#fountainsofwayne

Stacy’s Mom... but make it gay AND vintage!

The clearest clear-vinyl record I own: the glass-like “They Call It Roc,” recorded by all Yep Roc Records’ acts at the label’s 15th anniversary bash five years ago. Released for Record Store Day in 2014 (limited pressing of 500), it came with a handmade silkscreen print and a DVD of the recording session. Featured on the record are the likes of Sloan, Nick Lowe, Young Fresh Fellows, Fountains of Wayne, Robyn Hitchcock, Liam Finn, John Wesley Harding and plenty of others. It was next to impossible to get, but it’s awesome.

Fountains of Wayne’s 2005 album, “Out-of-State Plates,” was a sprawling collection of B-sides, live tracks and ephemera, and now it’s their final album to get a vinyl reissue. Reputed to be Adam Schlesinger’s favorite FoW album, it’s fairly “diehards-only” material, especially when you consider that this was a band that specialized in novelty songs and these were tracks that didn’t make the cut to appear on an album. Out of the live material, I’ve always felt that one glaring omission here was their truly heartening cover of the Kinks’ “Better Things” that they played on Conan O’Brien when that show came back on-air for the first time after 9/11. Still, there’s some gems buried here, including their brilliant Christmas single, the pop-tastic, hilarious “I Want An Alien For Christmas” and it’s own B-side, “The Man in the Santa Suit,” which is emblematic of everything FoW could be at its best, with its tuneful portrait of a shopping mall Santa that is funny, sad, respectful and littered with telling details that soeak volumes about this character; it’s a masterclass in economic songwriting. Due out on Friday, the double-LP arrived on my doorstep a few days early. They say it is “Junkyard” colored but let’s be honest—that looks like vomit.

Fountains of Wayne’s fourth album, Traffic & Weather, got released on vinyl for the first time a few weeks ago on Black Friday. Probably best-remembered as ‘the one after the one with ‘Stacy’s Mom’ on it,’ the album finds their power-pop as tuneful and hooky as ever, adding in some new flavoring in the form of big group harmonies at points, but it also sees them discovering the limits of their songwriting. FOW honed such a unique style with their tragicomic songs, all populated by an endless parade of deluded suckers failing at love, life or both. The thing is, on earlier albums, the songs really felt for those characters—you could recognize something of yourself in those hapless dopes and chuckle knowingly as their delusions. This album starts to feel like it’s laughing at them instead of with them, however, and the results occasionally teeter on the edge of sneering. Unsurprisingly, this was the album that began to sow discord within the band about their direction—there isn’t a bad song on it, but it doesn’t tread any new ground either. There’s still a lot of bright spots, with the anti-meet cute “Someone To Love,” the on-the-run-from-the-mob snapshot “Strapped For Cash,” and the long-distance relationship paean “I-95” among them. There’s plenty of songs that will get stuck in your head for the rest of the day; the only drawback is that they don’t quite reach the heights of their previous two albums—which, to be fair, would be nearly impossible.

#fountainsofwayne #iggypop #jormakaukonen #theloniousmonk AVAILABLE RECORD STORE DAY BLACK FRIDAY 11/25 @ 9AM. Time slot reservations are available at the link in bio or go to www.sirenrecords.com. GENERAL ADMISSION BEGINS AT 11:30AM and goes ALL DAY until 10pm. If you don’t have a reservation, FEEL FREE TO HANG AROUND STARTING @ 9AM IN CASE OF ANY CANCELLATIONS #rsdbf #rsdblackfriday #recordstoreday #blackfriday #recordstore #recordshop #vinyl #records #vinylrecords #vinylrecord #supportrecordstores #loverecordstores (at Siren Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClSMGDQD_CW/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

RESTOCKED: #fountainsofwayne #welcomeinterstatemanagers AND #utopiaparkway (at Siren Records) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZfAdsPJ__7/?utm_medium=tumblr

Next spin #fountainsofwayne #ialsolikecds (bij Blaasveld, Antwerpen, Belgium) https://www.instagram.com/p/CScZNQfNUvW/?utm_medium=tumblr

Spinning today: @blitzentrapper “All Across This Land” (from @vintagevinylnj) and Fountains of Wayne “Welcome Interstate Managers” red vinyl (from @realgonemusic). #vinyl #blitzentrapper #fountainsofwayne https://www.instagram.com/p/CRXiestJgD3/?utm_medium=tumblr