I’m sick of smiling…

…and so is my jaw.

So sings Jordan Pundik at the start of the album which undoubtably changed my life.

Released on 11th June 2002, New Found Glory‘s Sticks and Stones, I can’t remember how I first heard this but that summer while at youth camp with friends we finally found out (reading the lyrics book) that Jordan in fact was “drunk of your kiss” – we have no idea what that first time of their famous Hit Single “My Friends Over You” was, but now we knew.

I was hooked. I couldn’t get enough of this remarkable new-to-me sound. That week of camp, Bowling For Soup also released their Drunk Enough To Dance album and we blasted them loud and proud.

Over the years i’ve been lucky enough to see New Found Glory around 5 or 6 times and each time they have made me so incredibly happy. During Slam Dunk fest 2010 I was at the barrier watching them perform and I managed to grab the mic at some point during My Friends Over You while Jordan leaned over. I performed that same song with a few coworkers at the company meet up back in September.

Sticks and Stones, along with all of New Found Glory’s back-catalogue, and the bands I’ve discovered, listened to, watched, and talked to since then, have had more of an effect on who I am today than I can explain. Over the years I always come back to this album, last.fm says I’ve listened to the US release of this album 201 times. And I started that account in 2008 after years of CD and mini-disc listening.

When I get a tattoo, not the first, but one of them will be something related to this band, and maybe this album. Who knows, maybe I’ll get it done by Mr Pundik himself.