SOUND ADVICE MUSIC: Ben Folds

Showing posts with label Ben Folds. Show all posts

9.03.2008

Ben Folds Five reunites for MySpace concert

The members of now defunct piano rock trio Ben Folds Five will reunite for a one-off show for a performance of their final album, 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.

The trio will perform September 18 at UNC's Memorial Hall in the band's hometown Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and marks the band's first concert since disbanding in 2000. The reunion is all part of MySpace’s new “Front to Back” series which features bands performing a signature album in its entirety. The shows are recorded and are later posted on MySpace.

“Of our three albums, this one brings back the most vivid memories, Folds recently told Rolling Stone.
“It was actually written to be one song of many movements, which is why there are motifs that appear throughout the album. That should make Reinhold a natural to be played front to back.”

Tickets go on sale Monday, September 8, with all proceeds to benefit Operation Smile.

Mp3: Ben Folds Five - "Army"

7.08.2008

Ben Folds Announces New Album

Everyone’s favorite Dre covering, blue streak swearing, piano-rocking rock star Ben Folds has a new album hitting record store shelves Sept. 16.

Way To Normal is Folds' first studio LP since 2005’s Songs For Silverman and will be released on Epic Records. Though Folds has played some high-profile shows over the past couple years from opening for John Mayer to being backed by a symphony orchestra, the new album is still an unashamedly rock and roll record.

“It’s a fairly un-orchestral record,” Folds told Paste magazine in a recent interview. Folds continued, “It’s a fairly lyric-driven rock record. We’ve looked at taking a few of the songs on the new record and scoring them for orchestra and, uh, it was kind of slim pickins.”

Notable tracks include titled “You Don’t Know Me”, an eccentric duet with Regina Spektor (is there any other kind)? Also on the album, a experiment that hearkens back to Fear of Pop called “Free Coffee” on which Folds gets an electronic effect on his trusty piano by taping Altoids cans to the strings and running it through a distortion pedal.

Folds’ trademark irreverence is still in full effect on several tunes includin “Bitch Went Nuts,” which tells the story of a relationship that went wildly wrong after the song's narrator’s lover goes crazy and stabs his basketball. The song, according to Folds, is a comment on relationships from the male point of view. Says Folds, “If you ask loads of women what went wrong in a relationship, they’re going to give you a variety of answers. But you ask men, especially at a bar somewhere, and they’re gonna go, ‘Uh, bitch went nuts!’”

Check out tour dates here.

MP3: Ben Folds: Such Great Heights (Postal Service cover)

4.24.2007

Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer teams with Ben Folds for solo album

Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer is in Nashville recording her debut solo album with ubiquitous performer, producer, pianist, and rocker Ben Folds.

In a recent Billboard interview Palmer said, "The songs range from intimate ballads to faster and harder Amanda-assaults-the-piano thrillers." No release date for the untitled solo effort. "We've been adding everything from organs and Leslie cabinets to strings, horns, and tympani. The final result should be Biblical," says Palmer.

The Dolls have a busy upcoming schedule. They will hit the road in June 2007 for their True Colors tour, which will feature Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, and former Blondie star Debbie Harry. Dresden Dolls are also working on a video to be shot next month for "Shores of California," the third single from the Dolls' 2006 album Yes, Virginia.

mp3: Dresden Dolls - "Coin Operated Boy"