THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #302 - May 15, 1997
Magical Armchair Digest Thursday, May 15 1997 Volume 01 : Number 302
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
The Battle of I Care A Lot
Angry Dwarfs!!!!
origin of "song for the dumped" & minneapolis related stuff
Well...
Oh Me Oh My I am New
VOTE FOR BF5 COVER NOW!
new....
300 Solemn Issues
it's not a tumor...
re: Toronto Show--Lee's
HORDE
name!
Solemn Faces
I'm confused
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #278
Kudos to Jonny for giving Kudos and all that
Re: If you like BFF, then you'll like...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 17:30:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Eric <ejmatsuda@ucdavis.edu>
Subject: The Battle of I Care A Lot
Today I finally bought "Whatever & Ever, Amen". I have been meaning to
since before the album even came out but I never got around to it. Part
of the reason is that I'm a cheapskate, and I wanted to wait until I found
it on sale. Well for the last two or three weeks I had been seeing it at
The Wherehouse for $11.99. Its a featured CD there, they had it at a
special listening booth, and when you go to the bF5 section theres a big
cardboard sign with a paragraph or two about the band.
So finally today I go in to buy it, and I see the card still there.
$11.99 cool...so I take this item up to the register and they ring it up
as $18.92!!
well it only took me about two and a half seconds to alert this guy that
the sign said $11.99. So he goes to check, and asks around if the sale
was still on or not, and it wasn't. So he comes back with the sign in his
hand, and he rips it up, and he is clearly pissed off. Like I was out to
show him up or something. Well shit, I didn't do anything...no need to
take it out on the customer. I just wanted to save some extra bucks,
almost enough to buy the "Battle of Who Could Care Less" import single.
I got an $18.92 CD for $12.96. Compare it with Tower who also has it
"on sale" for $14.99. I don't care, $14.99 is not a sale price.
What was the point of this story?? "I like stories", as Homer Simpson
would say. And I'm currently enjoying the spils of my victory. "Whatever
and Ever, Amen" is so far the best album of '97!
Eric Matsuda
ejmatsuda@ucdavis.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 09:29:52 -0700
From: Maita <maita@pworld.net.ph>
Subject: Angry Dwarfs!!!!
Hello there, I have just been a mere onlooker of this wonderful mailing
list, until now. About this naming issue, I agree with most people that
Angry Dwarfs is the one.
(This is respectfully directed to John Boyer) Yes, maybe we are putting
oursleves on the same pedestal as Ben Folds upon naming oursleves the Angry
Dwarfs. I believe that we revere him much more than that, though. These
people are suggesting Angry Dwarfs as a way of respect to Ben Folds, not to
put him down to our "level" as you may assume.
Thank you for listening. Or is it reading? :)
*******************************
*MAITA :} *
*maita@pworld.net.ph *
*******************************
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 20:43:22 -0500
From: "Clasen, Benjamin P" <BPCLASEN@CSBSJU.EDU>
Subject: origin of "song for the dumped" & minneapolis related stuff
i have a bff bootleg of the 7th st. entry show in minneapolis 4/95.
they mostly play stuff from the first album, but half way through ben
says "things are gonna get pretty fucking serious for this next song.
this is a poignant breakup song - and darren jessee - our drummer was
very hurt and he scratched down a painful letter to himself or to god or
whoever before he passed out from emotional exhaustion. soon after he
passed out, robert and i picked up the lyric and realized its full
potential." they proceeded to play "song for the dumped" in a form
different from what they would record a year later, but very much the
same. talking with a friend and a fellow fiver, she said that she had
heard that that was the first time it had ever been done. i was just
wondering if anyone knew anything that would support or contradict this
information - this is just coming from curiosity and lack of motivation
for studying for finals.
I will be at the june 4 first ave. show in minneapolis - wondering if
any of you guys want to meet prior to the show. i know you have been
meeting or whatever, but being out of the area at school, i have not
been able to make it to any of your friday night gatherings... can
somebody fill me in on what you have been doing/figuring out? whatever.
lemme know.
ben
bpclasen@csbsju.edu
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 20:55:48 -0500 (CDT)
From: Edward A Weinstein <wein0047@gold.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Well...
OK... I'm working on making the Japanese homepage cooler, and i am sort
of wondering if there's folks out there who have any band photos and the
like that they've snapped at live shows and such that can be donated to
the cause in electronic format. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Next order of business: let's not call ourselves anything. Not a single
name will be agreed upon by everyone, and I for one don't want any name
at all to begin with... I'm perfectly happy being "Ed" and I think
there's a lot of folks out there who aren't keen on getting more names
than they already have. Just one man's opinion....
Ed
Rose- where are ya?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 21:59:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: Megrooonie@aol.com
Subject: Oh Me Oh My I am New
Hi everyone,
I've been on this list for a short while, and I've been sort of sitting
back and taking it all in. Pretty neato! Anyways, I was wondering are there
any people out there who would be willing to trade for my measly 3 shows? Or
possibly to do a blanks and postage for me? I alos have a lot of DMB that I
can trade, but I really want some BFF. Email me privately.
Megrooonie@aol.com
Thanks.. =)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 97 22:21:38 -0500
From: Michael Bluejay <bluejay@pobox.com>
Subject: VOTE FOR BF5 COVER NOW!
Thanks to the 32 people who voted since the weekend! Sorry to take up so
much Armchair space by posting the ballot again, but I need LOTS more
votes! The band isn't going to take our opinions seriously unless we get
a good sample. Anyway, I'm going to compromise and only post the ballot
here twice more (around 5/17 and 5/21), so as not to clog up the Armchair
too much, before voting ends on 5/23. Vote now, dammit! Here's my
original post from issue #296:
Time to vote on which song you'd most like to see BF5 cover! I've
compiled all your suggestions into a ballot, which appears below. (If
you failed send me your cover suggestion, then it is ABSOLUTELY too late
to do so now.)
HERE'S HOW TO VOTE. Please follow the instructions OTHERWISE YOUR VOTE
WILL NOT BE COUNTED! Vote by copying the entire ballot into a new mail,
and addressing the mail directly to me (bluejay@pobox.com). BALLOTS SENT
TO THE ENTIRE ARMCHAIR WILL BE DISQUALIFIED, even if they're sent
directly to me later. You may vote for up to 5 songs, on a scale of 1 to
5, which 5 being your FAVORITE. Put the number representing your choice
before each song title. For EXAMPLE:
5 Conjunction Junction Schoolhouse Rock driver8_@hotmail.com
2 Cornflake Girl Tori Amos Bnanakingg@aol.com
Desafinado Antonio Carlos Jobim KingBuzz3@aol.com
1 Dirty Work Steely Dan Qualitease@aol.com
4 Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead scoco@netspace.net.au
Fat Bottom Girls Queen RAVESLAVE@aol.com
3 Get into the Groove Madonna holyboy@minn.net
The song that gets the highest numerical score wins, though of course
I'll post the scores for ALL songs at the end of the voting period. I'll
accept ballots for nearly two weeks, ending at noon CST on Friday, May
23rd.
------------------------ BEGIN BALLOT -------------------------------
Cover Suggestion Original Artist Suggested by
---------------------------------------------------------------------
99 Toto cynthia@people.timeinc.com
Africa Toto sjlewis@students.uiuc.edu
After the Gold Rush Neil Young franbu@mail.bogo.co.uk
All For Lena Billy Joel SoapScribe@aol.com
Bohemian Rhapsody Queen PERCYSTAR@aol.com
Come on Eileen Dexy's Midnite Runners YQCN18A@prodigy.com
Conjunction Junction Schoolhouse Rock driver8_@hotmail.com
Cornflake Girl Tori Amos Bnanakingg@aol.com
Desafinado Antonio Carlos Jobim KingBuzz3@aol.com
Dirty Work Steely Dan Qualitease@aol.com
Fake Plastic Trees Radiohead scoco@netspace.net.au
Fat Bottom Girls Queen RAVESLAVE@aol.com
Get into the Groove Madonna holyboy@minn.net
Good Vibrations Beach Boys stuart@optics.rochester.edu
Great Balls of Fire Jerry Lee Lewis rosaliem@bbs.exoticomm.com
I Touch Myself The Divinyls EtKreitzer@vassar.edu
Jungle Boogie Kool & the Gang? chakroff@ee.net
Kiss Off Violent Femmes Heyzeus@swbell.net
Kung Fu Fighting Carl Douglas KOENIJ22@uwosh.edu
Kiss Prince LaRubia@compuserve.com
Let's Go Crazy Prince un036034@wvnvaxa.wvnet.edu
Paradise by the
Dashboard Light Meatloaf mcdonpj3@wfu.edu
Piece of My Heart Janis Joplin dmauer@earthlink.net
Second Hand News Fleetwood Mac mhfoster@artsci.wustl.edu
Shaft (Theme from) Isaac Hayes Shan111111@aol.com
Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana bluejay@pobox.com
Social Disease Elton John DBombay1@aol.com
Somebody to Love Queen mcdonpj3@wfu.edu
Stayin' Alive Bee Gees GenLand18
Synchronicity I The Police Brad654@aol.com
Take Five Dave Brubeck? RFAA93A@prodigy.com
Tear the Roof off
the Sucker Parliament eh204@is6.nyu.edu
Three Years Ago Today Built to Spill MERSSM@rascal.guilford.edu
The Tick (Theme to) ??? jschweiss@sirus.com
We're Gonna Groove Led Zeppelin sexysamselvaggio@msn.com
While My Guitar
Gently Weeps Beatles damer@nwu.edu
You're So Vain Carly Simon TreeSapper@aol.com
-------------------------- END BALLOT -------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://pobox.com/bluejay | Home of AUSTIN MUSIC, KING CHEESE,
| BIKING IN AUSTIN, VEGETARIAN pages, & more
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 13 May 1997 23:17:48 -0500
From: 777 <mpearson@mailhub-2.spirit-lake.k12.ia.us>
Subject: new....
Hey there everyone,
I'm new to this list and I'm sure you have covered this before but bear
with me, please. I'm wondering if there are any piano chord progressions
for BFF's songs on the 'net. I'm interested primarily in their new song
"Evaporated," but I'd like any I can take a look at....
THANKS!!
Later,
Mickeyx Pearson
=w= #2158
"You can run, jump, sit, or stand around
but not for long unless you've found
Jesus Christ, God, Son and Sacrifice.
Believe in Him, He'll open up your eyes."
"Fight, and you may die. Run, and you'll live, for at least a while. And
dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all
the days, from this day to that, for one chance, JUST ONE CHANCE, to come
back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll
never take our freedom."
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 00:16:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mitch Armbruster <marmbru@email.unc.edu>
Subject: 300 Solemn Issues
Well, congratulations to Frank for making it to 300 issues of the
Armchair. As a special gift, I guess, Issue #300 contained no entire
quoted digests and only one unsubscribe request. It was a classic issue :)
On another note, it was recently noted that Kate will be released as the
next single at least in some places. Does anyone know if it will contain
any new B-sides? I see that there are some unreleased demo songs floating
around from the Whatever recordings and would like to get a listen....
- - Mitch Armbruster
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 00:56:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Aneehall73@aol.com
Subject: it's not a tumor...
AND it's not ebonics that that young man was spose to be speaking in. ( i
don't think...) he was doing more of a sterotypical rastafarian-type
dialect.
sorry to be so picky, but i just keep seeing so many people refer to it
incorrectly.
not that any of this should matter anyway, cause it is certainly not
ben-related. right? good. swell.
love to all from aneehall73 and the 5% nation of cavity creeps.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 03:34:56 -0400 (EDT)
From: KDM92772@aol.com
Subject: re: Toronto Show--Lee's
Umm...
yes. thst is being bigoted. what's to be curious about...why should it
matter.
sorry...just had to comment,
**bf5 content....finally got all the singles from both albums. I'm a happy
girl. got a couple from cdnow, and also from Pandora's music box.
And my homepage is being updated, as always...I borrowed a picture from you,
ruprecht, if you are on here....
http://members.tripod.com/~weefer/index/html
Thanks, fivers...
Cheesily...Kristin
"Okay, it's not the finely detailed insanity that you've come
to expect from me....it's just a theory."--Mulder
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 04:02:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Leif297@aol.com
Subject: HORDE
Apparently, there's gonna be a HORDE show here in Detroit on June 5th. Anyone
know if BFF will be playing that one?
Ian Bower
Leif297@aol.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 06:11:49 -0400 (EDT)
From: SETH1234@aol.com
Subject: name!
uh, about the naming thing for this list, i dont think it should be "The
angry dwarfs" for 2 reasons, first BFF doesnt seem like an "angry" band
so...2 the name of POE's list on the internet is called the "angry Psychos"
not like you would know that but its kind of a rip off, ya know? anyway, i
dont have any suggestions right now since im tryin to think of band names for
myself and a couple friends so im kinda out of names...Sorry! well have a
good one and if i do think of somethin ill definitely post it! lata
Seth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 09:48:57 -0400
From: dmaceach@is2.dal.ca (Daniel MacEachern)
Subject: Solemn Faces
Hi.
I don't like the idea of calling fans Solemn Faces for a couple of reasons -
1. The Solemn Faces are all the people (in the song, anyway) who made life
hell for Ben. Maybe he's exaggerated it a bit, maybe it's a metaphor,
maybe he's totally made them up, but they would be the Anti-Ben Folds Five
group, I would think. Whatever.
2. I am anything but solemn when I listen to BFF.
What if we call ourselves the High Fives? I'm not keen on distinguishing
fans on the Armchair from fans who aren't, simply because some people don't
have access to e-mail.
Daniel
Halifax
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:00:00 -0000
From: "Bryan L. Brown" <idaho@appstate.campus.mci.net>
Subject: I'm confused
What is this about Angry Dwarves and Solemn Faces (and don't say they're
lyrics to a BFF tune--thanks, I know). Jeez. You don't have time to read
a couple of the newsletters and the world around you changes.
So what is the deal? Are you proposing to change the name of the mailing
list from The Magical Armchair (which I personally think is about as cool
as a name for a mailing list can be). Someone please explain this to me so
I can have some rational input here.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:08:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: EM7036@cnsvax.albany.edu
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #278
How about Folders?
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:20:04 -0000
From: "Bryan L. Brown" <idaho@appstate.campus.mci.net>
Subject: Kudos to Jonny for giving Kudos and all that
Thanks for supporting the fight against ebonics Jonny. While the Armchair
should strive to be an open and honest channel to those that love BFF,
political correctness should not be an issue. The whole PC thing pisses me
off entirely. I think we could avoid the whole PC business if we just BE
KIND TO ONE ANOTHER AND SAY WHAT WE FEEL.
We're all intelligent, somewhat liberal-minded, and intelligent individuals
here. Now back to the real news on BFF.
Is anyone else tired of hearing BoWCCL played on the local pop station
followed by a DJ who calls Ben, Darren and Robert "neat" or "a return to
the feel-good era"? I propose that we as members of the Armchair should
call or send nasty mail to any DJ who we hear say something like "Wow!
This song just makes me want to tap my toes" or "I've been a fan of these
guys for a long time--since the record company first sent us the demo of
this track". Do you see my point?
I'm happy that BFF is no doubt profiting from their recent success, but at
the same time I feel alienated by the exposure of my favorite three guys to
the mindless minions who watch miniseries religiously, say "Whatever" alot
(you know, the whole Clueless thing), and think that Ben sound like a
"happy Billy Joel".
That's all
Bryan L. Brown
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 14 May 1997 11:36:03 -0400 (EDT)
From: Beth2459@aol.com
Subject: Re: If you like BFF, then you'll like...
I would like to recommend a band to everybody sitting on the Armchair- pretty
big chair, huh?? They are called SAMEASYOU. I heard a song they have on a
compilation CD " We've Come Here to Chew Bubblegum and Kick Ass and We're All
Out of Bubblegum" and could not get it out of my head. VERY BFF-esque, catchy
and poppy in a good way. I emailed them and when I compared them to BFF they
were flattered, as they are fans, too.
Well, I finally got to see them live last week and they were quite enjoyable.
They even do a song about working in a factory, and with that and their name
(Jackson Cannery??) it is almost an homage to the boys. If you are in the
Boston area, check them out. You can email them at SAMEASMAIL@aol.com and ask
for a copy of the tape which has said "factory" song on it.
See you all on the 27th AND 28th!!
beth
------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #302
**************************************
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