Song of the Day 9/12: Fountains of Wayne, “California Sex Lawyer”

Nobody’s heard much from Michael Avenatti lately, but I thought of him again when I was listening to FOW’s “Out-of-State Plates,” its collection of B-sides from 2005. In fact, the only way you can tell this song isn’t about Avenatti is that it was originally released in 2000 on the International Pop Overthrow Vol. 3 double album, before Avenatti became, briefly, a household name. And also, I don’t think he has a German shepherd named Doug.

Adam Schlesinger once explained the genesis of the song:

“Our attorney Josh Grier works at a big fancy law firm with a big fancy waiting room. One day we were sitting there waiting and there was a magazine called California Lawyer on the coffee table facing us. Chris (Collingwood) said, apropos of nothing, “California sex lawyer.” Perhaps it was only because we were sitting in a quiet office, but at the time it seemed like the funniest thing in the world. Why it needed to be turned into a song, I’m still not sure.”