Fountains Of Wayne

Fountains of Wayne Making a Splash

By Letta Tayler. STAFF WRITER

When Adam Schlesinger entered a contest to write a theme song for a Tom Hanks movie slightly more than a year ago, the little-known noodler had no idea how dramatically his life would change.

For starters, Schlesinger's song beat out hundreds of other contestants to become the title track of Hanks' film, "That Thing You Do!" which chronicles a pop band as it scores a No. 1 hit in 1964. What's more, Schlesinger's new band, Fountains of Wayne, is becoming almost as successful as Hanks' fictitious group, the Wonders, was on celluloid.

Critics are gushing about Fountains of Wayne's self-titled album, which was released last fall. "Brilliant!" and "perfect pop!" exclaimed Pulse magazine.

And The Smashing Pumpkins, megastars of the moment, hand-picked Fountains of Wayne as their opening act for their January tour, which brings them to Nassau Coliseum tonight.

It's enough to turn any head. But Schlesinger, who founded Fountains of Wayne with Chris Collingwood, remains astonishingly modest - mindful, perhaps, that his group could lose fame as quickly as the Wonders do in Hanks' film. Take his comment about touring with the Pumpkins:

"To be honest, I think there were other bands they wanted more but couldn't get," he said in a phone interview. "So they probably, said, `Oh, well, let's get Fountains of Wayne.' "

Actually, Fountains of Wayne's tie to the Pumpkins is more than casual. Schlesinger is an owner of Scratchie, a Chicago-based record label on which Fountains of Wayne was released, and so are Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist D'Arcy.

So perhaps Iha was being more than altruistic when he told Ray Gun magazine that Fountains of Wayne are "great exponents of the perfect pop song." Iha's comments also contain some truth, however. Schlesinger and Collingwood have a gift for catchy hooks and offbeat lyrics that combine early pop's accessibility with postmodern cynicism.

They dish up plenty of pleasantly nerdy yearning, too. In the punchy "Leave the Biker," a geek laments that his dream girl runs off with a brawny, tattooed dude with crumbs in his beard. "Sick Day" is a mock dirge with early Beatles harmonies about suburbanites with dead-end office jobs. "Please Rock Me Tonight" lampoons arena rock egos. "We write to make each other laugh a lot of the time," said

Schlesinger, 29. "But we also like to put a real anti-rock perspective into a song and to write about things that are more personal, more self-deprecating, and less angst-ridden and heavy."

Schlesinger and Collingwood started playing together a decade ago at Williams College in Massachusetts and reunited last year after they both landed in Greenwich Village. They each play several instruments on Fountains of Wayne, including a toy organ - bought for $3 at a rummage sale - whose death groan is immortalized on "Sink to the Bottom." Drummer Brian Young and guitarist Jody Porter joined the band after the album was released. On tour, Collingwood concentrates on vocals and guitar while Schlesinger plays bass.

The band took its name from one of Schlesinger's favorite stores, a shop in Wayne, N.J., that sells cherubs, spouting fish and other lawn ornaments.

"The owner was worried at first that we were going to be heavy metal guys or gangsta rappers, but he was okay about it after we met him," Schlesinger said. "Now he can sell a lot more T-shirts."