Hear About "Traffic and Weather" Now

The date for the highly anticipated release by Fountains Of Wayne is set for April 3, but I have the album in advance. This has spent only about a week on the ol' Pod and I'm going back for repeated listens, this is a good sign, usually it takes me a while to warm up to anything new, but with so much new stuff on the Pod I'm forced into forming quicker opinions. The new Son Volt album, The Search, I talked about last post is outstanding, it gets better and better every listen, ever song has something to offer, I highly recommend you get it!

Traffic and Weather is the first release of new material (2005's Out Of State Plates was a b-side compilation) since 2003's breakout disc, Welcome Interstate Managers. That CD put FOW on the radar of commercial radio and MTV and earned them a couple of Grammy nominations, including "Best new artist", which was kind of bizarre considering this was their third album and Fountains of Wayne have been recording since 1996. This disc has more of the same, a little bit country, a little rock 'n' roll, their sound rings flashes of Beatlesque 60's, riff heavy 70's, New Wave 80's, and a very detailed narrative style that is distinctly their own. This disc is as catchy as hell, infectious even only after a few listens and everyone that I have played this for has started to hum along or bob their head, this is Power-pop at it's best! I just hope there isn't a huge hit like "Stacy's Mom" on this one, I grew to hate this song after it was played at every sporting event, shopping mall and on crappy light-rock radio stations.

If you want to see the "animated" Fountains of Wayne, check out Hey Joel, a short-lived show from 2003, it's now playing on the Teletoon network (in Canada, VH1 in US?), they play themselves and sing little 20 second song narratives between scenes. They provided the theme song and two new songs every episode. Watch it while you can, it's not too bad.

Traffic and Weather (to be released April 3, 2007)
Someone To Love
Yolanda Hayes
Fire In The Canyon
This Better Be Good
I-95
myspace.com/fountainsofwayne (listen to: '92 Suburu)