For over 10 years, a few young hardcore and punk teens got together in Coral Springs, FL, to form what would become one of the most influential punk rock bands this past decade. Face it, at one point in your life, whether you want to admit it or not, New Found Glory blasted from your car stereo, headphones, a skatepark, or in a friend’s basement while drinking Red Stripe. And you liked it and probably turned the volume louder as you head- banged to the frenzied PG-rated sounds of those Florida rockers.
It is difficult to believe NFG has really been around that long. While most bands swap members as fast as they go through women on tour, NFG has kept the same line-up (basically) since their inception. Despite the obstacles of several label changes and a few lukewarm received albums, New Found Glory are still trucking onward. Surviving the rise and fall of boy bands, screamo and mainstream R&B, the band has proven that musicians can have longevity without compromising their musical integrity.
Resurfacing every few years, the band always makes a splash with each passing album, for better or worse. Not one to follow trends, the members of NFG have managed to continually reinvent themselves, but still retain the originality and fun-loving image that fans fell in love with during the early beginnings of the band. Starting out with more of a rawer punk edge, the band joined the Drive-Thru militia that launched bands like The Starting Line, The Early November, and Senses Fail to fame in the scene. Breaking into a more mellow audience hungering for more pop-infused sounds, the band released their first EP of movie soundtrack cover songs entitled From The Screen To Your Stereo. The album got them noticed as kids began to put them on their radar for the next year or so.
At the height of the band’s fame with the release of Sticks And Stones in 2002 it seemed that NFG was about to become a staple in mainstream American music. “My Friends Over You” became every concertgoer’s anthem, rivaling the popularity of “Rock Show.” Poised to be the next Blink-182, the band released Catalyst on Geffen Records through a previous deal with Drive-Thru to upstream their more promising bands. Even though the record debuted extremely high on the Billboard Charts, fans didn’t respond well to it as a whole and the band faded into the background. A year later they traded in their t-shirts and Dickies shorts for skinny faded jeans and plaid button down farmer shirts. With a clean new look, their sound calmed down a bit, emanating a more melodic alternative sound that grasped the placid and easygoing places the band were at the time in their lives.
“We always work off emotion, which sounds cliche but it really is that way. We were all in good places at the time of Coming Home. I was in love and engaged and Jordan [Putnik] was in a relationship. We all were just happy,” said guitarist and back-up vocalist Chad Gilbert in an interview on his way to band practice.
