Welcome Interstate Managers | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 10, 2003 | |||
Recorded | 2001–2002 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 55:08 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
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Fountains of Wayne chronology | ||||
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Singles from Welcome Interstate Managers | ||||
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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.
Fountains of Wayne was at a low point following the under-performance of 1999's Utopia Parkway , which led to them getting dropped by their then-label, Atlantic Records. The period when they were without a label was particularly hard on lead singer and co-songwriter Chris Collingwood. According to bassist and co-songwriter Adam Schlesinger in 2005, "I think Chris felt especially bummed during that whole period. He just sort of felt that we worked for a really long time and it didn't really add up to anything. And it didn't seem like the future had much in the way of promise. Chris wasn't writing a lot. I don't know if it was the whole thing of being in between labels but more just the whole thing of putting all that time into it and feeling it tapering off." [1]
Eventually Schlesinger convinced Collingwood to start writing and recording "because it was the only way that I could get Chris to want to be a part of it. I was just like, 'Hey look, let's just go in and do like we have always done when we were 18. If we have a song we like, we'll just record it and eventually we'll see if we have an album'." [1] By mid-2001, Fountains of Wayne had discussed plans for a new album. [2]
Meanwhile, the band got in touch with several prospective labels, but balked at their insistence that the band record demos for consideration to be signed. According to Schlesinger, "We talked to a bunch of record companies before we had anything recorded. And everybody was like, 'Well we really like your band but we need to hear what you're working on. Do you have any demos or anything?' And we didn't want to make demos. We just found that kind of demeaning. But we were sort of at the point where we could have gone and made demos. And it was like, you know, for God's sake we've been doing this so long, we're not going to make a demo tape. We're just gonna go make a record and that's what we did." [3]
Fountains of Wayne commenced recording their new album without any label support. According to drummer Brian Young, "Adam put up the money to do the recording, we converged in a studio in upstate New York, and we didn’t know what to expect. We all showed up with basically nothing. I had a stick bag, and the engineer mentioned to me, 'You know, it would’ve been a lot cooler if you showed up with nothing at all.' We were kind of going through the studio basement, looking for gear and taping stands together. It was funny." [4]
Once the album was finished, Fountains of Wayne signed to S-Curve Records, whose executive vice president, Steve Yegelwel, had first signed the band when he was working as an A&R at Atlantic Records. [5] Prior to the album's release, the band went on tour in November 2002 to road test the new material and build up fan anticipation for the new record. [1]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 86/100 [6] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [7] |
Blender | [8] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [9] |
Mojo | [10] |
Pitchfork | 7.5/10 [11] |
Q | [12] |
Rolling Stone | [13] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [14] |
Spin | A [15] |
The Village Voice | A− [16] |
The album was met with commercial success and favorable reviews, citing the album's catchy song structures and well-crafted lyrics reflecting struggles of the middle class lifestyle in the American East Coast. The album is widely regarded as the band's best effort and a prime example of early 2000s power pop. [17] Review aggregating website Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". [6]
The lead single "Stacy's Mom" was released on May 20, 2003 to popular and critical success. [18]
"Valley Winter Song" was used in a 2008 L.L. Bean Commercial. [19] [20]
The album was first pressed to vinyl for Record Store Day Black Friday in a limited run in 2020. [21]
In 2009, Katy Perry performed a cover of "Hackensack" on MTV Unplugged , which was later released digitally. [22]
In 2011, the band The Wonder Years performed a cover of "Hey Julie" for the charity compilation album, Vs. the Earthquake. [23]
All tracks are written by Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger
No. | Title | Length |
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1. | "Mexican Wine" | 3:23 |
2. | "Bright Future in Sales" | 3:06 |
3. | "Stacy's Mom" | 3:18 |
4. | "Hackensack" | 3:00 |
5. | "No Better Place" | 4:06 |
6. | "Valley Winter Song" | 3:35 |
7. | "All Kinds of Time" | 4:22 |
8. | "Little Red Light" | 3:35 |
9. | "Hey Julie" | 2:36 |
10. | "Halley's Waitress" | 3:35 |
11. | "Hung Up on You" | 4:00 |
12. | "Fire Island" | 2:56 |
13. | "Peace and Love" | 3:26 |
14. | "Bought for a Song" | 4:02 |
15. | "Supercollider" | 5:06 |
16. | "Yours and Mine" | 1:04 |
17. | "Elevator Up" (Japan/iTunes/Spotify bonus track, also included on all vinyl pressings) | 4:02 |
Fountains of Wayne
Additional musicians
Technical personnel
Chart (2003) | Peak position |
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US Billboard 200 [24] | 115 |
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard) [25] | 1 |
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".
James Yoshinobu Iha is an American rock musician. He is best known as the secondary guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the band's initial breakup in 2000 and rejoined in 2018.
"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.
Utopia Parkway is the second studio album by the American rock band Fountains of Wayne. It was released by Atlantic Records in April 1999.
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.
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. He died unexpectedly due to complications of COVID-19 at the age of 52.
Brian Young is an American drummer and music producer. He is best known as the drummer of the New York–based, Grammy-nominated power pop band Fountains of Wayne and Seattle-based alternative rock band The Posies. From 2012 to 2021 Young was the drummer for the Scottish alternative rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain.
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".
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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.
Andy Chase is an American musician, record producer, and label owner. He formed the band Ivy with Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Dominique Durand, now his wife. Chase owns Unfiltered Records and co-owned Stratosphere Sound studio with Schlesinger and James Iha of the Smashing Pumpkins.
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The discography of Fountains of Wayne contains five studio albums, one compilation album, 16 singles, one DVD, six music videos and seven other appearances.
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"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.
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Fever High is a Brooklyn-based duo composed of singer/instrumentalists Anna Nordeen and Reni Lane. The original formation of Fever High was composed of Nordeen and model/actress Leah Cary. Their five-track debut EP, All Work, was re-released in 2016 by Sire Records after being released independently in 2015. The band also included producer Adam Schlesinger. The group independently released their debut full-length FHNY on November 10, 2017. Pop culture blog The Nerdist called their debut single, "Tantalized", "ideal dance music for the summer." In 2020, former member Adam Schlesinger died of complications related to COVID-19.