MUSIC New Found Glory thrills, satisfies fans

In a world competing for something new, cohesiveness isn't needed.
In the frenetic attention deficit disorder world of emo and punk pop, the rules of the music industry are a little different.
Whereas cohesiveness is cherished by critics as a hallmark of a solid album, the younger generation seeks a thrill a second from their music, which is simultaneously competing against Game Boy playing, IM conversing and cable channel surfing.
Such was the mindset behind New Found Glory and its 2004 disc "Catalyst," which is a mishmash of emo, punk, metal, hardcore, synth, thrash and pop. What, no hip-hip?
"I think musically, we can kind of go in different areas and as long as [singer] Jordan [Pundik] has his voice on it, it can be a New Found Glory song," said guitarist Steve Klein, calling from his home in Florida.
"And I think for the whole record, you kind of have to have a different vibe for every song. We look at each song separately, as it own entity, so that way you can put on the CD, listen to the whole record and not just the single you hear on the radio."
Key players
Radio and MTV programmers aren't complaining, positioning New Found Glory -- and its hit singles "All Downhill From Here," "Failure's Not Flattering (What's Your Problem)" and "I Don't Wanna Know" -- as key players in the emo zeitgeist that is currently filled with dozens upon dozens of bands that seemingly sound and look alike.
"Once one thing gets popular, there is that clump of bands that come along and try to do something similar," Klein said. "In my eyes, I feel like we were playing this style of music for a long time before it got popular, mixing the emo and hardcore styles together."
Whether it was prescient songwriting or accidental-but-fortuitous digression is neither here nor there, but Klein stresses the band's scatterbrain results stem from its conscious decision while in the studio to "challenge ourselves music-wise."
As a result of such experimentation, the band had dozens of song structures from across the spectrum of popular music with working titles such as the '80s-sounding "Belinda Carlisle," which later became "Failure's Not Flattering (What's Your Problem)," or the aggressive metal riffs of "Metallica Song."
"I think as we're getting older, we start liking different things and we want to try and do different stuff," Klein said. "I think every record you have to put out something different. We've kept our fan base because we keep on writing records that our fans like. So, it's kind of cool."
Headliners at last
Something else that is cool to fans of New Found Glory is the fact the band is finally getting around to touring "Catalyst" as a headliner. The Florida act was a key player in last summer's Vans Warped Tour before heading overseas more recently as an opener for Green Day's European adventure.
As eye-opening as the Green Day experience was for the band, Klein said the guys were itching to get back to the States for their current "Back to Basics Tour," which plays April 7 at Cleveland's House of Blues.
"It's awesome that we can go back and just play small clubs," Klein said. "And it's crazy too because we're playing 60 shows the whole tour. And usually, tours don't really last that long, at least tours that we've done."