The 2000s were a smorgasbord of pop-punk bands looking to make it big. Some did, and many are still going strong today. But others either fizzled out when the 2010s came calling or remained criminally underrated. Here are three bands from the 2000s who deserved more love in the pop-punk scene (the fact that they all formed in 1998 is a complete coincidence).
SR-71
SR-71 formed in 1998 and lasted until 2009, and in those years, had some pretty successful hits in the pop-punk world. Their debut album, Now You See Inside, was released in June 2000. This featured the single “Right Now”, which was the band’s only mainstream hit, reaching No. 2 on what is now called the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart.
At the time, “Right Now” earned SR-71 some moderate popularity, as did their 2002 single “Tomorrow”. Their next album of the same name didn’t do as well as their debut, and SR-71’s hype waned in the pop-punk scene. In 2004, they released Here We Go Again, which featured a little song called “1985”. This song is best known for helping put Bowling for Soup on the map after covering it with permission from close friends SR-71.
Tsunami Bomb
Tsunami Bomb formed in 1998 and is still active today after several lineup changes, releasing an EP in 2021, a single in 2024, and a compilation album in 2025. Emily Whitehurst was the main vocalist, with keyboardist Oobliette Sparks providing backing vocals, from the band’s formation until their first breakup around 2005. Sparks actually left in 2001, and the band went without keyboards until they reunited in 2015, this time without Whitehurst.
They played Warped Tour several times from 2001 to 2005, and toured extensively. While criminally underrated in the pop-punk scene, Tsunami Bomb is interesting as one of the few bands with female vocalists. Drawing purely from memory, not many mainstream pop-punk bands with women as lead vocalists come to mind. Besides Paramore in the 2010s, of course. Early-2000s pop-punk was definitely a bit of a boy’s club. But there were certainly gems like Tsunami Bomb that deserved more recognition.
Sugarcult
Yet another band formed in 1998, Sugarcult gained moderate popularity in the 2000s before disbanding in 2011. Their second album, Palm Trees and Power Lines, brought increased attention for the band in 2004. They played Warped Tour and supported Green Day and Blink-182 on separate tours that year as well.
Sugarcult was often compared to contemporaries like Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, and Good Charlotte. However, they didn’t gain as much mainstream attention. They were popular in the pop-punk scene with singles like “Memory” and “She’s the Blade”. But their early single, “Bouncing Off the Walls”, brought them their most success after it was used as the lead single to the movie soundtrack for National Lampoon’s Van Wilder.
Photo by Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
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