New Found Glory are nine albums deep, at which point they also have a scattered collection of out-takes, B-sides, quirky covers, songs recorded for compilations and soundtracks, and even Christmas tunes.
To celebrate the fact the guys are heading to Australia soon for their ’20 Years Of Pop Punk’ tour, we decided to dig through their back catalogue and highlight the weird and wonderful NFG tunes that even hardcore fans might not be aware of.
New Found Glory’s 20 Years of Pop Punk Anniversary Tour begins in Fremantle on August 8. Tickets and dates are available here.
Scraped Knees (1997)
Of all the songs from the band’s debut release, the It’s All About The Girls E.P, ‘Scraped Knees’ is the most freewheeling, and the one that’s subsequently held up the best. The band’s first EP is noticeably more lo-fi than the rest of their records, with the same cardboard-thwacking drum sound that was a feature on early Blink albums. It’s a helium-infused, punk pop blast – exciting, energetic, and a clear sign that, melodically, the band were already ahead of the pack. It’s clear why they switched drummers though…
Joga (2008)
Tip Of The Iceberg was NFG’s second EP, released independently a mere month after their greatest hits collection marked the end of their relationship with Geffen. As they have a habit of doing, the guys recorded a handful of covers which featured on the EP. The Japanese bonus track was the most unlikely of these covers — perhaps why it failed to make the US release of the EP — an upbeat and driving cover of Bjork’s haunting Jóga. The band play it straight, thankfully, and eschew the icy electronica of the original, for a more crunching version.
ISHC Theme Song (2006)
The International Superheroes of Hardcore were a muck-around side project featuring all five members of NFG, who broke up the tedium and serious nature of their day job demoing tracks for Coming Home with a rush of comedically-leaning hardcore song. As Jordan Pundik explained at the time, they went stir crazy in an isolated house in the hills of Malibu. “We would start freaking out. We’d like get in our underwear and get crazy, and play stupid hardcore songs. I would pick up the guitar and play fun riffs, and then Chad would grab the mic and start screaming stuff, and then we thought, ‘Man, we should actually really write some hardcore songs and just record the songs on our equipment that we have here.’ So that’s what we did, and we ended up recording like, sixteen songs just for fun.”
Most of the songs go for under 90 seconds, and the ISHC Theme Song does what every good theme should, setting the mission statement perfectly, and hilariously. “We’re taking over”, they yell, on an album that also features songs about Harry Potter. The best thing is, this is actually a great hardcore song.
Constant Static (2004)
Tucked away at the end of the band’s contractual Hits collection, ‘Constant Static’ previously appeared as a bonus track on particular versions of the Catalyst album, and could have easily slipped past the ears of fans with all the albums, but who didn’t bother with expensive reissues or redundant Hits collections. It’s a punchy punk gem, and another of those shoulda-been-on-the-record type singles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjPSnQA6Kc8
Ex-Miss (2003)
A cleverly punny title and a blasting Christmas tale of broken hearts, and broken holiday spirits. One of a number of seasonal songs from the band (despite grumbling through this one like punk rock Scrooges) this is the least known, tucked away on a compilation called A Santa Cause: It’s A Punk Rock Christmas. The first four notes of the main riff are a dead ringer for ‘Just Ace’ by Grinspoon, and the ‘Jingle Bells’ interpolation in the guitar solo is a nice touch too.
New Found Glory’s 20 Years of Pop Punk Anniversary Tour begins in Fremantle on August 8. Tickets and dates are available here.
READ MORE: Pop punk: the genre that nobody really ages out of
