THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #166 - December 5, 1996
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #166
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Topics for Today:
Re: BFF & Derryberry & Alagia
Found Substitutes (Archers/Jason Falkner)
"Philosophy" Intro and other mumbo jumbo
klezmatics
Re: THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #164
another BFF review
Oz BDO Tour
BFF: A few things
Re: Australian tour dates
pittsburgh?
Adam (AJ) Metz and BF5
[NO SUBJECT]
Re: Q magazine
BF5 in Triple J Hottest 100.
Ben in WPB and the next generation
BF5 in concert
need Boxing help
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 09:18:36 -0500
From: BSCHACK@aol.com
Subject: Re: BFF & Derryberry & Alagia
<<So here is the question - what work has Ben Folds or BFF done with Alagia &
Derryberry? Are Alagia and Derryberry producing the upcoming Sony release?
Frank, do you know how they are related?
Any info would be great.....Thx!
Rich>>
Rich-
FYI - There is little relationship between Derryberry & Alagia and BFF.
Besides being friends, the only relationship I know of (and I know them
pretty well) is that John Alagia is in the process (just finished) taping
live BFF in England for Sony. I don't think this is related to the upcoming
studio release, and I'm quite sure that Derryberry and Alagia had nothing to
do with that studio release.
Incidentally, 'working with Hootie' is a slight exageration - Derryberry's
current band, 'The Emptys' ONCE opened up for Hootie in D.C.
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 19:18:56 -0600
From: Adam Metz <ajmetz@students.wisc.edu>
Subject: Found Substitutes (Archers/Jason Falkner)
I found two records to listen to while waiting for BF5, one of which is
pretty similar to Ben's songwriting style.
1. Jason Falkner (ex-Jellyfish/Grays)
2. Archers of Loaf - All The Nation's Airports
Both are great Elektra releases (thank you Jane Bloch).
P.S. Saw/partied with Nada Surf the other night in Madison. Dynamite
show. They even covered 2 Stooges songs, and one Chavez song. Gotta get
that new Chavez LP.
--->A.J. Metz
Adam Metz
http://harker.coolware.com/ajmetz.html
538 W. Mifflin #1
Madison, WI 53703
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 22:43:16 -0500
From: Treesapper@aol.com
Subject: "Philosophy" Intro and other mumbo jumbo
Hey all...I am a piano player, and fan of, of course, with a helpful hint on
the Philosophy intro for all you ivorysters. BF5 gave a couple of shows at
the Khyber Pass in Phila in the Fall of 1995 (the Khyber unfortunately closed
down a few weeks ago...boo hiss). I was lucky enough to get a few words in
with Ben after one of his shows...he showed me his whole piano setup, the
effects box (if this was even what it was called) installed in his
piano...pretty neat stuff. Anyway, I told him that I had been trying to
figure out the piano intro to "Philosophy," and for some reason, it wasn't
sounding quite right (probably because I wasn't Ben...). But, in terms of
the actual notes/voicings, what he showed me in his left hadn helps to define
the sound of that intro. As most musicians know (and this really applies to
pianists & guitarists), it's not just the chord that you play, but how you
voice that chord which helps to create the texture and feel, etc. What Ben
showed me is that he uses a 10th interval in his left hand (C and E one
octave above) underneath his right hand melody, which makes for a really nice
sound. He could have used a third or something, but that would sound too,
well, just not satisfying. Obviously it's these subtleties that make a good
musician. What I'm really saying is that I like how Ben distributes his
notes, from his simplicity in "Boxing" to his very appropriate use of crazy
kick ass bangin' clusters. And if done right, boy it does sound fine. I
think that Ben probably is a fan of Monk, eh? So, the tip: if you can reach
the 10th (which I unfortunately cannot...I always roll them) and you want to
get the true sound of that Philosophy intro, well, gosh darnit, use it! Oh,
and by the way, I play muzak (I HAVE to play New Ageish/pop stuff) at this
posh hotel for some extra cash, and I can probably be one of the first to say
that I played a muzak version of "Alice Childress," full of arpeggios n
all...I just couldn't play any more "Memories" or Barry Manilow! I needed
something that didn't start out as muzak. Sorry Ben, even your songs will
probably not be able to escape the elevator/supermarket market...
Good day for now,
Treesapper
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 21:16:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Spy Swatter <mb19202@conrad.appstate.edu>
Subject: klezmatics
the klezmatics are a Klezmer band....Klezmer being traditional jewish
dance music...its really good. Itzhak Perlman (sp?) plays w/ the
Klezmatics..they kick ass...its not really rock n' roll, but its still
some pretty great music.
........................................Matt
"I would dazzle you with brilliance if I only had the knack"
--Danny
Elfman
E-mail: mb19202@appstate.edu
http://www.runet.edu/~hbarton
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 23:35:45 -0500 (EST)
From: sandi stanway <sandist@cancom.net>
Subject: Re: THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #164
Hi.
This is my first time writing into you BF5 folks. I have read comments from
the United States, Britain and other parts of the world including Australia.
I have read very few comments from Canada. Am I one of only a handful of
people who have heard of these guys? And better yet, has BF5 ever heard of
Canada? Does Ben tour here? If so, does anyone know when BF5 will be in the
Edmonton or Northern Alberta area? They wouldn't by chance be planning a
trip to Yellowknife, NWT would they? Can someone please answer these questions.
Thanks.
sandist@cancom.net
winter is here in the north!
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 01:55:08 -0800
From: Steve VanDevender <stevev@efn.org>
Subject: another BFF review
At http://www.furia.com/twas/twas0068.html, Glenn McDonald writes a
positively glowing review of the debut album of our favorite band. A
quote that pretty much sums up his feelings is:
"The thought that Ben Folds Five might someday make another album leaves
me weak and flustered, but convinced, for a few happy minutes, that
perhaps the entire world isn't plummeting inexorably to hell after all."
http://www.furia.com/twas also contains reviews of dozens of other
artists, including some of my favorites like Happy Rhodes, Laurie
Anderson, Jane Siberry, and Sarah McLachlan.
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 18:43:33 +0800
From: Jeff Philip <spoony@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Oz BDO Tour
What's going on with this supposed Big Day Out Tour??
I saw that their management guaranteed their appearance on the BDO but I
haven't seen anything about them in the BDO ads or on JJJ.
Does anyone know what's going on with this?
Seeya
Jeff
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 19:10:24 -0600 (CST)
From: Bill Tatalovich <wt3@cec.wustl.edu>
Subject: BFF: A few things
Hey all--
I just figured I'd post again and mention a few things. Here goes:
1. I'm beginning to realize that Ben and Co. play a very limited range
of covers. Don't get me wrong, I love hearing a piano-ized version of
"Killing in the Name"...I don't know. In fact, I don't know why I
mentioned this. The covers they do are great (anyone else heard them do
"Freebird"? Funny as hell...). I guess I just wish they would expand
their horizons a little more.
2. BTW, the Klezmatics are a group of folks who play, well, klezmar
music. Klezmar music is really interesting, and sort of hard to
explain. I myself had never heard of them until I got a copy of some
sound cues they did (under commission) for a production of "The Dybbuk",
a Yiddish play...anyways, their newest album is "Jews With Horns" (I
think), and I think it's worth checking out. Accordians, clarinets, the
whole bit. Not much like BFF, mind you, but if you have a few extra bucks...
3. AAAHHHHHH!!!! All these posts about the tour in Europe is giving me
a hankering to see them again. I assume I'll have to wait until next
summer before this hankering....damn.
4. I also subscribe to the They Might Be Giants mailing list, and some
bloke posted and said everyone should boycott Ben Folds Five because
they're homophobic and all this s***. It involved an interview Ben did
with some European newspaper, I think. The guy didn't give details, so I
think he's full of it. Anyone know anything about this?
Okay, long post. Gotta go now. See y'all around the Armchair.
Bill Tatalovich
wt3@cec.wustl.edu
"Are you crazy man? You didn't notice her? You must be blind..."
--Polaris (the guys from The Adventures of Pete & Pete)
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 14:31:44 +1000
From: Tim Grave <tj_grave@postoffice.utas.edu.au>
Subject: Re: Australian tour dates
With regard to a BFF Australian tour, are BFF actually playing at the Big
Day Out? I've haven't heard them mentioned on any promos and the local
alternate radio station (JJJ) has played a couple of songs off the albulm
and I thought they would've given the guys a plug.
If anyone knows any other tour dates if the band is actually coming down
under then I'd love to hear from them; I might actually fly over from
Tasmania if I can see BFF!!!
Thanks,
TIM
tj_grave@postoffice.sandybay.utas.edu.au
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 23:48:23 -0500 ()
From: Ben Kartzman <kartzman@cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: pittsburgh?
when are they coming back to pittsburgh. a few of my
friends here, including myself, are avid fans of bff. i
was wondering if i could obtain any live tapes/bootlegs
of the band from recent tour stops, and when are they
coming back to PITTSBURGH?
----------------------
Ben Kartzman
kartzman@cyrus.andrew.cmu.edu
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 01 Dec 1996 23:55:59 -0600
From: Geoffrey McNulty <gmcnulty@students.wisc.edu>
Subject: Adam (AJ) Metz and BF5
Don't listen to AJ metz folks!!! He has no idea what he is talking about!!!
Jut kiddin, Adam (AJ) is my friend and he knows everything. Now if I could
only find the Tom Jones record that I lost....
Geoff
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| "We're glowing together
Geoffrey McNulty | surrounded by snow.
gmcnulty@students.wisc.edu | The world is the worst place
(608) 264-0123 | we'll never know."
| --Reed Sutter
------------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1993 01:00:43 +0000
From: <alice1@zipangnet.or.jp>
To: maynard@oeonline.com
Subject:
Hello. I'm not sure where this message is headed, but I intended it to
reach the Ben Folds Five mailing list. I am a teacher in Kanazawa,
Japan. Last Spring, one of my students loaned me your CD and I have
really enjoyed the living s*** out of it ever since. I almost made it
to your concert in Osaka last June or July I think; then, this past
August, I almost made it to your show at the Nissan Pavillion up in
Northern Virginia while I was home visiting my family and friends. You
were playing with Neil Young at this show and I am also a towering Neil
Young fan, but sadly, I can also be fantastically lazy so I slacked out.
Enough of this crap. Surely there is a new CD coming soon, or perhaps a
few timely and sensitive selections to appear on some seasonal box-
office smashing movie soundtrack. From the sleeve of your first CD, I
noticed that your mailing address is Chapel Hill, NC. I have some
friends head-quartered there, including Dave and Mary from the timely
and sensitive popular music ensemble 'Southern Culture On the Skids';
and a curmudgeonly, young soul brother who works at the local 'Record
Exchange' CD shop named Phred. Take care and send me something if it's
free. Bill Jackman
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 1996 00:22:17 -0500
From: tkuri@ix.netcom.com
Subject: Re: Q magazine
Q magazine choosed the BFF album as one of the best 10 album of 1996 in
UK. Check it out.
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 08:21:08 +1100 (EST)
From: Derek Scott <scoco@netspace.net.au>
Subject: BF5 in Triple J Hottest 100.
Hellllloo all.
I just heard a thing on Triple J (Aussie radio station, Aust. wide)
advertising their Hottest 100, which is a really big listeners' voting poll
held every year. (i.e. ppl ring in or email their favourite song from 1996
and then they're all put together and the one with the most votes comes
first, etc.) They play the whole lot on January 12th next year, and then
they put about 32 of them in a douvle CD thing and sell it. The guy was
calling a car race where the two cars in front were The Cranberries
"Salvation" and Ben Folds Five "Underground" (which is of course what I
voted for) and Ben Folds Five ended up winning the race. So it seems that
more Aussies have heard and liked BF5's tune than I thought, and have been
voting for them. I'd say it will be one of the 100. So I'll keep voting for
them, coz you can vote as many times as you want, I think (well I did last
year), and I'll keep u posted.
Claire :)
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 96 19:10 EST
From: Clayton W Nicholson <cwn48400@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu>
Subject: Ben in WPB and the next generation
So does anyone have a scoop on what will be on the new album? Is it all new
material, or possibly some imports that I've been dying to hear? I saw BFF
last summer on June 4th at the Carefree in Florida, and Ben mentioned
something about high school. The crowd was mostly high school students, the
most coverage on the band was from a radio station geared toward the student
population of the School Board of Palm Beach county (burn in hell,
bastards). Ben asked how many ppl were in 12th grade, and about half the
audience raised hands. Ben expressed how much he hated high school, and that
he should write a song about it. Just wondering if it is a reality.
Did my eyes deceive me? Did BFF play something from Rage Against the
Machine? That's incredible. The piano must have suffered after that one. My
musical tastes wander away from most things similar to BFF, and RAM is high
on my list. Kick A$$.
Rest in Pieces.
ACiD RAiN
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~cwn48400
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 09:31:10 -0500 (EST)
From: Alexander Jay Timin <ajtimin@freenet.scri.fsu.edu>
Subject: BF5 in concert
To anyone looking for tapes of BF5 in concert, I have 2, and I am happy
to trade. Mail me off the list at:
ajtimin@freenet.tlh.fl.us
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 10:43:03 -0500
From: Brad654@aol.com
Subject: need Boxing help
Can any of my fellow armchair-ites email me a chord chart for Boxing? I'm
supposed to play it Fri Dec 13 and i don't have time to sit down and figure
it ou. Help please????
Brad
brad654@aol.com
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