Fountains of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne is a Grammy-nominated American power pop band. The group was formed by songwriters Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. They met as freshmen at Williams College and began playing music together. After college, Collingwood formed the Mercy Buckets in Boston and Schlesinger formed Ivy in New York City, but they connected again in 1996 and formed Fountains of Wayne.

Chris and Adam performing in New Jersey (2007)

The band name was taken from a garden and lawn ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey by that name. Adam Schlesinger grew up in nearby Montclair. The store can be seen in The Sopranos episode "Another Toothpick" but it closed in 2009.

The entrance to the kitschy Fountains of Wayne store in NJ (2007)

Their biggest hit single was "Stacy's Mom." The single was powered by a popular music video, directed by Chris Applebaum, about an adolescent boy's attempts to get closer to the mom of his girlfriend Stacy. The mom was played by model Rachel Hunter. The clever video includes allusions to the 1962 film Lolita and 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

Adam Schlesinger says "Stacy's Mom" was a tribute to a band they liked, The Cars. The Cars' song "My Best Friend's Girl" has a similar instrumental intro. Cars frontman Ric Ocasek thought that the intro was a sample from his song "Just What I Needed" but the band says they performed it in the studio. Ocasek was asked to be in the video for the song but declined. (Wikipedia)

The band stopped recording but toured for a while after the album Sky Full of Holes.

Collingwood recorded an album as the singer/guitarist in Look Park. 

Schlesinger went on to record with Tinted Windows. This "supergroup" was formed by guitarist James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins, singer Taylor Hanson of Hanson, Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick and Schlesinger. Adam also wrote many songs for other artists and for TV, Broadway and movies. Adam Schlesinger died of complications due to the COVID-19 virus in April 2020.

The band released 5 studio albums and one collection of alternate takes, covers, and rarities, Out of State Plates.

OFFICIAL BAND SITE http://www.FountainsOfWayne.com

ALBUMS

Sky Full of Holes
Welcome Interstate Managers
Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne
Utopia Parkway
Out of State Plates

MP3 Downloads for Fountains of Wayne
Fountains of Wayne: No Better Place - Live in Chicago (DVD)   

The Turtles, Flo and Eddie and The Crossfires

 

Once upon a time, there was a high school band called "The Nightriders" with Mark Volman, Don Murray and Dale Walton. Like most high school, garage bands, they went through changes in members. In 1963, they changed the band name to The Crossfires and began performing guitar-driven surf instrumentals.  The band now included other Los Angeles high school students - Howard Kaplan (changed in 1965 to Kaylan), Al Nichol, and Chuck Portz. The Crossfires as a surf-rock group was active from 1963 to 1965.

When the rock and folk-rock sound became the most popular genres, they rebranded themselves as a folk-rock group under the name The Tyrtles. The stylized misspelling follows that of The Byrds and The Beatles but soon opted to correct the spelling.

Kaylan and Volman dropped the saxophones and became the band's vocalists with Kaylan as lead singer, and one of the keyboardists. Meanwhile, Volman began to harmonize with Kaylan's lead and became the third guitarist and percussionist in what was now a sextet.

They were now The Turtles on White Whale records. Their breakthrough hit was a cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" which reached the Billboard Top Ten in the late summer of 1965.

Their biggest hit is "Happy Together" which knocked the Beatles' "Penny Lane" out of number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1967. It was The Turtles' only #1 single and it remained there for three weeks.

In 1968, they released a concept album called The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. They recorded 11 songs in 11 different styles and pretended to be 11 different bands with names like "Nature's Children" and "The Fabulous Dawgs." They got two hits from the album:  "Elenore" and "You Showed Me" which h both made it into the top 10.

Their 1969 single "You Showed Me" (written by Gene Clark and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds) was their last top 10 single.

The Turtles released a second compilation album, More Golden Hits, and a B-sides and rarities album, Wooden Head in 1970 and disbanded.

Kaylan and Volman made an unlikely move and joined the Mothers of Invention. They used the name The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie. Their contract with White Whale Records prohibited them from using the name The Turtles or even their own names in billings! Eventually, the name was shortened to Flo & Eddie. They recorded with the Mothers, appeared in Zappa's film 200 Motels in 1971, and later released records on their own.

Starting in 2010, the Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie toured throughout the United States as part of the "Happy Together" tour that has continued and has included other acts from the 60s and 70s such as Gary Puckett, Mitch Ryder, Mark Lindsay, Mark Farner, Gary Lewis, Micky Dolenz, the Buckinghams, the Cowsills, the Grass Roots, and the Association.

Two box sets, The Complete Original Album Collection and All the Singles. 

 

Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand is a Glasgow-based indie rock band formed in 2002. The band is composed of Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar), Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals), and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals).

The band's name origin is probably better known more Europeans than Americans. Franz Ferdinand (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was an Archduke of Austria-Este, Austro-Hungarian and Royal Prince of Hungary and of Bohemia, and from 1889 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in Sarajevo precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. This caused the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and the Allies (countries allied with Serbia or Serbia's allies) to declare war on each other, starting World War I.

Kapranos has said in an interview that they viewed his assassination as a turning point - "perhaps the real start of the 20th century."

The band first experienced chart success when their second single, "Take Me Out"from their debut album, Franz Ferdinand. They won the 2004 Mercury Music Prize, and two BRIT Awards in 2005 for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act. NME named Franz Ferdinand as their Album of the Year. From the album, three top-ten singles were released: "Take Me Out", "The Dark of the Matinée", and "This Fire".

With their three studio albums, the band sold over three million albums worldwide in 2009. Their latest studio album Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
is out later this month.

MP3 Downloads

Foo Fighters

   

Foo Fighters is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. They formed in 1995 when drummer Dave Grohl started a group as a one-man project after the dissolution of his previous band, Nirvana, in 1994.

Grohl completed an album's worth of material in five days and handed out cassette copies of the sessions to his friends for feedback. He wanted to keep the tracks quiet and planned on releasing the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters."

The term is taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", which was used to refer to unidentified flying objects.

The demo tape got wider circulation than planned and created interest among record labels, so Grohl formed a band to support the album.

   

Greatest Hits (Deluxe CD+DVD)
Colour & The Shape
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Foo Fighters
There Is Nothing Left to Lose
In Your Honor