Bayside

The latest fave rave among the suburban high school set is Punk Goes Pop, Volume 2, a compilation in which Warped Tour combos take on some of the slickest chart hits of recent years — like, for instance, the Fray's "Over My Head," which is recharged (or perhaps charged for the first time) by A Day to Remember. Also taking part is San Diego's Bayside, currently gigging with New Found Glory, Set Your Goals and Verse — and the group's version of Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" is particularly telling. True, the guitars are considerably more aggressive than those in the original. But when lead vocalist Anthony Raneri sings about "doin' my first crime," he actually seems less hardcore than Kingston did the first time around — and that makes sense, since melody and tunefulness are considerably more important to these guys than nihilism and aggressiveness. In Bayside's case, punk went pop quite a while ago.