He also fronted the band The Belltower in the 1990s, as well as releasing five albums as a solo artist: Close to the Sun (2008), Month of Mondays (2013), Pacifier (2017), Waterways (2022) and Sunflowers, Vol. 1 (2024).
Career
Early career
As a teenager, Porter fronted the band Foreign Aid, playing in nightclubs in Charleston. He also played in several local bands including a short-lived cover band called The Sound Committee, and The Waltons, performing original music. He later joined The Fields in 1989.[3]
The Belltower
Known for his impressive virtuoso abilities and British guitar pop playing style, Porter first garnered attention fronting and writing the songs for London-based band The Belltower in the early 1990s, along with Britta Phillips.[3] Although the band created a buzz for itself in the UK, including Melody Maker and NME singles of the week,[4] their singles didn't chart and their major label debut Popdropper sold marginally. The band came back to the US and eventually broke up in 1996.[4]
Porter was then asked by his friend Adam Schlesinger, who had already been brought into The Belltower briefly,[4] to join his newly formed band Fountains of Wayne shortly after recording their self-titledAtlantic debut.[5] Porter continued with Fountains of Wayne through their 1999 release, Utopia Parkway. However, after the band was dropped from Atlantic Records in 2001, Fountains of Wayne went on hiatus.[5] In 2003, the band reformed and entered the studio to do a spate of demos which would eventually become Welcome Interstate Managers on S-Curve.[6] The band received two Grammy nominations in 2004 and released Out of State Plates, a collection of B-sides and rarities the following year.[7][8] They reassembled in 2007 for their next studio album Traffic and Weather which was said to have been recorded largely by Schlesinger and Porter.[9] By 2013, the band had broken up without any official statement, though members of the group were speaking of Fountains of Wayne in the past tense.[10] The band performed together for the first time since 2013 on April 22, 2020, as part of a charity livestream event to raise funding for the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. The performance was a tribute to Schlesinger, who died of complications from COVID-19.[11]
Porter is not involved in the most recent revival of Fountains of Wayne, which mounted a reunion tour in summer 2025.
The AstroJet
Jody Porter also once fronted the short-lived New York-based alternative band The Astrojet.[2] In 2002, The Astrojet recorded a six track EP of Porter-penned songs entitled, The Mile Low Club. In early 2004, he disbanded the group to reassemble Fountains of Wayne and continue as a solo artist.[2]
Porter has been credited on albums playing bass, keyboards and drums in addition to vocals and guitar.
Solo
In 2008, Porter finished work on his debut solo album, Close to the Sun, produced by himself and co-produced by Michael Tudor and Gordon Raphael (Strokes, Regina Spektor).[12] The 12-song album bridges the gap between the sonic atmospheric stylings of the Belltower and the guitar-driven power pop of Fountains of Wayne.[13] The album was first released in Japan by FAEC/Rough Trade on July 2, 2008,[14] and was later picked up by Engine Room Recordings and slated for worldwide release on May 11, 2010.[15]
Porter's second solo album, Month of Mondays, was successfully funded via Kickstarter on July 24, 2013.[16]
In April 2020, Porter released "Moonbeam Reach" and announced his fourth album Waterways. He spent two years recording the album in his home near Asheville, North Carolina.[1] Another single from the album was released in July, titled "Sunsick Moon".[17] In 2022, Porter released his third studio album Waterways.
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