Simple Plan’s “Still Not Getting Any” is Still Perfect 17 Years Later.
Simple Plan’s second album, Still Not Getting Any… came out on a rather overcast Tuesday.
Back then I was an angsty high schooler coming fresh off a heated breakup with my “true love”. I was also a diehard SP fan — the kind of fan who was in yahoogroups, a member of a Myspace fan page and just an all around total SP lover. Pierre was my everything. I had posters of the band and him in my room. I even had this silly notion one day I’d marry him. It’s all part of being a teenager.
So I knew — Yes, I very well knew that my favorite band of all time back then had an album coming out that October. I had been eagerly awaiting their album release. I knew it was coming.
I remember wearing my SP lyrics jeans (yes, I wrote their song lyrics on my jeans because I was that much of a fan) to school that day and wanting the school day to be over because z100 (or maybe it was TRL- it was a long time ago) was having a live album release party on the air with the band and I needed to be tuned in. School was just not on my mind that day.
As soon as I got out of school, I just waited for the album release thing to take place at 4:00 or 4:30. And like a totally crazy fan girl, I screamed when the band came on. I was overjoyed for their release! As soon as the party was over, I headed out to my local Target to buy the cd. Unfortunately, Target didn’t have the cds (wtf?) so I wound up going to Tower Records (remember that place?) where I bought the cd. I listened to it almost immediately as soon as I got out of the store on my walkman. I used to carry my walkman in purse back then because we didn’t have cell phones with every song ever on them. I also didn’t have an ipod or an mp3 player. So my walkman was everything to me. It was my life source of entertainment. So you can bet as soon as I got out to the car, I popped that cd in and listened to SNGA for the first time. I never looked back.
The album became a staple in my collection for years and years. Between 2004 and 2007 I must have listened to that album over 2000x. No joke. I still know every song on it by heart. And even now, I still think “One” is the most underrated song on the album. I mean, hello, that is literally an emo anthem.
But back then I was more into being a legit SP fan girl than worrying about the band’s future discophraphy or whether or not I was listening to some future classic pop punk album. I was having fun with being a fangirl. I was living in the moment. I never imagined 17 years from 2004 or even 10 years from 2004. I was living in 2004. But I will say this. At the time no one (and i watched a lot of music shows/interviews) dubbed that album the future of pop punk or said this album will go down in history one day as one of the all time classics of pop punk. Back then I never thought one day years from now tens of thousands of future teens will gather in stadiums to see these guys on their tour. No, back then Simple Plan was just another pop punk band among the slew of pop punk bands that were on the scene at the time. They were in the league of Good Charlotte , New Found Glory, the Ataris, and Sum 41. Their videos made the rounds on the music channels. People knew of them, but they were one of many pop punk bands around at the time. After all, the early mid 2000s were known for pop punk bands being a dime a dozen.
Back then I saw Still Not Getting Any as just this really solid album full of energetic pop punk songs with a lot of heart. In some ways, SNGA felt like part two of No Pads, No Helmets .. Just Balls. “Shut Up” was a total pop punk anthem musically similar to “I’d Do Anything”. While “Perfect World” and “Every time” were an updated reincarnations of “Meet You There”. “Jump” had a “Grow Up” feel to it, while “Crazy” felt like this album’s “Perfect”. “Welcome to My Life” was an updated “I’m Just a Kid”. Every song on that album was damn freakin’ good. I never thought of it as becoming a classic (well, maybe in my library) or going down in history one day in some article in Spin Magazine or something about being this great piece of pop punk. No, to me, it was just the album that you could sing along to. It was the album that got me through a lot of shitty times. It was the album I related to every day because I loved it that much. It was the album that made me feel better about situations. It was the album that spawned all those awesome music videos and singles. Pierre sung every song with conviction and heart. He was real. And not to mention super hot.
But that’s the thing. Everything about the band back then was authentic. Pierre wasn’t super fluent in English during his interviews on TRL and the band was pretty shy. They didn’t seem out for fame or out to solidify their fame. They were just a bunch of regular punk rockin dudes from Canada who seemed really grateful at their success with the band. Times were different back when SNGA first came out. SP was a little less known by the world. And I miss that.
And that’s probably why this album in particular means a lot to me now (almost more so than it did when it fist came out). Because it’s like this time capsule of who Simple Plan used to be and why I thought they were so awesome. In the days of No Pads and Still Not Getting Any , SP was writing really authentic true and honest pop punk tracks. That faded out through the years and eventually they just became more pop rock/pop. While selling out stadiums is obviously every band’s dream, it often comes with a price. In the case of Simple Plan, I feel like they got more polished in their presentation both on and off the stage. They became professional rockstars as opposed to a lesser known band that draws crowds at Warped but isn’t known half the world yet.
And so I guess that’s why when I look back on an album like Still Not Getting Any, I smile. Because I’m remembering 2004 Simple Plan — the days when Pierre was still relatively new on the scene and jumping on stage because he was a punk feeling the music not because it was part of what the fans want to see. I’m remembering the heart and soul Pierre and the band put into their tour of this album. I also remember my very first Simple Plan concert. It was on the SNGA Tour in 2005. That was such an amazing concert! The band was SO good, and you just felt like Pierre meant every damn word he was singing. He wasn’t just singing because he sold out the show and had to do the songs. But when I compare old school SP to who they are now, now I just see them as guys who’ve made a name for themselves and are keeping the name alive — whereas back then it was about making a name for themselves and building the fan base, writing punk songs because that’s who they were, that’s where they were in their life. Now, SP is just different to me. But whenever I give SNGA a spin, I remember the “lost” and “forgotten” SP of another time and era and I smile remembering 2004–2005 SP and the awesome kick ass band they used to be. And maybe that’s why I’m still listening to SNGA after all these years — because it’s like a piece of the past, something that will never be again, but was truly undeniably “perfect” at the time it existed. It was 2004 pop punk at its finest. SP on Still Not Getting Any was the epitome of what pop punk was like in 2004 -2005. And I think that’s what has made it a classic over the years, but it’s also what keeps me listening to it- I love the sound from that era. I love early 2000s SP. They were in their element at that point, the best they’ve been. And no matter how many new albums SP puts out, in my opinion, no album will ever come close to matching their Still Not Getting Any era. They were at their peak. The future was theirs. And they knew it. We all knew it, and that’s why SNGA has stood the test of time.
