 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2011) |
| Fountains of Wayne | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1, 1996 | |||
| Recorded | January and April 1996 | |||
| Studio | The Place, New York City, New York | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 36:17 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer | Adam Schlesinger | |||
| Fountains of Wayne chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fountains of Wayne | ||||
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Fountains of Wayne is the debut studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on TAG Recordings, Scratchie Records, and Atlantic Records in 1996.
College friends Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger had formed two failing bands before reconvening in Manhattan, where Collingwood wrote future Fountains of Wayne songs "Joe Rey", "Leave the Biker" and "Radiation Vibe" in half a day, then met with Schlesinger over drinks in order to start another band. According to Collingwood, "Basically, we started all this by writing a bunch of titles on bar napkins and trying to get the other guy to laugh. We'd get drunk and just sit there writing and laughing. We wound up with a list of hundreds of titles. Then we'd decide between the two of us who was going to take which song, and then meet the next night and see what we'd come up with." Eventually it took a week to write the songs that were included on their debut album. [1]
Fountains of Wayne was recorded when the band was just a duo, before drummer Brian Young and guitarist Jody Porter were recruited to the band. (Young and Porter are listed as bandmembers on later reissues of the record, but not on the original release.) Collingwood and Schlesinger provide all the instrumentation on the recording, except for the bass guitar parts, which were performed by guest bassist Danny Weinkauf, ex-The Belltower. [2] Schlesinger and Porter had also been members of The Belltower, and Weinkauf later played with Lincoln before joining They Might Be Giants. [3] Dominique Durand of the band Ivy, of which Schlesinger was also a member, provided backing vocals on "Survival Car". [2]
In 2016, Schlesinger explained the recording process: "On the recording, I was playing drums, Danny was playing bass and Chris was playing guitar. Then Chris and I would take turns doing some overdubs on guitar or a little keys. After we made the record, Danny decided to do other stuff (he’s now been touring and recording with They Might Be Giants for many years), and that’s when we found Jody and Brian and switched the line-up around, and I started playing bass." [4]
The album's recording took a week and cost 5,000 dollars, with more money spent on mixing. [5] According to Collingwood, "It was deliberate that we were going to write the album and record it quickly, before we had time to think about anything. Prior to this, Adam and I had both been careful, serious songwriters, in the vein of Simon & Garfunkel. We were much more careful about the arrangements and everything. But when we decided to make this record quickly and spontaneously, we figured that since doing it so fast was such a stupid idea, the band needed a stupid name as well." [1]
The album's cover photo of a little boy clutching a rabbit and posing like a superhero was shot by Nick Waplington. It was also used for the album cover of Plastic Jewels by the UK band Flamingoes, which came out in the US two weeks before this album. [6] According to Chris Collingwood, "This English photographer licensed the photograph to both bands. Worse than that, he was directly asked by us if he had licensed it to anybody else and he said no. So, basically, the guy's a complete asshole. We're changing the cover in Europe, but we're keeping it the same in the States. It's just too good a picture." [1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [7] |
| Chicago Tribune |  [8] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [9] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B [10] |
| The Guardian | [11] |
| MSN Music (Expert Witness) | A− [12] |
| Pitchfork | 8.9/10 [13] |
| Q | [14] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [15] |
| Wall of Sound | 73/100 [16] |
The album was met with moderate commercial success and favorable reviews. Songs from it were featured on MTV's 120 Minutes program. The album's lead single "Radiation Vibe" was included in the 2021 edition of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [17]
A reissue of the vinyl was released on Yep Roc Records.
All tracks are written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Radiation Vibe" | 3:40 |
| 2. | "Sink to the Bottom" | 3:12 |
| 3. | "Joe Rey" | 2:40 |
| 4. | "She's Got a Problem" | 3:26 |
| 5. | "Survival Car" | 2:02 |
| 6. | "Barbara H." | 3:22 |
| 7. | "Sick Day" | 4:33 |
| 8. | "I've Got a Flair" | 2:52 |
| 9. | "Leave the Biker" | 2:42 |
| 10. | "You Curse at Girls" | 2:05 |
| 11. | "Please Don't Rock Me Tonight" | 2:50 |
| 12. | "Everything's Ruined" | 2:44 |
| 13. | "Karpet King (Japan Bonus Track)" | 4:05 |
Fountains of Wayne was an American rock band that formed in New York City in 1995. The band included founding members Chris Collingwood, Adam Schlesinger, Jody Porter, and Brian Young. They released six albums from 1996 to 2011 before effectively disbanding in 2013. They are best known for the Grammy-nominated song "Stacy's Mom".
"Stacy's Mom" is a song by American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It is the third track on their third studio album, Welcome Interstate Managers, and was released to radio as the album's first single on May 19, 2003, through S-Curve Records and Virgin Records. "Stacy's Mom" was written by bassist Adam Schlesinger and vocalist Chris Collingwood, both of whom produced the song alongside Mike Denneen. Its subject matter was inspired by a friend of Schlesinger's when he was young who was attracted to Schlesinger's grandmother. It is a power pop song with which the group hoped to emulate the sound of American rock band the Cars.
Welcome Interstate Managers is the third studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released by S-Curve Records on June 10, 2003. The album contains the power pop single "Stacy's Mom," which reached number 21 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's highest-charting hit in the United States.
Dial-A-Song: 20 Years Of They Might Be Giants is a 2002 compilation album by American alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, issued by Rhino Records and compiled by the band's co-singer/songwriter and guitarist John Flansburgh. Despite its name, the compilation does not include tracks from the band's "Dial-A-Song" service. It is instead an anthology of various single, album and live tracks from the band's history, spanning their full career up to the time of its release. It includes tracks from every album starting with 1986's They Might Be Giants up through No!, their first children's album, which was released only three months before this compilation.
Utopia Parkway is the second studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released by Atlantic Records in April 1999.
Adam Lyons Schlesinger was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and record producer. He was a founding member of the bands Fountains of Wayne, Ivy, and Tinted Windows, and was a key songwriting contributor and producer for Brooklyn-based synth-pop duo Fever High. He also wrote songs for television and film, for which he won three Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and the ASCAP Pop Music Award, and was nominated for Academy, Tony, and Golden Globe Awards.
Jody Porter is an American musician. He was the lead guitarist of Grammy Award-nominated power pop band Fountains of Wayne. The band released four major label albums, including Welcome Interstate Managers on Virgin Records in 2003, an RIAA-certified Gold LP. The album spawned the hugely popular U.S. Top 40 hit and number 1 music video "Stacy's Mom".
Out-of-State Plates is a double compilation album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on Virgin Records on June 28, 2005.
Chris Collingwood is an American singer, songwriter, and artist. He is best known as the former lead vocalist and founding member of the power pop band Fountains of Wayne.
Traffic and Weather is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on Virgin Records in April 2007.
Danny Weinkauf is a Grammy-winning New York-based musician and composer. He has been the longtime bassist for They Might Be Giants (TMBG). He has recorded and toured with the band since the late 1990s. Weinkauf had previously performed in a band called Lincoln along with TMBG's guitarist Dan Miller and drummer Gonzalo Martinez De La Cotera. He has written four songs for TMBG, all for their children's albums. Weinkauf wrote and sang "Where Do They Make Balloons?" on the children's album No!, "Number Two" from Here Come The 123s, "I Am a Paleontologist" from Here Comes Science, and "Elephants" from Why? He also played bass alongside bandmate John Flansburgh for his solo project Mono Puff, in addition to providing additional bass on John Linnell's State Songs album. In 2014 Weinkauf began releasing albums for children and families as "Danny Weinkauf". That year he released "No School Today" followed by "Red Pants Band" (2016), "Totally Osome!" (2017), "Inside I Shine" (2018), "Dinosaurs and Metaphors" (2020), "Words" (2021), "lullabies" (2022) and "Light Up Your Love" (2023). The later 7 albums were all released on his own label Red Pants Music except "Words". He performs live as 'Danny Weinkauf and his Red Pants Band' with Tina Kenny Jones on bass, keyboards, and vocals, Steven Plesnarski on drums and vocals, and Russ Jones on guitar, bass, vocals, and ukulele. His 8 albums have received numerous awards and frequent rotation on kids radio such as Sirius XM's Kids Place Live.
The Belltower was an American alternative rock band from New York City often associated with the shoegazing scene, with members who later joined Luna and Fountains of Wayne.
Sky Full of Holes is the fifth and final studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released on July 20, 2011, in Japan, on August 1, 2011, in Europe, and on August 2, 2011, in North America. It debuted at number 37 on the US Billboard 200, giving Fountains of Wayne their first Top 40 album on that chart, and debuted at number 16 on the UK independent chart.
"Radiation Vibe" is the debut single by Fountains of Wayne, from their eponymous debut album. It was released in 1996 on Atlantic Records.
"Sink to the Bottom" is the second single by Fountains of Wayne, from their eponymous debut album. It was released in 1997 and charted in the UK at No. 42 on May 10, 1997. It also reached No. 7 in Norway in 1998.
"Survival Car" is the third single by Fountains of Wayne, from their eponymous debut album. It was released in 1997 and charted in the UK at No. 53 on July 26, 1997.
Lately is the first extended play recorded by American band Ivy, released in May 1994 by Seed Records. Developed in the same year as the formation of the group, Lately is a French pop album with acoustic and general pop influences. Originally conceived by members Dominique Durand and Andy Chase, the pair recruited Adam Schlesinger for additional production and lyrics. Sessions took place in New York City and Paris, where they recorded four original tracks and a cover of Orange Juice's 1984 song "I Guess I'm Just a Little Too Sensitive".
Good Times! is the twelfth studio album by American pop rock band the Monkees. Produced primarily by Adam Schlesinger, the album was recorded to commemorate the band's 50th anniversary. It is the first Monkees studio album since Justus (1996), marking the longest gap between releases to date, and the first since the death of Davy Jones. The album features surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork, as well as a posthumous contribution from Jones.
I Like Fun is the twentieth studio album from New York City-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, released on January 19, 2018.
Christmas Party is the 13th and final album by The Monkees, released on October 12, 2018. Produced mainly by Adam Schlesinger, the album is the Monkees' first to focus on Christmas themes. It follows on the success of their 2016 album Good Times! The two-year gap is the shortest between albums since the 1969/1970 releases of The Monkees Present and Changes. The album features surviving Monkees Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith, and Peter Tork, as well as two posthumous contributions from Davy Jones. It is the final Monkees studio album to be released prior to Tork and Nesmith's deaths in 2019 and 2021, respectively.
