Sticks and Stones

Sticks and Stones is the third studio album by American rock band New Found Glory. Background New Found Glory released their self-titled second album in September 2000 as a joint release between MCA and Drive-Thru Records. MCA had a distribution deal that allowed them to acquire Drive-Thru Records' bands over a period of time. Lead single "Hit or Miss" received heavy airplay rotation from the US's biggest rock radio stations. By April 2001, the band had been moved to MCA. Shortly after this, guitarist Chad Gilbert moved to Los Angeles, California, while the rest of the band moved to San Diego, close to their manager and their label. Appearing on the Warped Tour and featuring in the film American Pie 2 (2001) helped increase the band's profile. Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus was highly impressed by New Found Glory's self-titled album, going as far as to champion them in an issue of Rolling Stone. They eventually supported Blink-182 on their summer tour. Blink-182's manager Rick DeVoe met New Found Glory, and soon afterwards, began managing them. By September 2001, the group were making plans to release a new album by mid-2002. At the end of the year, bassist Ian Grushka got married. He was unable to go on a honeymoon due to their record label paying for a bus to transport the band from Florida to California two days later. The group set up residence in apartments in La Jolla, a community within San Diego, California, for the next three months. Production In February 2002, the band began recording with Neal Avron, who acted as producer. Sessions took place at DML and Signature Sound Studios in San Diego, California, Larrabee West Studios in West Hollywood, California, and NRG Studios in North Hollywood, California. He was assisted by engineers Sam Bukas, Mike Harris, Juan Jose Ayala, Ted Regier and Mark Kiczula. For the group's self-titled, Avron wanted a laidback approach for the drums. For Sticks and Stones, he had more confidence in letting drummer Cyrus Bolooki played what he wanted. Bolooki tracked his parts with the tom on his left side. He started playing with this set up while on tour with Fenix TX, whose drummer had a tom and China cymbal on his left side. Bolooki liked the setup, but thought he wouldn't be able to use it as he was right-handed. After setting up his kit in that manner, he found it easier for certain parts.