I've never exactly understood why Fountains of Wayne aren't way more popular. Personally, I've been a huge fan since 2003, when they enjoyed their brief flirtation with real mainstream fame. Now I'm guessing that some (or many, or maybe even most) of you are currently thinking "Who/what are Fountains of Wayne?" Allow me to inject a personal anecdote which may clear things up: in mid-fall of 2003, I happened to fall asleep with the radio on one Saturday night when I went to bed, and when I woke up, the American Top 40 was on. As I lay in bed, still half-asleep, I could have sworn I heard a guy singing about being in love with somebody's mom. I sat up, listened more closely, and realized that I had heard correctly. The song's catchy guitar riff, which repeats throughout the song, is what had initially caught my sleep-hazed attention, but its novel premise is what really drew me in. I thought, "I have to find out what the name of this song is, who plays it, and I need to hear more by that band." As it turns out, it was none other than 'Stacy's Mom' by Fountains of Wayne. This is the part where people normally go "Ooooh yeah, I know that song. I never knew the name of the band that did it though." If you still don't know what I'm talking about, you must live under a very large rock and don't need to read any further. Sadly, Stacy's Mom ultimately granted Fountains of Wayne "one hit wonder" status and nothing more.
I'm sure most of you out there have already seen the video for Stacy's Mom, so I'll showcase another, lesser-known piece of FoW's work, the music video for the lead single 'Someone to Love' off their fourth studio album, Traffic and Weather. I can't embed the video, since its distributors apparently want to be particularly stingy, but I will supply you with the link here (see if you can't spot Demetri Martin):
'Someone to Love' Music Video
The big question I have is how can a band like Weezer become so popular, but FoW gets left out in the cold? Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Weezer, I'm just a bigger fan of FoW, and it seems like I'm one of the only ones in the world. The two bands share similar "power pop" styles (though I don't want to pigeon-hole FoW into the genre of pop rock, because they are actually capable of covering a wide variety of musical styles, showcased most prominently between 1999's Utopia Parkway and 2003's Welcome Interstate Managers), so the only thing I can think of is the difference in lyrical content. Weezer's body of work primarily pertains to social and relationship issues, whereas Fountains of Wayne have a large collection of vignettes about average, every day, middle class American life. This, of course, includes dealing with the ups and downs of romantic relationships, but among the myriad of other subjects are songs about being stuck in traffic, going to work at a dead-end job, high schoolers throwing a house-trashing party while their parents are away, alcoholic salesmen, football quarterbacks, irritating technological gadgets, and wishing to be home with loved ones after being away for too long. Some of this may sound mundane, but therein lies the brilliance: when you can write a song about a mundane experience, and make it a really good song to listen to, then you've got some talent. There doesn't always need to be layers of deep, complex, hidden meanings within a song's lyrics; sometimes it's good to have a fun piece of music that your average human being can relate to just because they're familiar with the subject matter. Take The Beatles, for example. They wrote a brilliant song about wanting to hold a girl's hand. That's all there was to it, and it's a great, classic song. Fountains of Wayne's catalog is full of pieces of good, solid, relatable music like that, but since most people never bother to check out their work beyond 'Stacy's Mom,' the public is generally unaware, and I think that's a shame.
If you enjoyed 'Someone to Love,' or if you're intrigued by anything I've said so far and want to hear more, then as an added bonus, I've already done some of your work for you. The band has a MySpace page for each of their most recent albums where you can listen to any song from that album in its entirety. I've linked the page for each album below, starting with my favorite album first, and listed the two best tracks from each one so you have an idea of where to start. For each album I've listed one upbeat song followed by a slow song, and I didn't include 'Stacy's Mom' or 'Someone to Love' on these lists since by this point you've likely already heard both of those.
Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)
Mexican Wine
Fire Island
Out-of-State Plates (2005)
The Girl I Can't Forget
...Baby One More Time
Traffic and Weather (2007)
Hotel Majestic
I-95
If any of this strikes your fancy, check out 'Valley Winter Song' and 'Hackensack' from Welcome Interstate Managers, 'New Routine' and 'Fire in the Canyon' from Traffic and Weather... heck, check them all out, you won't be disappointed.
-Billy
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