Tom Lynch

Fountains of Wayne have had a luminous last two years.

The New York-based band released "Welcome Interstate Managers," a sixteen-song epic of pop-rock ingenuity, in summer 2003, to solid acclaim, with the record's first single, the satiric and fervently catchy "Stacy's Mom"--about a boyhood crush on a girlfriend's mother-- giving the band the most widespread radio-play in its history, helped by a super-popular, late-night music video starring model Rachel Hunter. Plus "All Kinds of Time," an acoustic ballad in the middle of "Managers," became a theme song for NFL quarterbacks and was featured in a commercial for the league. Now, two years later, "Stacy's Mom" soundtracks a Dr. Pepper commercial.

"Honestly, I think we enjoyed the attention more than most bands would," says Adam Schlesinger, bassist and co-founder of the band, which released its debut record in 1996. "I think that if this happened right out the box, we would have a distorted sense of our own place in the world. I think because it came so late, it's just a new, temporal thing. We don't expect to follow up ["Stacy's Mom"] with a dozen more of those."

After the blitz of having a hit single, most bands disown them, even if only briefly. "I think Chris [Collingwood, vocalist and guitarist] is probably sick of singing it more then I am playing it," laughs Schlesinger. "But I'm not one of those people who won't play a song that people want to hear."

This year saw the release of "Out-of-State Plates," a double-disc collection of rare b-sides, unreleased songs and covers--including Fountains of Wayne's infamous retooling of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time"--collected over the last ten years. The material is as reasonably mesmerizing in quality as it is in quantity, a must-have for any fan.

"It's really something you put out for your fans, nobody really thinks you'll compete with Mariah Carey," says Academy Award-nominee Schlesinger, who wrote the title song for Tom Hanks' "That Thing You Do," as well as the opening-credit experimental confusion that introduces Howard Stern's E! channel program. "What's great about putting out a b-sides record is that with some of those songs, it was a mistake not putting them on the record in the first place."

Fountains of Wayne has played Chicago many times this year, including at stop at Old St. Patrick's Block Party back in July. "It's weird because it was supposed to be sort of an off year for the band, but all these things came up that we wanted to do," Schlesinger says. The band plays Navy Pier to welcome in 2006--"It's just that XRT asked us to do it, and we'll do anything for them. We love them."--and afterwards finishes recording its new record, which Schlesinger hopes will be out by the end of next year.

Is there something special about Chicago that keeps the band coming back? "I like it because of the freezing cold," Schlesinger jokes. "I lived in Chicago for about three months while I was working with The Verve Pipe on a record, and it was totally the dead of winter. It was bad. But...I love Chicago."

Fountains of Wayne plays New Year's Eve at Navy Pier Grand Ballroom, 600 E. Grand, (312)595-7437, at 7:30pm.

(2005-12-20)

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