Fooled By April

If you devotedly watch "Seventh Heaven" reruns, you've heard it. If you just can't get enough of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, you probably hum it in your sleep. But even if you're just surfing channels, you're probably going to hear the title track from Fooled By April's self-released EP, Nice to See You, which has recently become the soundtrack to ABC Family Channel's promotion of its fall line-up. The ad for "Smallville" and "Gilmore Girls" ran on every channel on the dial, from ABC and NBC all the way to ESPN and the Cartoon Network. Perhaps it is an unlikely spot for a pop/rock band like Fooled By April, but the band has always defied easy categorization. Some describe them as the bastard sons of Cheap Trick and Fountains Of Wayne, while others compare them more to what the Clash might have been had they listened to a lot more KISS. Perhaps the most apt label that has been applied to them is "Hi-Fi Garage," acknowledging that as much as they bring a ragged rock-and-roll enthusiasm to their music, it is always tempered by the need to get those four-part harmonies just right. In addition to the many TV and film placements through MTV, Sony, Disney and several independents, the EP (produced by Whiskeytown's Mike Daly) has turned some heads by being the #1 seller on CDBaby.com in its first two weeks and a continuous top-seller since, and as one of the top ten most added records in the country in its first week at radio, later breaking into the CMJ Top 200 chart. Not too shabby for an unsigned band doing it all on their own. Fooled By April's relentless touring of the Northeast and Midwest has brought them to showcases at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City, the NEMO Festival in Boston and the prestigious South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX. In June 2005, the band released their acclaimed debut full-length record.