So, in advance of tonight's show, we decided to play some catch-up with Bad Sports' Orville Neeley and Daniel Fried to talk about about the gig and the band's forthcoming full-length LP, Kings of the Weekend. Fried in particular sounds stoked about tonight's show: "I've seen him twice in the past few years," he says. "You know how you'll go see reunion bands and tours and they'll usually suck? He was awesome both times."

Bad Sports stands to do well at this show, too, though: The punk trio's about to release its second full-length album for Portland's Dirtnap Records. It's worth noting that the disc was recorded in February 2010 at Mark Ryan's home studio in Fort Worth -- the same studio where Ryan, the former Marked Men frontman and guitarist, recorded Mind Spiders' fantastic self-titled debut (also for Dirtnap). The 14-track Bad Sports disc was originally slated for a March 2011 release. According to Dirtnap, Kings of the Weekend has currently been re-slated for a "late summer release."

Tonight's bill -- and, really, this entire Texas run for Collins, which finds Bad Sports opening for him all weekend long -- originated from a chance encounter at last year's Atlanta Mess Around Festival, when Collins caught Bad Sports' set. 

"He played on the second night, and I guess he watched us the night before," Neeley says. "He said he liked our set, and that we should play a show together sometime."

Not a bad shout-out from a "Power Pop God." And tonight's show isn't a bad take, either: Tickets are just $6 a head. As if that wasn't enough of a reason to check the show out, Bad Sports also passed along two new songs from the band's upcoming release for DC9 readers to download free of charge. Grab them -- and check out Fried's informative back-stories on each -- after the jump.

Bonus MP3:

"Orville and I collaborated on writing the music. It just kinda ended up sounding kinda '60s pop/girl group-ish. Orville wrote the lyrics and they are pretty much true/autobiographical. At the time, he did live behind the Second Baptist Church, and right by the high school in Denton. It's hard to explain the song without coming across as sleazy, but we do really love seeing teenage girls dancing. But kids don't listen to rock 'n' roll anymore, so it's hard to find girls that wanna dance to it like we always wanted. It's funny how this song has become somewhat of our anthem. We do, indeed, find teenage girls very attractive." 

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Bonus MP3:

"What can I really say about this song that isn't in the lyrics? I've lived in Denton eight years now, and I really do love it here. But I also hate it at the same time. Its a very fun, relaxed city with some fun people. However, its a dead end. A death trap. You can live here for a while but its really hard to make a significant impact in this town. Pretty much all the bands go nowhere. You try and play clubs, and they screw you over. You play in town for years and still end up playing to about 15 people who are only there because they're your friends or they're dating a member of the band. I wrote the lyrics at a time when both I and Orville had spent a significant amount of time in college (Orville actually graduated, though) and the best we could do was to get jobs that paid minimum wage.  The town is flush with smart people with degrees, so the only place they can work is doing crappy service industry jobs and not making enough money to even pay your rent. Basically, if you stay here long enough, it's going to make you useless and jaded, or turn you into the exact opposite of what you wanted to be. I just wanted to write a song that was the "Born To Run" of the North Texas region. Below are the lyrics, so you can get an idea."

You gotta recognize that it don't make sense
You finally paid the price but there is no end

And all the boys in the back they won't do what they're told
'cause when the city dies tonight its stories will never grow old

And you took a new stage for you to act your age
If you stay a couple more you'll become what you hate
And what's the point of trying when you're dying in the days of Denton?

You finally realized that it don't make sense
The things you've come to love, well, they don't exist

And all the boys in the back they just do what they're told
'cause when the city dies tonight the stories have all grown old

And you study four years to make minimum wage
Why bother even playing when you don't get paid?

What's the point of living when you're dying in the days of Denton?
What's the point of even trying when you're dying in the days of Denton?

Whats the point of trying when you're dying?
Whats the point of even living when you're dying in the days of Denton?

Whats the point of even living when you're dying?