Fountains of Wayne do witty, whizy pop songs with nods to 60s classics like Brian Wilson, the Zombies, and the Hollies, and 80s tunesmiths ilke Aztec camera, pertub sproat and Everything But the Girl, served up with a grainy 90s guitar edge and a good dose of humor. With its cast of dysfunctional characters and over vulnerable narrators, their eponymous debut album might well be subtitled, Dongs of Low Self-Esteem.

"The funny thing is, we didn't plan it that way," says singer Chris Collingwood. "but after it was done, people started saying it has that 'cheer up, loser' kind of feel."

Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger met at school and played in a few pop bands around Boston before going their seperate ways for awhile. Schlesinger (guitar, bass, keyboard, drums, vocals) formed the trie Ivy and cofounded Scratchie Records with James Iha and D'arcy of Smashing Pumpkins. A song of his that he entered in a contest wound up becoming hte big number on Tom Hank's film, That Thing You Do! Collingwood (vocals, guitar, keyboards) fronted the mercy buckets and participated in tributes to Brian Wilson and Burt Bacharach as a part of New York's "Lounge Losers" series.

In the big apple Schlesinger and Collingwood met up again and decided to revive their old partnership. They say Fountains of Wayne-the name comes from a kitschy New Jersey shop- was written and recorded quickly, which perhaps accounts for its breezy feel and effortless sense of melody.

Schlesinger feels the disc has a heavier guitar vibe than anything he and Collingwood have done in the past. "We just decided we needed to rock a little more not that we rock that much anyway. Because of everything that's happened in the past five years, what would have sounded super heavy in 1989 doesn't really sound too heavy anymore. by those standards I'd say our record is really pretty pop."