patronage at the moment is the group Simple Plan.

It has been almost a year ago since the first album by the Canadian pop group was released in the Philippines. No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls instantly captured the imagination of local listeners. The music is classified as punk but anybody familiar with the genre will surely protest that this is too light and too fun to be punk. What it really is is pop with an edge, the kind that gets the listener into a good time mood. Even the things these guys talk about in the lyrics are as harmless as playing hooky from school at the least or unrequited love, maybe I should say lust like the kind we see in those American Pie movies at the most.

Pinoys like to enjoy their music and what Simple Plan offers in No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls are tunes you can walk with, drive with, hang out with, dance to and sing along to while keeping a smile on your face. It can’t really be punk if it makes you feel this good. Check out I’d Do Anything which is almost inspirational or the achingly sweet When I’m with You or the bad little boy song Perfect, one of the big favorites in the airlanes these days. Other titles in the album are The Worst Day Ever, You Don’t Mean Anything, I’m Just a Kid, Meet You There, Addicted, My Alien, God Must Hate Me, I Won’t Be There and One Day.

Simple Plan is made up of Pierre Bouvier on vocals, Chuck Comeau on drums, David Desrosiers on bass and vocals, Sebastien Lefebvre on guitar and vocals and Jeff Stinco on guitar. They all come from Quebec, Montreal in the Northeastern part of Canada and they also write all of their songs. A new album is expected to hit the market soon. Simple Plan is said to be working on something heavier, darker and more punk than No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls. I hope it will also be something that will make their Pinoy fans very happy.

A new song by Simple Plan is what is driving the success of the soundtrack album of the motion picture Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. They must be very big fans of the famous great dane and his gang because this is the group’s second stint in a Scooby-Doo movie. Simple Plan contributed Grow Up, one of their originals to the soundtrack of the first Scooby-Doo movie.

As young and jaunty as those tunes contained in No Pads, the song, Don’t Wanna Think About You, leads a star-studded line-up of diverse music, rap, dance, soul, punk, pop and rock, aimed at the early teen music buyers. Now income from the small kiddies power the movie box office but it is the older kids who like to carry the music around while replaying Scooby-Doo’s and Shaggy’s newest adventure who will be buying the soundtrack album.

Also present in the collection is Shining Star, by last year’s American Idol champ Ruben Studdard; You Get What You Give by the New Radicals; Boom Shack-A-Lak by Apache Indian; Thank you (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Again) by Big Brovaz; The Rockafeller Skank by Fatboy Slim; Wooly Bully by Bad Manners; Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger; Get Ready for This by 2 Unlimited; Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry; Here We Go by Bowling for Soup; Love Shack by The B-52’s; and Friends Forever by Puffy AmiYumi.

Take note, the enhanced CD links to Simple Plan’s music video of the lead song and behind the scenes footage of the movie and every copy comes with one of four Monster Collector Cards. Wish I could tell you how to get all four without having to buy four copies of the CD but I can’t. So ask around if you want to add these cards to your collection.