THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #258 - April 25, 1997
Magical Armchair Digest Friday, April 25 1997 Volume 01 : Number 258
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Mailing List
Topics in this issue:
Re: Edgefest
cleveland, covers, and crack dealers
Re: BF5 covers Paul Weller or Style Council
Lawrence Kansas
Jellyfish
Musician Magazine interview
Ben Folds-Cleveland / TMBG
FAQ
Re: BFF / Moxy Fruvous
gotta do the cover song thing....
Ben Folds Five List
umm
St. Louis Show
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 21:01:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Tmbg4e@aol.com
Subject: Re: Edgefest
Hey ya'll,
I agree with Chris on how lame the crowd was at Edgefest this past weekend.
It certainly wasn't any better from the lawn. I don't think there were too
many other fans in the grass besides me and my 5 friends. We were standing
on the very edge of the grass trying squinting to see the stage. Did he do
anything else special, besides the shirt thing at the end? I was glad he
played a fair amount of songs from the first album, since I lost mine a few
months back. I really do hope they come back to Dallas. I don't want that
to be my only time to see them.
~Marcie
"They took of their shoes and bared their soles (souls)"--Moxy Fruvous
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 21:22:03 -0400
From: David Beck <drbeck@ibm.net>
Subject: cleveland, covers, and crack dealers
ok, ok, no crack dealers, but i was wondering if anyone was going to the
cleveland show, and if they want to e me. anyone else who wants to just
submit random hints to a long time bff fan, first time concert-er. also,
i think rainy day women, by the master himself, dylan, would be so
exhillirating to hear from bff. anyone got any imports or bootlegs they
dont need? cause, coming from OH, i dont have many options. when i tell
my friends of bff, i just tell them that it is the sort of music that
yoiu can sing along to with such exhuberance(sp), even while looking in
the mirror at yourself.(especially on song for the d'ed).well, happy
travels to all...
officer friendly
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 21:29:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: FineExampl@aol.com
Subject: Re: BF5 covers Paul Weller or Style Council
In a message dated 97-04-21 20:56:44 EDT, you write:
<< BF5 covers Paul Weller or Style Counci >>
I am sorry, but Entertainment was already masterfully covered and set on tape
by the Wonder Stuff years back!!! It's just a bit over done by now!
perhaps maybe he could cover .....Joe Jackson....seeing as though they play
similarly....although i prefer Ben's melodys!
I think if they were to cover anything i think maybe Dramarama's "Classic
Rot" is up thier alley! What do y'all think 'bout that??
always,
JOhn Hartman NJ
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 20:33:06 -0500
From: Michael Newman <jstraw@well.com>
Subject: Lawrence Kansas
I think this is an accurate set list, but I'd appreciate any corrections:
Missing the War
Philosophy
Emaline
The Last Polka
Kate
Alice Childress
Brick
Best Imitation of Myself (without piano)
She Don't Use Jelly (a Flaming Lips song)
Jackson Cannery
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
Fair
Steven’s Last Night In Town
Theme Song from Dr. Pyser
Wave A White Flag (obscure Elvis Costello song)
Uncle Walter
Song for the Dumped
Ultimate Sacrifice (a Slayer song) featuring Tour Manager
Underground
Encore:
Smoke
Juliette
I don't really understand the criticism of the "Brick" discussion. If it means
nothing yo you, let it pass. The fact that people want to talk about the
words
means they're thinking about them and involved with the writer's work. I mean
people *study* literature, right? It's high praise that people give a shit
about
what the songs mean. I hope people are debating the meaning for 20 years!
It was a song about a guy taking his girlfriend for an abortion *to me* the
first time I heard it. But that's my take. I find other people's experience
of
the song interesting.
My pick for a cool cover:
Steely Dan's "Only A Fool Would Say That."
- -Michael Newman
http://www.well.com/~jstraw
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 21:48:18 EDT
From: sandishortcake@juno.com (Sandi Shorter)
Subject: Jellyfish
"maybe i'm thinkin' myself in a hole, wondering who i am when i ought to
know" -BF5
check out my website (still under construction):
http://kent.edu/~sshorter
where we discuss strange dreams, the wallflowers, ben folds five, and
things that
piss us off. join us.
sandishortcake@juno.com
- --------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: owner-armchair@ford.il.ft.hse.nl (Magical Armchair Digest)
To: armchair@ford.il.ft.hse.nl
Subject: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #255
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 02:14:27 +0200
Message-ID: <199704240014.CAA09143@ford.il.ft.hse.nl>
Magical Armchair Digest Thursday, April 24 1997 Volume 01 : Number
255
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Mailing List
Topics in this issue:
TMBG's
BFF in oz?
BFF Underground Maxi CD
status of the armchair
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #250
BFF in Denver
FINALLY, MPLS
I meant to say Robert...
Hello from Wisco! (and Chicago show)
Review -- St. Louis
Thick as a Brick -- The lightbulb debate
>Does anyone else on this list like Jellyfish or They Might Be Giants? I
>don't
>know much about them, but would like to know more.
Jellyfish is a great band. There's a mailing list (like this) for
Jellyfish. If you wish to subscribe, send e-mail to:
LISTSERV@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU and put this in the body of the message:
subscribe <your email address>
"maybe i'm thinkin' myself in a hole, wondering who i am when i ought to
know" -BF5
check out my website (still under construction):
http://kent.edu/~sshorter
where we discuss strange dreams, the wallflowers, ben folds five, and
things that
piss us off. join us.
sandishortcake@juno.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 22:11:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: NakedVegan@aol.com
Subject: Musician Magazine interview
>The best song for BFF to cover would be December 1963 (Oh what a night!)
>by The Four Seasons.
You know, my band does a big chunk of the covers that have been suggested
here, so I'm flattered that you all think we're on the right track for cool
stuff. :-) We do Oh What a Night, Kiss & Let's Go Crazy (Prince), Hungry
Like the Wolf (Duran Duran), Stayin' Alive, Play that Funky Music, etc. Then
again, we ARE called King Cheese... And get this: We had already planned on
adding The Rockford Files before BoWCCL came out! With this line up, plus
the fact that we're a two-man band with no guitarist, can you believe that
BF5's manager turned us down as a local opening act for BF5? Who do I have
to sleep with to get us a slot opening for the band?
Speaking of covers, here's yet another reminder for you folks to mail me your
ONE suggestion for a BFF cover. I'll only include entries sent to me
personally, not those sent to the entire armchair list. In about a week and
a half I'll send everyone a list of candidates with instructions for voting
for the cover that we most want to see BF5 perform.
Here's an excerpt of the BF5 interview from Musician magazine (May 1997) --
they're mentioned on the cover! I edited it heavily for space
considerations. By the way, I couldn't find this interview anywhere on the
net, so if you want to see the full text you'll have to buy it.
- - - - - - - - - - -
"I grew up in a family of snake handlers," says Robert Sledge. His
expression is solemn; his eyes search ours for reaction. We stare back, a
bit warily. "What kinds of snakes?" "Rattlers. I'd let 'em crawl all over
me. Never got bit. My dad showed me how to do it..." We catch a glimpse of
Folds, in the shadows behind his beat-up Steinway. Apparently he's heard
this tale before... He listens quietly, nodding now and then, the picture of
sympathy. Then, when Sledge leaves the room, he motions us over. "Don't
believe a word of it...It's all bullshit."
We're standing in Folds' home studio, the place where the three-piece Five
cut their new album for Sony/550. Only problem is, there isn't anything that
looks like a studio here. What we've got is a tiny living room, gloomy
behind drawn tattered curtains and dominated by the battered, brown grand
piano. One door opens to the yard, a patch of mud and grass dug up by dogs
and leading to a ditch that borders the street. Another door points to the
rest of the house: an even dimmer kitchen decorated with open bags of chips
and low-budget musical gadgets; Ben's bedroom; a windowless chamber nearly
filled by a tired-looking couch, a bare-bones pink Rendano drumkit, and a
Steger & Sons upright piano whose abused appearance belies its massive sound.
This is miles from the Record Plant, where the band came together back in
'93. Their first gig was at the Local 605, and even then people made a big
deal out of their lack of a guitarist.
MM: Ben, you describe yourself as a rock & roll piano player. What exactly
does that mean?
FOLDS: It's like what it takes to make someone a jazz musician. There's that
famous scene in the Miles Davis autobiography about him being in the back of
a cab with some other jazz player. They're gettin' a blow job, eatin' fried
chicken, and ridin' down the road. And that means they're gonna be better
jazz players than someone who went to Berklee [Music School]. It comes down
to state of mind and lifestyle; you live your music. I'm not throwin' TV
sets out of windows, but I've been playing in bands since I was little, and
they're ROCK bands.
MM: But you use a lot of jazz-inflected voicings, and you play with chops
you don't often hear from pure rock keyboardists.
FOLDS: Well, I guess I'm a LITERATE rock player [laughs]. After all, unlike
a lot of kinds of music, pop music should be popular. That's the rule. It
has to get the point across, and then I can sneak in what I've got to say...
MM: One reason you're able to voice your chords as richly as you do is that
you're not playing leftover notes in competition with a guitarist. Does that
make you feel harmonically freer?
FOLDS: I've never played with a guitarist as a pianist, but with this band
I've come to realize that the parts sound better if I play more...I don't
want to say WRONG notes, but notes that are around the part. If I play this
cleanly [playing intro from "Kate"], that's okay, but it's better to do this
[plays louder, with fingers pushed back to fallboard and heels of hands
dropping clustered "bombs" on white keys.]
SLEDGE: When Ben plays clusters of "wrong" notes, I have to do that too; I
have to overplay, because there's so much velocity on the piano. I mean, my
bridge is bent down. If I played that hard with a guitar band, it'd be
ridiculous.
MM: When you stand up and play as hard as you do, how does that affect your
hands?
FOLDS: I'm pretty lucky. There's been too many musicians who've gotten
carpal tunnel or some kind of muscular infirmity. When we first go out on
tour, I have two weeks of ouch, and then I'm okay.
SLEDGE: The desire to play has to outweigh the fear of pain.
FOLDS: The piano is not by nature an aggressive instrument when you put it
next to a fuzz bas, so I do have to play hard. When I hit it, I'm putting
all of my 140 pounds into it. That's because part of our hook when we began
playing was that we're the piano band that rocks. The idea was to be a piano
trio that was also a power trio.
- - - -
SIDEBAR: Ben Folds Five isn't anyone's idea of a gear-happy band. The most
space-age detail in their setup is a quarter-inch jack built into their
Baldwin touring grand. We're talking low-tech gear and high-octane
performance. Jesse plays a minimalist set of '67 Ludwig drums. Sledge
played a Hamer Explorer bass on the band's first album, but he's switched
since then to a new Fender Jazz with an old Sixties bridge. The killer fuzz
sound that rattles teeth throughout Whatever comes courtesy of an
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff pedal. Folds batters his Baldwin 5'5" grand
through vintage Helpinstill and Barcus-Berry pickups into a Marshall stack --
"the reissued Plexi, the old Jimi Hendrix setup" he says. The new album was
recorded through two Mackie 1604 consoles and two TASCAM DA-88s with an
RC-848 remote locator.
[by Robert L. Doerschuk)
- - - - - - - -
- -- Michael Bluejay (Austin, TX)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 97 22:06:58 PDT
From: evlbison <evlbison@neo.lrun.com>
Subject: Ben Folds-Cleveland / TMBG
Okay, first I'd like to mention that They Might Be Giants
have EIGHT albums out(self title, Lincoln, Misc. T, Flood,
Apollo 18, John Henery, Factory Showroom, and The Early
Years) and numerous singles. Second I'd like to say that
there are about 40 tracks on Apollo 18 and alot more than 18
on most of the others. Factory Showroom had only a
disapointing 20 or so. Third I'd like to say that if you
don't like ALL of They...'s songs, you don't really like
They... Thats like saying you don't like Whatever and Ever
Amen because it didn't sound the same.
NOW ON TO THE BFF RELATED STUFF~~~~~~~~
Anyone else on this list that will be at the Cleveland show
on Saturday night E-Mail me personaly at
EvilBison@bigfoot.com as soon as you read this. EVREYONE
going to the show PLEASE do this. Thanks kids,
Steve
PS
Has anyone herad that song "brick"? Wonder what it means.(he
he)
"On the run from Johnny Law... Ain't no trip to Cleveland"
~Dignan - Bottle Rocket~
"Go ahead you can laugh all you want, but I got my
philosophy"
~Ben Folds Five - Philosophy~
"Good... Bad... I'm the guy with the gun.
~Ash - Army of Darkenss~
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 97 21:34:34 -0500
From: "Scott A. Schneider" <echo@msn.globaldialog.com>
Subject: FAQ
>2. Do we have a FAQ so people can read first before asking questions that
>we(the early Armchair's;) ) have seen a thousand times already.
http://www.globaldialog.com/~echo/bff/bff_info.html
which is a subsidary of
http://www.globaldialog.com/~echo/bff/
If you know of questions which you would like to see on the FAQ which are
not already there, please e-mail me the questions (and the answers if you
have them) so that I can add 'em on in.
Thanks,
scott
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 22:39:52 -0700
From: Spidey the Fun-Licker <fruvousman@geocities.com>
Subject: Re: BFF / Moxy Fruvous
I just started getting this list, and only posted once before about how
Moxy Fruvous (my fave band) got me into BF5. Murray Foster, the bassist,
wears his BF5 shirt as much as possible. Being on tour and all so much,
I wonder how often it gets washed.....?
Anyway, there's been some talk on the Magical Armchair lately about good
bands for BF5 to cover. I definitely think they could cover some of the
less vocal Moxy songs. Not that they're not vocally talented, but most
Moxy songs have a lot of 4-part harmony and BF5 is only three people.
Still, there's some songs with piano and not as much of vocalizing.
They would also be very cool covering something by REM or Counting Crows
('Raining in Baltimore' by Crows comes to mind)
It's late, I'm tired, 3 days till I see Moxy again....long days.....
(someday I will post something NOT somehow related to Moxy and totally
BF5...I've just been on a huge Fruvous kick lately)
Spidey the Fun-Licker
- --
=====================================================
Spidey the Fun-Licker "Rochesterian Früfan Deluxe"
- -----------------------------------------------------
{{{{{{{{{"We keep dumping toxic wastes into our }}}}}
{{{{{lakes & rivers, and people are treating that}}}}
{{{{as a bad thing. But that's not necessarily a }}}}
{{{bad thing, 'cause we can always just flee }}}}}}}}
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{the planet."}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
*****************************************************
*To e-mail me, send mail to fruvousman@geocities.com*
******The address that my posts are from is fake*****
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 21:52:17 CST
From: "The Big Giant Head" <KARNOPPA@nsu001.northern.edu>
Subject: gotta do the cover song thing....
hola people--
here are my dos pesos about the whole cover song thing:
*the cardigans--"fine" or "carnival"
*elton john--"someone saved my life tonight"
*tori amos--"cornflake girl"
whatcha think?
- --adam
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 22:59:01 -0400
From: lpd105@psu.edu
Subject: Ben Folds Five List
okay, why are people putting chain mail on this list? i do not know i
thought this was a list about ben folds five not, chain letters. but, that
is just my opinion.
luke
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 23:09:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: The Computer GEEK! <jgore@bellatlantic.net>
Subject: umm
Hey....please do not send chain letter to the Armchair. That isn't very
cool. This is the Ben Folds list correct?
But I will say that besides the chain letter part, it was funny as hell. :)
***********************************************
"I've got this great idea
why don't we pitch it to the
Franklin Mint.
Fine pewter portraits of
General Apathy and Major Boredom singing
whatever and ever amen....."
Ben Folds Five "Battle Of Who Could Care Less"
############jason##############################
d.p.w. website http://nrvalley.com/dpw
Maximum Rock And Roll http://www.runet.edu/~jgore
***********************************************
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 23:43:31 EDT
From: sandishortcake@juno.com (Sandi Shorter)
Subject: St. Louis Show
Someone wrote (#257):
>> One of the more memorable moments was when Darren came up front to a
mic.
>>He stood there for about 20 seconds and somebody in the back of the
club
>>said, "Were you cool?" Darren said,"What?" The guy said, "Were you
cool in
>>school?" In a normal voice, Darren said, "No, I was never cool in
school"
> >He then said in the singing tone,"I'm sure you don't remember me" And
>>Underground went from there.
Just thought I'd let everyone know that was my friend Matt! The direct
quote was actually "Hey Darren! Were you cool?" and then Darren said
"What?" and he repeated "Are you cool?" And then he started with the "I
was never cool in school" thing and Robert actually did the "I'm sure you
don't remember me" part. Not that it matters...close enough. (I swear,
I'm not usually this anal!) Matt called me when he got back to Park
Hills, MO (where he lives) after the show at 3am (EST) to tell me all
about it. So when I read the above mention of him, I had to laugh...and
post a note. By the way, he is computer-less, but to whoever wrote that,
he said thanks for the "memorable moment" mention.
One more thing: I got Armchair issues #255 & #257 today, but no #256.
Was there a #256? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Sandi
"maybe i'm thinkin' myself in a hole, wondering who i am when i ought to
know" -BF5
check out my website (still under construction):
http://kent.edu/~sshorter
where we discuss strange dreams, the wallflowers, ben folds five, and
things that
piss us off. join us.
sandishortcake@juno.com
------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #258
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