Fountains of Wayne was recorded when the band was just a duo, before drummer
Brian Young and guitarist
Jody Porter were recruited to the band. (Young and Porter are listed as bandmembers on later reissues of the record, but not on the original release.) Collingwood and Schlesinger provide all the instrumentation on the recording, except for the bass guitar parts, which were performed by guest bassist
Danny Weinkauf, ex-
the Belltower. Schlesinger and Porter had also been members of The Belltower, and Weinkauf later played with
Lincoln before joining
They Might Be Giants. Dominique Durand of the band
Ivy, of which Schlesinger was also a member, provided backing vocals on "
Survival Car". In 2016, Schlesinger explained the recording process: "On the recording, I was playing drums, Danny was playing bass and Chris was playing guitar. Then Chris and I would take turns doing some overdubs on guitar or a little keys. After we made the record, Danny decided to do other stuff (he’s now been touring and recording with They Might Be Giants for many years), and that’s when we found Jody and Brian and switched the line-up around, and I started playing bass." The album's recording took a week and cost 5,000 dollars, with more money spent on mixing. According to Collingwood, "It was deliberate that we were going to write the album and record it quickly, before we had time to think about anything. Prior to this, Adam and I had both been careful, serious songwriters, in the vein of
Simon & Garfunkel. We were much more careful about the arrangements and everything. But when we decided to make this record quickly and spontaneously, we figured that since doing it so fast was such a stupid idea, the band needed a stupid name as well." ==Cover==