**1/2 The Bouncing Souls

MANIACAL LAUGHTER

(Chunksaah/BYO)

In supporting their 1992 DIY masterpiece The Good, the Bad and the Argyle, New Jersey's Bouncing Souls opened for bands-of-the-moment like Green Day and the Offspring. In the end, audiences all over America got to see what punk rock really should be: snide, melodic love songs for the all-ages crowd. Although Maniacal Laughter loses some of the band's original bounce, it shows these Souls are slightly progressing. They were the band that offered a bratty cover of "I Know What Boys Like" by the Flirts; now, they're the big kids expressing their own affection in the bass-slappy, convenience clerk anthem "Quick Check Girl." Most of Maniacal Laughter lives off bassist Brian Papillon's strumming rhythm fits, especially on "Lamar Vannoy" and "Argyle," both of which reminisce on the sounds of NYC hardcore legends Kraut and Gorilla Biscuits. "Born To Lose" and "The Ballad of Johnny X" are great, lazy punk anthems; look no further than a line like, "Johnny . . . you're the patron saint of spitting in the wind" to see what the Bouncing Souls are really all about.

-- Jonathan Vena

(The Bouncing Souls open for the Descendents and the Swinging Utters downstairs at the Middle East tonight, December 5.)