Loyola Greyhound

Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Arts & Society

Media Credit: MCT Campus New Found Glory has been around for almost ten years. They are trying desperately to hold on to their popularity by releasing albums of well-known television theme cover songs.

This year, New Found Glory returns to Drive Thru Records, the company to which they were originally signed, having being dropped from their major label, Geffen. Fittingly they have returned with a sequel to their second album, From the Screen to Your Stereo. When they released this original compilation of movie cover- songs, the idea was to use it as a way to gain popularity quickly. It had songs people could recognize and sing along. Now, with From the Screen to Your Stereo II, NFG is using this as an admittedly desperate comeback.

In the early 2000s, pop/punk was at its pinnacle of popularity with major label bands like Green Day, Blink 182 and Simple Plan as well as Drive Thru bands like Allister, Homegrown and Something Corporate. Near the beginning of 2004, post-hardcore and emo bands like Story of the Year and Hawthorne Heights started infiltrating this "Warped Tour" scene. Because of this change, many of these pop/punk bands broke up (Homegrown), made side projects (Blink-182), or failed in an attempt to change their sound (The Ataris).

NFG's last album, Coming Home, did just that: tried hard to mature into a band they were not. Drummer Cyrus Bolookie admits, "We're still the same band and the same bunch of guys."

So, in reaction, they have released an eleven track cover album with the sound that NFG fans will love, especially because they were the ones who picked the tracks. Over the past year, fans have voted online for those movie songs they want to hear 'covered' most.

Slowly, Drive Thru has leaked the tracks. Stand-out tracks on the album include "Kiss Me" of She's All That popularity, a Goo Goo Dolls cover of "Iris" from City of Angels, and the Tears For Fears classic "Head Over Heals" featured in Donnie Darko. It's interesting to note that New Found Glory covers the song "Don't You Forget About Me" after pop/punk alum Yellowcard has already been known to cover it.

Fans of Loyola College's The Spotlight may be interested to see the differences between their version of "King of Wishful Thinking" and NFG's, which is nearly identical.

To push the movie theme further, NFG has several cameos throughout. Chris Carraba of Dashboard Confessional, Adam Lazarra from Taking Back Sunday, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy and even Lisa Loeb stop by to sing a few lines. The band certainly seems to have made quite the amount of friends over its short career, a result that is most likely due to its refreshingly fun music and attitude.

Following the movie industry's method of using reusing old ideas, New Found Glory has recycled its own formula. However, unlike most sequels, this one is good, if not better than the original.

New Found Glory will perform at Rams Head Live! in October.

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