I don’t think these guys have done a thread about them, so here we are.

Fountains of Wayne have been a part of my life since the late 2000s; I was first introduced to them by a “Scrubs” episode but dug further into their discography a few years later, and I feel about them the same way a lot of older New Jerseyans feel about Bruce: they are the sound of the state, hailing originally from the town of Wayne in northern NJ. Members included Adam Schlesinger, Chris Collingwood, Jody Porter and Brian Young. Their first album, which was self-titled, was released in 1996, and they released four more, including my personal favorite, “Welcome Interstate Managers” which featured their most popular song, “Stacy’s Mom”, before disbanding due to personal tensions in the early 2010s.

I never got to see them play live and it’s a big regret of mine. Sadly, the band drifted apart after their disbanding, and even Chris and Adam were barely on each other’s personal radar years later. What makes it worse is that in April of 2020, Adam died of COVID-19 – he was legendarily talented, also working on shows like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” to contribute to the show’s impressive and genre-spanning musical oeuvre, and it just really hit me hard. He deserved to live to see old age.

Which makes me believe in a maxim I have held close to my heart for a long time – don’t forget about the people who played a big role in your life or consign them to the past, because you really never know.

While “Stacy’s Mom” is a classic, it’s far from their only brilliant track: everything from “Hackensack” to “It Must Be Summer” resonates. And they even have some non-album classics, like “Maureen” and “The Girl I Can’t Forget”.

Overall, they’re one of my favorite bands. You know who agreed? Dad of “Dad’s Casa”, because in 2004, they all showed up to play themselves in the episode “Dad’s Favorite Band”, which was frankly an amazing episode and in my personal top 5. (“American Dad” writers called it particularly inspiring and said that it helped influence their episode where Stan meets My Morning Jacket.)