Denver Melodic Punk Rockers Bud Bronson and the Good Timers Release New LP "Between the Outfield and Outer Space"

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Denver melodic punk rockers Bud Bronson and the Good Timers have officially released their new LP Between the Outfield and Outer Space. Leading up to the release, the band was featured at Billboard, PunkNews, Alternative Press, New Noise Magazine & more, with Billboard praising the group's, "Punky fury and aggressive melodicism." In the coming weeks, the group will be embarking on a U.S. tour that will bring their energetic live show to Nashville, Chicago & more. Between the Outfield and Outer Space is out now via Snappy Little Numbers.

Bud Bronson & the Good Timers have a reputation as one of the Mile High City’s hardest working, most fun loving, relentlessly positive rock & roll bands. Their debut LP Fantasy Machine was released in 2015 and contained twelve tracks of upbeat, dual-guitar-driven pop/punk that poked fun at everything from quarter life crises (“I’m living in a beer commercial, minus all the beaches and girls. It’s a cold and shallow world and I’m drowning in it”) to the then-newly popular vaping trend (“That’s the way it always goes when you’re growing up, you’ve got to say goodbye to the things you love. Dude, is anyone still rolling blunts?”) with a carefree wit and nostalgic haze. The band’s energetic live shows and unpretentious, all-are-welcome mentality earned them spots supporting some of modern rocks underground heroes including Parquet Courts, The Menzingers, Twin Peaks and fellow melodic punk shredders Diarrhea Planet.

Now, the group—helmed by singer-guitarist Brian Beer—are at a crossroads. “We’ve hit the reckoning of what it means to be a party band getting into your 30s, and in this world that feels very different than it did three years ago,” says Beer. It’s true, in the time since Fantasy Machine was released, technology has continued to develop at an exponential rate, the United States has become more politically divided than any other modern time, and rock & roll has continued circling the drain in terms of social relevance. For Beer and his bandmates there was only one option...

Bud Bronson and the Good Timers forthcoming sophomore LP, Between The Outfield and Outer Space (out Oct. 12), is a ten track collection of dynamic, stadium-ready melodic punk that chronicles Beer’s struggles existing in a world that feels more foreign day-by-day. As the title implies, baseball plays a major role in the album’s narrative, existing simultaneously as a metaphor for childhood, innocence, rock & roll and humanity itself. “Baseball is the idyllic simple American pastime,” says Beer. “We wanted to take that childlike innocence of baseball and juxtapose that against this complicated reality that we’re all a part of these days.”

While Fantasy Machine existed as a testament to good times that would never end, Between the Outfield and Outer Space finds Beer grappling with maintaining that outlook. “This band has always been an escape mechanism so that you don’t have to confront reality. These days I feel like it’s harder to maintain that unyielding positivity,” he says. “With this album, we’re still trying to maintain positivity while acknowledging reality, rather than just ignoring reality and pretending everything’s fine.”

From the swirling intro of the record’s title track straight through ‘til the end, Between the Outfield and Outer Space immediately stands out as the most mature, fully-realized effort yet from Bud Bronson and the Good Timers. “Between the Outfield and Outer Space” churns and builds before seamlessly transitioning into the band’s fist-pumping “We Are the Champions (Of The Basement),” a heartland-punk anthem about the depressing and dangerous reality of society’s obsession with nostalgia.

Many of the following tracks act as couplets that examine Beer’s split perspectives on the world around him. “Carmine’s, The Day After (Life of Purpose Pt. 1)” harnesses the negative feelings associated with self-indulgence and a lack of purpose, while the following track “End of Our Lives” serves as a reactionary reflection on powerlessness in a gigantic, frightening world. “Enter the Infinite” and “Back to the Womb” examine two perspectives on absurdism, with the former taking comfort in the vastness of the universe, and the latter feeling paralyzed and overwhelmed by its supreme indifference.

The record hits its peak with “(Brave New) World Series,” an expansive track that tackles Beer’s fear of the future and the reality that his father won’t be around to share it with him. “Hey Dad, I used to hear you talking to our dog / He’d just stare back at you but you would keep keeping on / Now I hear you tell Alexa everything that you want / The future is here but you’re about to move on,” Beer sings before adding, “There’s a brave new world series coming / I hope you won’t be around to tune in / Even the playoffs won’t be worth watching / ‘Cause we all lose no matter who wins.”

Though the content on Between the Outfield and Outer Space may be bleak, Bud Bronson and the Good Timers retain the same fun and welcoming presence that has been their trademark since forming in 2012. Rather than existing as a means for Beer to shout into the void, the album feels like a rallying cry, a call out to everyone who feels intimidated by or lost in the modern world. Bud Bronson and the Good Timers don’t claim to know what’s next, but they’re curious to find out. In Beer’s words, “The world is huge and we’re small and there’s only so much we can change. Instead of denying that all of these bad things exist, we’re trying to find and address our place in everything. This record brings up a lot of questions—and we don’t have the answers. But we’re here wondering, and that’s good too.”

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