THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR

The Ben Folds Five Digest

Issue #947 - April 18, 1998



Magical Armchair Digest    Saturday, April 18 1998    Volume 01 : Number 947



                          THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:

    Domo Ben Chan Desu and stuff
    Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #945
    Underground UK singles
    Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #945
    It's so unfair........
    The insurgency began and I missed it.....
    Y100 FEZ-tival
    Burt and BEN and I like American Music

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 00:26:11 -0500
From: "Louie Nash" <louie@tamu.edu>
Subject: Domo Ben Chan Desu and stuff

I drove downtown (College Station, Texas) in no rain, at about 9:30 on this
Thursday night, just to check out the late night record shop. Call it
impulsive, call it whatever...I just wanted some damn records.

At any rate, this town is STARVED for good music. We're just a good hour
and a half drive from the music capitol of the world (Austin) but the cd
shops here SUCK.

But what did I find when I went today? Well, I'll be everlastingly
goshswaggled, it was a copy of Domo Ben Chan Desu! And HOW MUCH were they
charging for it? CAN YOU BELIEVE FIFTY BUCKS?? Now THAT is insane. Granted,
it is a double CD, but it better be DAMNED good to warrant me giving up
$50... even for BFF.

Is this price consistent with what's being charged elsewhere? Am I just so
out of touch with the world that I don't know what it's worth? FIFTY
FREAKING DOLLARS?

Bo


louie@tamu.edu

"Usually when life gives me lemons I make lemonade. This time the bitch
didn't leave me any sugar."
- ---Me

"You never know when a dead rabbit might come in handy!"
- ---Jerry Mathers in Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 22:22:57 PDT 
From: "Chandra Hicks" <chanfifteen@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #945

burt bacharach was cool, but my mom had to come down stairs and kept 
talking the whole time, i'm glad i recorded it,"honey, is this the band 
you like so much, oooh, they're the ones that do brick? i love that 
song, next time they come to town, i want to go to the concert" "no mom, 
don't come to the concert with me" the same dysfunctional conversation i 
have whenever i'm in a fit of extreme fandom. 
anyway, i've been looking for some singles, i never know where to shop 
and with their growing popularity, they've probably been all snatched 
up, if any one could tell me where to find them (western WAshington) or 
at least give me an idea of where to start, (used cd stores) i'm totally 
cluelesss, and i want to expand my collection for more than 3 cd's. 
speaking of which, when is their new album coming out, i desperately 
need to know!!
chandra

here's me being cliche:
"you started to cry, you were too high, too high"
bonus scream

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 01:14:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: Tim Martin <marti151@tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Underground UK singles

Hello armchair--

I have a couple of extra CD singles of the 2-part "Underground" UK
release. The songs on these 2 CD's are:

Underground (Radio edit and album version)
Satan Is My Master (LIVE)
Video (LIVE)
Jackson Cannery (LIVE)
Underground (LIVE)

I'd be interested in trading these for a high quality boot, or original
photos, or anything else BFF related that might be of interest. Email me
at: marti151@tc.umn.edu

I also have some great photos from the 1997 H.O.R.D.E. show in Somerset,
Wisconsin. If anyone is interested in trading for other photos or anything
else, email me privately.

Thanks,  Tim

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 02:31:52 EDT
From: FHudetz <FHudetz@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #945

In a message dated 98-04-16 20:22:54 EDT, you write:

<< yeah, we tend to just, like, wash with ours. ;)
 
     rich >>

guh.....

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 23:26:35 +1200
From: DAsh <tifosi@xtra.co.nz>
Subject: It's so unfair........

So I'm here in New Zealand, and I've been listening to Ben Folds Five
for a year and a half, and I found that I couldn't get enough stuff
about them (New Zealanders being a bit slow on the uptake- 'Brick' only
just being played on radio). Then I get a computer recently and think
"Cool. In can go to their website and join a newsgroup", which I have,
and it's very good and all, but..... all I read about is the great BFF
concerts you guys go to and their performances on TV etc. It makes me so
incredibly jealous. I've just ordered in 'Naked Baby Photos' (which I
only heard about the other day on the net), but it's likely to take
weeks to get here from the States. 
 Think yourselves very lucky!!!!! I hope they become so popular here
that it warrants a tour. In the meantime.... I'll just keep reading your
posts and wishing.

Duncan.

PS: Anyone else from NZ on this list? Or even Australia? It'd be cool to
hear from you.

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 13:38:31 GMT
From: "Mark Piper" <mfp540@novell3.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: The insurgency began and I missed it.....

Hi hi hi,

	Well, all I can say is DOH!. Bloody typical. I spend hours in front 
of a computer during term time, waiting for those little droplets of 
BFF information to crop up so I can slap them on my webpage as soon 
as possible. And then I dare to go away for three weeks. And what do 
I find?? A whole load of new tour dates announced, the Brick single 
finally released at a time when I wasn't able to let anybody know 
about it, apparently they play "This Morning With Richard & Judy" (is 
this true????!!!), and, AND, I miss a heated debate about US vs UK. 
Damn, I hate it when I miss out on those! If I was paranoid, I would 
think that this was all an evil plan by Ben Folds Five, their record 
company, and more importantly, YOU, to discredit me and my website. 
Ah, see, you may not realise it, but you are. You're against me. Your 
mind is being altered to foster nasty thoughts about me.... But, you 
shall not win. I shall rule supreme. Brou-ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha. 
HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAA!

Ahem.

Mark
+------------------------------------------------------+
|     mfp540@bham.ac.uk   pipermf@ugs2.ph.bham.ac.uk    |
|     Ben Folds Five: Looks, Brains & Everything -     |
|   http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/5430/bff.html |
+------------------------------------------------------+

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 08:44:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Eric Gugick <gugick2@TCNJ.EDU>
Subject: Y100 FEZ-tival

Melissa and others ,
I have more info about the Y100 show.  OK.  Like I said it's May 29 at the
E-Centre in Camden, NJ.  Tix go on sale April 25.  I have no clue how much
they are.  Here's the lineup so far:

BEN FOLDS FIVE
Greenday
Everclear
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Fastball
Marcy Playground
Cherry Poppin Daddies
Cornershop

More bands will be added soon.

Eric

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 10:10:39 -0400
From: Brendan Noone <bnoone@junosystems.com>
Subject: Burt and BEN and I like American Music

Someone wrote:
"I didn't even know who that Burt guy was, but as long as Ben Folds Five
was playing I didn't care."  

First, I thoroughly enjoyed the Burt tribute on TNT.  When Burt introduced
BFF he said "Here is a hot new band that is exploding on the scene...." I
was grinning from ear to ear.  I have yet to get Raindrops out of my head
and I hope it is released on a B-side.  This performance reenforces the
fact that BFF is really a great cover band.  Twin Fall, Jelly, Video Killed
all have traces of the original and have the BFF unique sound.   

This is really going to be an important "off-season"  for the band.  They
are still touring their ass off but they definitely need sometime off
before they record again.  They are going to have VERY high expectations
and they will be tempted   to do things they may not have been there a year
and a half ago when they were working on "Whatever."   I wish them the best
and expect the best.  I think they are the best American band we have today.  

On the comment which started this post.....that is very disappointing.
Burt is one of the finest writers this century has to offer.  He was the
Cole Porter of his time.  Look up people like Porter, Burt, Gershwin,
Irivng Berlin and look at their song book, educate yourself on great
American music.  Look up some Jazz and R&B (Coltrane) from the first half
of this century.  You will be amazed. It's all very crafty writing that
will stand the test of time.  
I think Ben has some of these qualities (Entertainment Weekly even called
him Gershwin-esque) and he is not that far from the tree when it comes to
these styles but he has a long way to go.  He has decades to go.

Have fun. I expect a 1000 word essay by Monday.

Later,
B

------------------------------


End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #947
**************************************


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