first discovered Fountains of Wayne driving along the AlCan Highway in the summer of 2002. For the 1200-mile stretch from Seattle to Fairbanks, my friend John had brought no less than 100 CDs, which he insisted, with great authority, we listen to in completion before repeating any one disk. The drive took seven days. We had time..

Listening to Utopia Parkway and Fountains of Wayne, it was as if someone had written a soundtrack to my own goofy, suburban childhood--laser shows, cover bands, mall-and-arcade culture—and sprinkled in half-a-dozen absurdist jokes for good measure. “Baby please leave the biker, leave the biker, break his heart.”

Months later, when I came back from my road trip, and didn’t have much of a job or a plan or a bank account, I spent long sunny afternoons eating ice cream and listening to Fountains of Wayne with my friend Jerm. He even wrote a line in a song about listening to FOW with me. That made me immensely happy.

Not long after that, I moved to Dallas, and Fountains of Wayne had a number-one hit with “Stacy’s Mom,” and I saw both of those guys less and missed them more. Every time I hear the band, I still think of John and Jerm, and how we listened to Fountains of Wayne all full speed with the car windows down, which (I’m sorry, New Yorkers!) is how all pop music should be heard, ultimately.

Recently, I interviewed Adam Schlesinger, the main songwriter for Fountains of Wayne. He was as nice and funny as I hoped he’d be. It runs today in Nerve.