The band's name was taken from the name of a lawn-ornament store in Wayne, New Jersey, not far from Montclair, New Jersey. That city is the hometown of the band's bassist and cofounder Adam Schlesinger (the store has since gone out of business). According to Songfacts, there were prominent fountains there.
The concept of the band was formed by Schlesinger and Chris Collingwood. The two first met as freshmen at Williams College and began playing music together in various groups. The two eventually went their separate ways with Collingwood forming the Mercy Buckets in Boston and Schlesinger forming Ivy in New York City. The duo initially set out to work together in the early 90s under various band monikers (including ones named "Pinwheel" and "The Wallflowers"), and recorded a full album's worth of demos in 1993. Although never released, the "Pinwheel" demos are widely bootlegged by fans and display a very different (yet still earnest) version of the pair's songwriting, though several songs from this period would be re-tooled and appear on later releases.
After failing to get their project off the ground, the two met up once again during the mid-90s and formed Fountains of Wayne. A demo eventually landed the two a deal with Atlantic Records and in 1996 they released their self titled debut. The album spawned the singles Radiation Vibe and Sink To The Bottom which received airplay, but it was Schlesinger's song entitled That Thing You Do! which became a hit being used as the lead track for the Tom Hanks film of the same name. "That Thing You Do!" also brought Schlesinger an Oscar nomination and an RIAA gold certification for the hit soundtrack.
Along with guitarist Jody Porter and drummer Brian Young, the band toured the world extensively behind the album playing alongside bands such as The Smashing Pumpkins and The Lemonheads.
In 1999, the band returned with their second album, Utopia Parkway, a loosely-based concept album about life in the American suburbs in the late 1990s. Unfortunately, a much-changed radio climate left little room in playlists for Fountains of Wayne's snarky power-pop, and the album, along with its three singles Denise, Red Dragon Tattoo, and Troubled Times, sank without much notice. The following year, the band was mostly quiet, contributing a song each to a soundtrack and a compilation (Too Cool for School to the "Scary Movie" soundtrack and California Sex Lawyer to the third installment of the International Pop Overthrow series). They were dropped by Atlantic soon thereafter.
The band spent much of the early 2000s in seclusion, occasionally rejoining to record or play an occasional gig, but mostly Schlessinger was focusing on work with Ivy and Collingwood founded an alt.country band near his Western Massachusetts home called The Gay Potatoes. In addition, the band wrote and performed the theme song to the popular Comedy Central program "Crank Yankers," and contributed a cover of The Kinks "Better Days" to a tribute album. The song was also later featured prominently in a scene of the 2004 remake of "The Manchurian Candidate." During this time, the band's stature only grew in indie pop circles, raising expectations high for the release of their next album.
Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne's third record and first for Virgin, was released in June of 2003. Preceeded by the single and video for the Cars-ish Stacy's Mom, the song became a surprise top 20 hit on the strength of its video--a send-up of 1980s teen comedies like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"--which starred Rachel Hunter as Stacy's Mom. The video went into heavy rotation on MTV, pushing the album to become Fountains of Wayne's most successful with sales exceeding 400,000 units.
Like most bands who have a major hit driven by a clever video, follow-up singles did not fare as well. Despite a similarly-clever video for Mexican Wine, the single failed to take off after MTV banned the video due to a scene where two underage girls lip-synch the words to the chorus, a reference to drinking tequila. Third single Hey Julie initially made only a minor dent on AAA and Hot AC format stations, but it was later featured in "Scrubs" and other TV shows and grew in stature over time, becoming something of a sleeper hit. During this time, the band also wrote a series of short, almost They Might Be Giants-styled songs for a short-lived VH1 TV series titled "Hey Joel!," which was written by critic Joel Stein. The show was canceled before it aired in the United States and the songs were never released.
The song named "Red Dragon Tattoo" was also featured in the 2004 series "Kingdom Hospital", based on a novel by Stephen King, that aired on BBC.
In 2005, the band issued the 2-disc Out-of-State Plates, a compilation rounding up the band's various import-only B-sides as well as several new songs. Maureen was released as a single yet received little attention.
The band's fourth proper album, titled Traffic and Weather, was released April 3, 2007. One abandoned track from these sessions, a novelty throwaway titled Monster House that was written for the movie of the same name but not used, was leaked in advance of the album's release via the band's MySpace page. "Traffic and Weather" met with typically strong reviews but fewer sales than its predecessor, although the single and video for Someone to Love made a minor impact.
In early 2009, the band embarked on a small tour where they began to debut some new songs from an as-yet-untitled fifth album. Progress was slow, however, and other than some scattered shows the band dropped almost entirely out of view for two years. In late 2010, the band announced that they were now without a label but that they had completed their as-yet-untitled fifth album, which they were hoping to release sometime in 2011 once they found a new label. During this time they gave away one new free song via their website. Song of the Passaic was written for an NPR segment using a poem about New Jersey's famed, industrial Passaic River.
In May 2011, the band has announced that their fifth album, Sky Full of Holes will be released on August 1st, 2011 on Lojinx in Europe, August 2nd, 2011 on YepRoc in North America and on Warner in Japan. Two singles were released in advance of the album itself: Richie and Ruben in May 2011, followed by Someone's Gonna Break Your Heart the following month. Like their previous releases, the album garnered critical praise from a variety of publications. Jill Menze of 'Billboard' called the release "excellent", describing it as "a new minimal sound with a poppy, folk-leaning flair."
After a six-month tour in support of the album, the band quietly went defunct in favor of side projects. Although they never officially broke up, the band has been completely inactive since sometime in 2012.
On April 1st, 2020, co-founder Adam Schlessinger passed away due to complications from COVID-19 at the age of 52.
These Days
Fountains of Wayne Lyrics
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I don't do that much talking these days
These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
For you
And all the times I had the chance to
But it's so hard to risk another these days
These days
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
Well, it's just that I've been losing for so long
So I'll keep on moving
Things are bound to be improving these days
One of these days
These days I sit on cornerstones
And count the time in quartertones to ten
My friend
Don't confront me with my failures
I have not forgotten them
These lyrics speak to a sense of nostalgia and regret for opportunities missed and mistakes made. The singer has been reflecting on their past and feels a sense of loss for what could have been. They have been spending time alone, walking and thinking, without much to say to others. The repetition of "these days" throughout the song implies a sense of time passing, but also suggests that the singer is focused on the present and what they can do to improve their situation moving forward.
The second stanza introduces the theme of relationships, specifically the fear of risking another romantic connection after having experienced loss and disappointment in the past. The singer acknowledges that they have written songs about their life, but may not always live up to the ideals expressed in their lyrics. Despite this, they remain hopeful that things will get better and continue to move forward.
Line by Line Meaning
Well, I've been out walking
I haven't been doing much besides walking around
I don't do that much talking these days
I've been quiet and haven't been saying much recently
These days
Lately or recently, this has been the case
These days I seem to think a lot
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately
About the things that I forgot to do
I'm thinking about all the things I should have done but didn't
For you
For the person I care about or love
And all the times I had the chance to
I'm also thinking about all the opportunities I had to do those things
And I had a lover
I was in a romantic relationship before
But it's so hard to risk another these days
But now it's difficult for me to take that risk again
And if I seem to be afraid
If I appear to be scared or hesitant
To live the life that I have made in song
To live the way I wrote or sang about in my songs (or dreamed of)
Well, it's just that I've been losing for so long
It's because I've been experiencing failures or struggles for a while now
So I'll keep on moving
I'll continue to go forward or progress
Things are bound to be improving these days
I believe that things will eventually get better
One of these days
Someday, in the future
These days I sit on cornerstones
Nowadays, I spend my time sitting on street corners
And count the time in quartertones to ten
And I count seconds in increments of fifteen
My friend
A term of address, referring to a close acquaintance
Don't confront me with my failures
Please don't bring up my past mistakes or shortcomings
I have not forgotten them
I'm still aware of them and remember them clearly
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: COLIN LESLIE CAMPSIE, PHIL THORNALLEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind