fountains of wayne

The band name was taken from the name of a lawn-ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey, called "Fountains of Wayne", not far from Montclair, New Jersey, the hometown of the band's bassist and cofounder Adam Schlesinger.

Group members

• Chris Collingwood - Guitar, Vocals
• Adam Schlesinger - Bass
• Jody Porter - Guitar
• Brian Young - Drums

The early years

The band was formed by Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. The two first met as freshmen at Williams College and began playing music together in various bands. They eventually went their separate ways, with Collingwood forming the Mercy Buckets in Boston and Schlesinger forming Ivy in New York City. The two met up once again during the mid '90s and formed Fountains of Wayne. A demo eventually landed the two a deal with Atlantic Records, and in 1996 they released their self-titled debut. The album spawned the singles "Radiation Vibe" and "Sink To The Bottom", which both received airplay. Coincidentally, at around the same time the title song for the film That Thing You Do!, which Schlesinger wrote, became a hit. "That Thing You Do!" also brought Schlesinger an Oscar nomination and an RIAA gold certification for the hit soundtrack.

Along with guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, the band toured the world extensively behind the album, playing alongside bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins and The Lemonheads. However the album was considered a disappointment commercially, selling only 125,000 copies in the US.

In 1999 the band released their second album, Utopia Parkway, named after a road in Queens, New York. The album was something of a concept record that dealt with life in modern suburbia. Utopia Parkway was received well by critics, garnering many favorable reviews, and was album of the week in People Magazine. Like its predecessor, however, the album sold poorly and failed to spawn a hit single. The group once again toured extensively behind the album, but frustrations grew between the band and the label when they failed to promote a proper third single entitled "Troubled Times" remixed by Tom Lord-Alge. The band was later dropped by Atlantic in late 1999.

Hiatus period

The band disbanded for the time being. Schlesinger found work as a writer and producer and co-wrote many of the songs for the Josie and the Pussycats film and soundtrack. He also produced albums for the Verve Pipe and David Mead, as well as several tracks by They Might Be Giants. He also released a third record with his band Ivy on Nettwerk records.

During the group's hiatus, Collingwood formed and fronted a pop-country band entitled The Gay Potatoes based in the Northampton, Massachusetts area. He also played a string of solo shows in the Boston and Los Angeles areas. Guitarist Jody Porter worked with his band The Astrojet alongside famed producer Gordon Raphael and keyboardist David Zhang in the New York City area. Drummer Brian Young played with Ivy and found session work for various artists.

Reunion

Sometime in 2001 the band slowly came back together, recording a cover of The Kinks' Better Things for the tribute album This Is Where I Belong: Songs of Ray Davies and the Kinks. The group also recorded the theme song for the Comedy Central show Crank Yankers, as well as songs for the VH1 cartoon show Hey Joel with columnist Joel Stein. The band used the money made from these projects to fund the recording of a new album, working in upstate New York, New York City, and Boston.

In 2003 the band signed with indie label S-Curve Records and released another acclaimed album, Welcome Interstate Managers. It spawned the hit single "Stacy's Mom", which was certified gold by the RIAA. The music video for the song featured Rachel Hunter as the object of the fantasies of the song's narrator. The album was a surprise international hit on the strength of the first single. The follow-up single, "Mexican Wine", fared less well, with a controversial video that showed young children singing the lyrics "think I'll have another glass of Mexican wine" and guitarist Jody Porter catching a drink on the bare stomach of a woman laying on a beach. The single was ultimately pulled by the record label. The third single, "Hey Julie," an acoustic song, received some airplay. Their song "All Kinds Of Time", depicting a young football player in a zen-like state of mind during a crucial potential game-winning pass, was used extensively for NFL commercial promotions during the 2005 season.

The present

In late June 2005, Fountains of Wayne released Out of State Plates, a collection of B-sides as well as two new songs. The album was supported by the single "Maureen" and a limited US tour that included some acoustic-only sets, a set on PBS Soundstage, and American Songbook. Also included on the album is a cover of the Britney Spears hit, "...Baby One More Time."

Billboard reported that Fountains of Wayne are working on a new studio album, and hoping to release it sometime in 2006. [1]

Fountains of Wayne is also responsible for the soundtrack to the animated television show Hey Joel. The show has only aired in Canada.

Discography

Albums

• Fountains of Wayne (1996)
• Utopia Parkway (1999)
• Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)
• Out of State Plates (2005)

Singles

From Fountains of Wayne

• 1997 - Radiation Vibe
• 1997 - Sink to the Bottom
• 1997 - Barbara H.
• 1997 - Survival Car
• 1997 - Leave the Biker

Single only

• 1997 - I Want an Alien for Christmas

From Utopia Parkway

• 1999 - Denise
• 1999 - Red Dragon Tattoo
• 1999 - Troubled Times
  (Also released as an EP in Japan.)

From Welcome Interstate Managers

• 2004 - Stacy's Mom
• 2004 - Mexican Wine
• 2004 - Hey Julie

Trivia

Stephen King featured the song "Red Dragon Tattoo" (off Utopia Parkway) in his 2004 ABC miniseries Kingdom Hospital. King is a big fan of the group, and often makes references to Fountains Of Wayne in his periodic pop-culture related articles in Entertainment Weekly. In December 2005, he started a list of his favorite Christmas songs with Fountains Of Wayne's "I Want An Alien For Christmas."

Elton John has said he is a huge fan of the band. It is said he called Collingwood and Schlesinger after listening to "Utopia Parkway" to tell them he thought it was great.

Country singer Robbie Fulks wrote a song entitled "Fountains of Wayne Hotline" in which he imagined the band as having a hotline which songwriters could call for help.

The Fountains of Wayne song 'Hey Julie' featured on a Scrubs episode.

External links

• Official site
• Non-official news site
• Fountains of Wayne Lyrics
• Fountains of Wayne at MusicBrainz