The Box Social made a splash on the local music scene in past years and is back in the Milwaukee spotlight with their new single.

Often times, a local music scene can be frustrating. Overhead is usually ridiculous for bands, which leads to higher ticket prices for fans, and it often feels like every other band is a hard rock band with a progressive feel. Not to mention the literal disappearance of many bands that frequented Milwaukee just three or four years ago.

Luckily, The Box Social still knows how to write great, catchy rock songs and fortunately for everyone in southeastern Wisconsin, they tour almost nonstop.

Despite the fact that all four members of the band reside in Madison, they still refer to themselves as a Milwaukee band. On top of that, they are not money-hungry Nickelback clones. In fact, all lead singer and guitarist Nick Junkunc wants to do is get to the point where the band can demand amazing deli platters after every show.

The Box Social is a Madison-based band but still Milwaukeeans at heart, that consists of singer/guitarist Nick Junkunc, guitarist Nick Woods, bassist David Griesbach and drummer Brain Peoplis.

Once described as sounding like Nirvana playing Tom Petty covers, The Box Social made a splash on the local music scene in past years and is back in the Milwaukee spotlight with their new single which features the songs Big T and Hot Damn, both of which will appear on their full length titled Get Going, tentatively to be released on June 2.

When asked about the main differences between the Blown to Bits EP and Get Going Nick Junkunc said, The main difference between this upcoming full length and our previous EP is the obvious shift to a more polished pop sound. The song structures and sensibilities are generally still the same, but most of these newer songs tend to have more emphasis on melody and hooks than the ones on Blown to Bits.

Several of the songs that will appear on Get Going are re-worked versions of older songs such as Hot Damn and Pay Attention. The pop-friendly songs were revisited because, according to Junkunc, they complimented the new songs very well, and vice versa. Also, I never felt that those songs got the justice they deserved in their previous incarnations.

This past Friday, The Box Social headlined a show at The Miramar. The set list consisted of new songs: Ginger Ale, Easy Does It and Coming Around, and older songs like, Scary Dream, Pay Attention and a couple covers, including Life During Wartime.

While The Miramar finally became Junkuncs favorite place to play, he feels as if Milwaukee is becoming more or less of a ghost town in terms of bands that used to be around.

Very few of the bands we used to play with as youngsters are around anymore, and it seems like kids these days just arent interested in starting bands and playing shows. Junkunc goes on to say that there are obvious exceptions to the rule, but by and large it feels as if there are fewer bands to play shows with.

This summer, The Box Social will be touring across the country literally in drummer Brian Peoplis van as they try and promote their new full length album.

When asked about the bands major goals over their busy summer Nick Junkunc said, The main goal for this summer is to spread the word that we exist and have good songs to offer the general public. Now that the full length is officially done and coming into existence, we feel like we finally have a legitimate vehicle with which to promote ourselves as musicians. Its definitely game time.

The new single from The Box Social can be picked up at Atomic Records, 1813 E Locust St. in Milwaukee or B-Side Records, 436 State St. in Madison. The Box Social is online at www.theboxsocial.net and their worthy Blown to Bits EP is available on iTunes. Their next visit to Milwaukee is May 5 at the Cactus Club and is a 21 and older show.

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