Sunday, October 2, 2011

I Tried to Make it Sunday

We're Still in Wisconsin as far as I know...

25 years after their heyday was over (and 30 years after their third member left for a career making explicitly Christian music), America found an unlikely ally in Adam Schlessinger from Fountains of Wayne.

Schlessinger recorded some demos with Gerry Beckley and Sony signed America. Schlessinger and James Iha (from Smashing Pumpkins) produced America's underrated (and underheard) 2007 album Here and Now. To assure the interest of old-time America fans, the album came with a bonus live record consisting of live versions of every song from 1975's History: America's Greatest Hits.

So it seems oddly appropriate to hear America covering "A Road Song" (from the new Fountains of Wayne album) -- with a side-dish of "Sister Goldenhair":

5 comments:

blackleatherbookshelf said...

The NEW and also underheard America album, "Back Pages," contains their studio version of the album (among covers of Dylan, Gin Blossoms and Beach Boys.

My review here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004XIQEJQ/ref=as_li_tf_il?ie=UTF8&tag=timbro-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004XIQEJQ

Alex said...

Dang... didn't even know this record existed.

Sounds like it's worth a listen -- even if it's not something you're likely to return to over and over.

Alex said...

Nice to see someone covering Marshall Crenshaw, too... even if the result just makes me want to hear the original again!

Holly A Hughes said...

Unfortunately that is my reaction to nearly every song on this -- the originals are so much better. (Time of the Season without Colin Blunstone's haunting choirboy vocal?) Let's give them an E for effort and move on.

I do love that new Fountains of Wayne album, though....

Alex said...

Yeah, the new Fountains of Wayne is a complete joy. I'm tempted to do an entire post on just the last 30 seconds of "Radio Bar" because those 30 seconds encompass nearly everything I love about rock music.