E-Mail This Article to a Friend Warped warriors New Found Glory and Sugarcult make punk go pop BY SEAN RICHARDSON

The Vans Warped Tour, the hyperactive kid brother of all US rock festivals, turns 10 this year. And it shows no signs of slowing down: expectation is as high as ever for the 2004 edition, which begins June 25 in Dallas and ends August 19 at the Gillette Stadium Parking Lot in Foxboro. The line-up, which varies from city to city and has no nominal headliner, is a tried-and-true mix of cagy veterans (Bad Religion) and youthful upstarts (Yellowcard). Fans know that even if they miss one of the bands they came to see, which is always a possibility at the day-long concert, they’re bound to come away with another new favorite. To mark its 10th anniversary, the tour is staying an extra day in Foxboro, for a one-off August 20 celebration that features performances by many of the groups on this year’s line-up plus Rancid, Good Charlotte, and other perennial faves.

New Found Glory, who recently hit the Billboard Top 10 with their third and latest Geffen album, Catalyst, are one of the Warped Tour’s main attractions: they’re playing the entire tour plus the 10th-anniversary show. The South Florida pop-punkers are perhaps the most emblematic of the new generation of bands who came of age on the tour. "I remember when we first rolled up with our van and our trailer," guitarist Steve Klein says, thinking back to the group’s first Warped outing. "Everybody looked at us like, ‘Who are these guys?’ As you go on, you get to know all the people on the tour. It’s a big family: everybody comes back every year, all the same crew. So you get to know all these people, and it becomes like a yearly picnic. It’s a lot of fun."

The first single from Catalyst is "All Downhill from Here," a classic NFG sing-along with an extra degree of raunch in the guitars. Along with singer Jordan Pundik’s clarion melodies, the track boasts a lurching double-time outburst and some choice hardcore shouting from guitarist Chad Gilbert — the kind of touches that have always kept a handful of DIY rockers in the band’s corner, even as they flirt with the mainstream. And listeners on both sides of the pop divide can relate to the interpersonal angst in the chorus: "Catalyst, you insist to pull me down/You contradict the fact that you still want me around."

The playful video for "All Downhill from Here" is already an MTV smash, and the song has been on the rise at rock radio in recent weeks. Which means NFG shouldn’t have much of a problem racking up their third straight gold album, a streak that got under way four years ago with the release of New Found Glory. That disc established their radio profile with the yearning "Hit or Miss," and it also marked the beginning of the band’s fruitful relationship with producer Neal Avron. When 2002’s Sticks and Stones yielded their biggest hit to date, the stomping "My Friends over You," the group hit the road for a long stretch that culminated in a headlining stint on the high-profile Civic Tour.

Now settled in Southern California, NFG took a rare three-month break to write Catalyst, which retains the punch of its hit predecessors but also takes the band into uncharted territory. According to Klein, who writes all the lyrics, the time off allowed them to get more adventurous on the writing front. "We wanted to show everybody we’re not just a pop-punk band. We can write rock songs, ballads, whatever. It’s not just a record for a punk kid — it’s a record for everybody. Since we started, we’ve really tried to mix punk, pop, emo, hardcore, rock — everything. I think we nailed it on this record."

The album’s most blatant departure from the NFG norm comes five songs in with the lovestruck ballad "I Don’t Wanna Know." Featuring guest performances by LA session aces Kendall Payne (vocals) and David Campbell (strings), the track hinges on a swooning nursery-rhyme chorus: "First comes heavy breathing/Staring at the ceiling/What will happen next/I don’t wanna know." That blissful turn is a welcome one for Klein, whose songs often focus on the dark side of relationships. "I met my girlfriend and I wrote that song. It’s about the first moment that you meet the person you want to be with. It’s something that can strike people as, ‘Oh wow, this is really personal.’ On our past records, a lot of the lyrics are more general."

From the nostalgic "Truth of My Youth" to the media-overkill lament "No News Is Good News," Catalyst delivers plenty of sharp hooks for the pop-punk faithful. But the disc is defined by left turns like the gospel-tinged ballad "Doubt Full" and "Failure’s Not Flattering," a pulsating romp that’s decorated with 1980s-style synth stabs from the Get Up Kids’ James Dewees. On the thunderous "At Least I’m Known for Something," Toby Morse and Freddy Cricien of the nascent hardcore supergroup Hazen Street add their gruff vocals to Klein’s anthem of resignation: "I’m best known for failure/Best known for giving up."

The album’s purest hardcore move is the 30-second "Intro," on which NFG use both music and words to defend themselves against sellout charges. The CD’s vivid cover art, which portrays a grotesque record exec preying on a carnival of fresh-faced alterna-kids, is also an extension of that theme. "It’s not just about punk — it’s about all music," Klein stresses. "We came from playing out of a garage and doing it ourselves. So when we see bands that are on their first tour on a bus, and the first record they ever put out is on a major label, it seems like it’s all factory made. We wanted to put that on the cover to show people we’re not like that. We’re just normal kids putting out music that comes from us, not from some label saying it’s the cool thing to do."

FOR NOW, NFG seem to be shying away from Top 40 radio (which remains the single biggest cred killer for pop-punk bands) with "All Downhill from Here." Such is not the case with Sugarcult, who are playing the second half of the Warped Tour and whose current Artemis release, Palm Trees and Power Lines, looks like a hit. The disc’s first single, "Memory," is picking up steam at MTV and is having better luck with pop-radio listeners than with their edgier rock counterparts. That’s not a huge surprise, since the album’s producer, Gavin MacKillop, is best known for his work with 1990s alterna-rock crossover champs Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Like Yellowcard’s chart-storming "Ocean Avenue," "Memory" is a buoyant pop gem — and if rock fans won’t give it the time of day because it’s too soft, then that’s their loss. Sugarcult will never be the most aggressive band in the Warped line-up, but they know how to turn on the juice when the song calls for it. Frontman Tim Pagnotta’s plaintive vocals match the tune’s wounded romanticism, and he and sidekick Marko 72 contribute plenty of six-string bluster. "This may never start/We could fall apart/I’d be your memory," Tim sings. In fine pop-punk tradition, he seems to take a perverse degree of joy in the prospect of a love affair turning up dead on arrival.

If "Memory" does end up going Top 40, the success will be well-earned for the Santa Barbara band. With some connections under their belts thanks to Marko’s tenure in the Lagwagon offshoot Bad Astronaut, Sugarcult first made a name for themselves on the pop-punk club circuit. Their 2001 debut, Start Static, was released to little fanfare but ended up scoring a pair of minor rock hits — "Pretty Girl (The Way)" and "Bouncing Off the Walls" — and selling 300,000 copies. Now the group have emerged alongside Kittie as a top act on Artemis, the mega-indie headed by one-time Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg.

Much of Palm Trees is as sunny as its title. Opener "She’s the Blade" somehow makes the wrong side of a domineering relationship sound like a fun place to be, and the raucous "Crying" strikes a nice balance between pomp and melodrama: "You keep crying, crying, crying/Till you cannot see at all." On the easygoing "Head Up," Tim’s melodies are as solid as his advice: "When they say give up/You turn up your radio." The pop trifle "Champagne" and the punk rager "What You Say" go by in quick succession halfway through, showcasing two different sides of the band at their best.

Palm Trees makes it clear that Tim is a serious songwriter, but sometimes his penchant for dour balladry weighs him down. On the unplugged weepers "Counting Stars" and "Sign Off," somber guitars and sleepy tempos replace the band’s trademark exuberance. "Back to California," on the other hand, is an elegant beachfront slow dance that finds the singer nursing a few late-summer regrets. It’s probably too delicate for the adrenaline-crazed Warped Tour stage. But put it on in the car on the way home from the show and it’ll sound just right.

The Vans Warped Tour takes place August 19, with a special 10th-anniversary show August 20, at the Gillette Stadium Parking Lot in Foxboro; call (508) 543-1776.