Fountains of Wayne and Imperial Teen formed on opposite coasts in 1995, when pop-smart bands raised on punk and indie rock could still shoot for the radio and record sales. In the last twelve years, they’ve each made four albums – five if you count Fountains of Wayne’s odds-and-sods collection with their cover of Britney’s ” . . . Baby One More Time” and Imperial Teen’s live disc. Imperial Teen’s great subject is bohemia, befitting a band with roots in San Francisco. New Yorkers Fountains of Wayne are suburban at the core. One band writes about men with lipstick and girls who try to get what they want. The other writes about people with jobs and tends to be unsettled and entranced by girls who try to get what they want.
Thirty years ago, bands like these would make one or two albums and dissipate in five years. Today, they can push into a second decade, surviving on soundtrack and TV money when it comes, working day jobs when it doesn’t. Which is why each has only gotten better over time, grappling with the challenges of getting older and pursuing pop dreams that have transformed into art projects. “Used to stop at the red light,” Imperial Teen remember in “Room With a View,” a song from their new The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band that celebrates the place they come together to dream, their rehearsal space, “and now we go to the gym.” As for Fountains of Wayne, their one hit – “Stacy’s Mom,” from 2003 – turns teen spirit upside down: a song by two guys pushing forty, imagining a teenager turned on by a mom pushing forty.
The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band is an uncommonly smart, tuneful album where even the propulsive rave-ups feel hushed. When Imperial Teen sing about being in a band, it’s about the challenges of touring with a pregnant drummer or balancing their day jobs and side projects with the subject at hand.
When Fountains of Wayne sing about being in a band, they’re stuck playing in a hotel or trapped in “air-conditioned, cable-ready, cold padded cells,” like salesmen on the road. Traffic and Weather is marked by an almost literary specificity, like the G n’ R posters and Barney DVDs in a truck stop during a nine-hour drive on I-95 to see a girl. This is a band in love with Seventies AM radio – from ELO’s boogie to Neil Diamond’s sugary soul – and real people. Their album plays like an episode of NPR’s This American Life.
Pray for some music supervisor at the CW to notice the lubricious strut of Imperial Teen’s “Sweet Potato.” Hope that some hungry Nashville pro thinks to cash in on Fountains of Wayne’s “I-95.” That way, four years from now, we can get two more albums this good.
Joe Levy answers your questions here.
Share
Email
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS
