photo courtesy of Nasty little man Jimmy Eat World's new record, Futures, is a little on the despondent side, so they bought a painting of an adorable pug to cheer themselves up

Jimmy Eat World exploded onto the national music scene when "The Middle" hit "TRL" in 2001 and stayed in rotation on VH1 for a couple more years. Since then, life hasn't been quite the same for guitarist Tom Linton.

Their increased popularity has taken them all over the world and to star-studded events. At the MTV Video Music Awards, Linton even got to meet one of his idols.

"It was pretty crazy seeing people like David Lee Roth walking around, " Linton said.

While newfound fame creates problems with record labels and often leads to band turmoil, it is the members of Jimmy Eat World's close friendships that help them stay grounded.

"The most important part of being a band is making sure that all the members are friends. We spend a lot of time together. We're still having fun," Linton said.

For Zach Lind (drums) and Jim Adkins (guitar and lead vocals), their friendship began in preschool. Rick Burch (bass) and Tom Linton (guitar) met at age 12, with both groups getting together to play in their garage at 15.

After the monumental success of their self-titled fourth album, Jimmy Eat World spent two years touring before finally getting five months in the studio to record Futures, released on Tuesday.

Linton believes the decision to fire longtime producer Mark Trombino (Blink-182) and hire Gil Norton as their new producer was the biggest difference for this record.

They actually spent two months in Tucson recording the guitar parts with the owner of Rainbow Guitars, 2550 N. Campbell Ave., who had a lot of old equipment to choose from.

"Having all that stuff allowed us to have a different sound," Linton said.

They spent a month in Los Angeles recording the drums, but a lot of the work was done at their practice place in Tempe.

There was great pressure to make the follow-up to their mainstream breakout record, Linton admits, adding that what was most important was to create an album that demonstrated their growth.

"Every record that we do, we try to beat the last record. There was definitely a lot of pressure to make a good record," Linton said. "I'm really happy with how it turned out. We worked really hard on it."

Futures, like their previous albums, offers a range of songs from straight ahead rock to emo ballads. In the explosive first single, "Pain," Adkins sings about drug use as a means to fix problems.

"'Pain' is about self-medication, how there's really not a way to cover up your problems, because problems are going to come back," Linton explains.

The drug theme is echoed in the haunting song "Drugs or Me." However, this record still offers Jimmy's signature melodic ballad sound in "Kill."

For Linton, "Night Drive" is his favorite.

"It's a different-sounding song, a song where we really haven't tried anything like that before," Linton said.

Jimmy is now touring, something that Linton says he's missed. But they are already in the process of recording a four-song EP that should be due out sometime in January.

Jimmy Eat World is playing an all ages show at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St., Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $20 and doors open at 6 p.m.