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Sugarcult have been putting out albums since 1999, but it wasn't until 2001 that the pop-punk band from Santa Barbara, California, broke out into the mainstream.



The band's third album, Start Static, spawned three popular singles: "Bouncing Off the Walls," "Stuck in America" and "Pretty Girl (The Way)." However it's "Bouncing" that still remains a fan favorite.

It would be safe to assume that the band owes much of its popularity to the 2002 comedy "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" which starred Ryan Reynolds and Tara Reid. Four Sugarcult tracks can be heard during the movie, and "Bouncing Off the Walls" also appears on the soundtrack to the film. Reynolds and Reid also appeared in the music video for "Bouncing Off the Walls."

The follow-up to Start Static, 2004's Palm Trees and Power Lines, took the band to even bigger heights with its hit single "Memory." The band played the main stage of Warped Tour that summer and got the opportunity to open up for Green Day on a leg of its American Idiot tour, as well as Blink-182 on their final European tour. Sugarcult's latest release was 2006's Lights Out.

Buzznet recently spoke with Sugarcult guitarist Marko 72 to get his thoughts on "Bouncing Off the Walls," seven years after the song was first released to the world:

" 'Bouncing Off the Walls' came together some time during the year 2000," he said. "I was still living in Santa Barbara and would drive down to Los Angeles once a week and rehearse for three days straight. I would usually sleep on [singer] Tim [Pagnotta]'s couch, and he would wake me up in his tighty whiteys and play song ideas on his trusty beater acoustic (which is actually the same guitar he uses in the intro to the 'Bouncing' video). I can say with a fair amount of certainty that about 90 percent of our songs began on that thing.

"Anyway, one morning he was intuitively banging out melodies over the same old three chords (G, D, C) and the song just kinda wrote itself within a few minutes. We learned it as a band later that evening, and together with Ben [Davis] (our original drummer) and [bassist] Airin [Older], it was perfected.

"We did a demo of it with Thom Flowers at Orange Whip Studios in Santa Barbara and eventually recorded it again for Start Static in the spring of 2001. It was my birthday while we were recording, so we had friends dropping by the studio. My good friend who I grew up playing in bands with, Chris Shiflett, who is also the guitarist of Foo Fighters, was staying nearby at their drummer Taylor Hawkins' house; he came by and I guilt-tripped him into playing a guest guitar solo as a birthday present to me!

"So the second part of the solo is actually Chris, who is also one of my favorite guitarists of all time. Thanks, Chris! It means the world to us that fans sing along to our songs so every time we play this one, it's a total adrenaline rush and brings back great memories of our innocent early days."


[Click the picture to view the video for "Bouncing Off the Walls"]

What are your memories of Sugarcult's "Bouncing Off the Walls?" Do you enjoy the song as much as you used to? Have you not heard of this song until now? Discuss in the comments below!