The Fray Unplugged: Watch "You Found Me," "Say When" and More

Denver, Colorado's the Fray recently stopped by the Rolling Stone studios in New York with acoustic instruments in hand to play a few tracks off their chart-topping second album The Fray. Up top, the Mile High quartet perform an intimate take on their recent hit "You Found Me," which topped over 2 million digital downloads. The Fray also treated our cameras played an unplugged version of their self-titled's "Say When," and frontman Isaac Slade wrapped up our session with a moving solo cover of Joan Osborne's "St. Teresa." Check out those two performances below.

Rolling Stone has said the Fray's piano rock "suggests a more earnest, less arty Coldplay," but the band proved they can soldier on without the keys during our unplugged session. These three videos should be enough to hold over fans until next Monday, when the Fray appear on the July 27th episode of The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien to showcase a track off their self-titled album.

Fray guitarist Joe King also made headlines recently when he entered the studio with American Idol Season Eight winner Kris Allen to work on tracks for Allen's debut album. Allen had previously covered the Fray's rendition of Kanye West's "Heartless" during his Idol drive. As Rock Daily wrote in June, Allen approached King about working together, to which King simply responded, "Yes." The collaboration reportedly produced a few demos and at the very least, a great melody, according to King, who wouldn't elaborate on the potential song's title.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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