THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR

The Ben Folds Five Digest

Issue #378 - June 28, 1997



Magical Armchair Digest    Saturday, June 28 1997    Volume 01 : Number 378



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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:

    Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #375 
    FOR CHICAGO BFF FANS 
    Aussies UNITE!
    Re:favourite songs 
    summerstage and stuff
    VCR Alerts, Trade Bait, and Other shtuff...
    Summerstage show 
    Out of my way...
    guster for your bff?
    BFF @ Central Park Summerstage
    Kicked off the armchair...
    Intro and best-from-albums-game 

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

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 20:41:08 -0400 (EDT)
From: Schmooze1@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #375 

BFF in Central Park.....

After missing BFF in New Orleans and then missing them twice in DC, I caught
the  Ben Folds Five, or should I say seven with the new strings section.  I
was overall pretty pleased, many of the songs from their second album come
across alot better on stage.  The strings section was pretty cool, my only
dissapointment was no Jackson Cannery or Where's Summer B, but then again,
they were cut short to make way for a band called Morphine.  Well, that's
news from the front.

Andrew Lachman

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

Date: Thu, 26 Jun 1997 22:17:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: Excus7teen@aol.com
Subject: FOR CHICAGO BFF FANS 

for everyone in Chicago- the BFF show at the Metro will be played on JBTV
this Saturday at 11:00 pm. (i don't know what channel it would be on cause
everyone's is different) 
and to the person that asked about the picture from Rolling stone a few years
back i have that picture it says that they're all closet 70s soft rock
listeners and that their look can be described as the "Mr Rogers aesthetic."
  
ok bye
m.


Well I'm so sorry that yr band fucking sucks.>>>>>>>>>>>>>> coldcoldhearts
           

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 11:35:22 +0800 (WST)
From: Jodie Poole <jpoole@tartarus.uwa.edu.au>
Subject: Aussies UNITE!

Hi there fellow BFF fans,
	Just a message for all Australian fans out there.  I think we
should all write a letter to BFF asking them when they're gonna get their
butts over here!  C'mon guys, it won't take long and if we all write, well
who knows what'll happen.  Here's the address:
		Ben Folds Five
		PO Box 1028
		Chapel Hill
		NC  27514-1028
I've already sent my letter, so I'm hoping some of you out there will
give me some backup.

Thanks!
Jodie
"Maybe I'm a kite that's flying high and random dangling on a string"
							Ben Folds

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 00:04:31 EDT 
From: lilac_girl@juno.com (amanda Woletz)
Subject: Re:favourite songs 

alright, here are my faves...

*1*jackson cannery
*2*fair
*3*brick
*4*where's summer b?
*5*alice childress
*6*kate
*7*sports and wine
*8*uncle walter
*9*steven's last night in town
*10*battle of who could care less
*11*the last polka!!
*12*evaporated

bff=6
waea=6
hey!  that worked out pretty good!!

amanda

***UiN 1615107***
**one minute you're waiting for the sky to fall
the next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all**
*lovers in a dangerous time*- barenaked ladies

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 00:44:42 -0500 
From: excandescent@thenexus.com
Subject: summerstage and stuff

       well!  yesterday was my first trip down to NYC, and it will
probably be my last.  i'm from upstate :), and the traffic was simply
unreal.  the temperature gauge in my car read 108 degrees on numerous
occasions, and i had many many run ins with asshole cops.
       but finally we arrived at summerstage in the middle of pharaoh
sanders's set (pretty cool), and there was a fenced-in area just to the
left of the stage, where robert was, and he was about to leave and i
said "hey" kinda loud.  rude of me, but i wanted to at least say hi :>
he comes back over and says "HEY!" heheh and i asked him to sign my cd
cover and he asked me if i had a pen and all and i did, and he signed
it and i thanked him.  i really can't believe how nice they are
       when it was time for them to take the stage, the string quartet
was on, playing something (i think it may have been a medley of various
bff songs, but i'm really not sure) and they came out and started with
"one angry dwarf and 200 solemn faces" pretty cool.  they sounded great,
i liked the string quartet..and then they went into "fair" and i found
it kinda funny that they were playing tracks 1 and 2 respectively from
whatever..., and then they went into "selfless, cold and composed" and
they also did alice childress, underground, song for the dumped, kate,
smoke, steven's last night in town, and theme from dr. pyser...ooh, and
i forgot philosophy.  also during the show robert started playing "the
joker" and ben was singing along "some people call me robert sledge"
followed by a bunch of "WOO-WOO"s from the audience :)  it was a good
show, but it sucked that there wasn't very much energy in the crowd...oh
well.  and at the end i waited for the band back by the fence, and i
eventually saw ben and he signed my cd and i said "i drove down here
from albany for this, and you guys did a good show" he smiled and said
thanks.  i repeat, i acn't believe how nice those guys are...
       ooh!@  and we saw kate!  she was on the same side of the fence as
us, the adoring fans, and she was arguing with the bouncer who was (or
wasn't) letting people in: "ben's my husband!"  to which the bouncer
replied, "yeah and i'm his brother" hehe :)  and some people behind her
started singing "kate" and she finally got the ok to go back stage :>
hehe it was funny.  kate seems pretty cool though.
       sorry this is so long :>  ok, here is my tracklisting thing

1. one angry dwarf and 200 solemn faces
2. philosophy
3. brick
4. song for the dumped
5. selfless, cold and composed
6. underground
7. sports and wine
8. uncle walter (by a long shot)
9. oooh.  it pains me to have to decide between these two, but i'm going
with best imitation of myself
10. battle of who could care less
11. missing the war
12. evaporated

self-titled: 5
whatever: 7


       again, sory this was so long :)  this letter alone could qualify
as an entire digest and i apologize heartily for that

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 01:41:48 -0400
From: Mandel Ilagan <ilagan@husc.harvard.edu>
Subject: VCR Alerts, Trade Bait, and Other shtuff...

Hello fellow Armchair readers...

Here's some info gleaned about upcoming TV BF5 appearances from a recent 
surf through the 'net.

* According to an post on the AOL board, JBTV in Chicago is planning to air 
the Ben Folds Five concert at the Metro this Saturday evening.

* To those that missed Reverb #8, the episode with Ben Folds Five, HBO is 
rerunning it on late Wednesday/early Thursday at 2:55 AM Eastern

And now the trade bait...If you can make copies of the following, please 
E-mail me and I'll send you a list of my collection.  I would definitely be 
up for a trade in exchange for:

* The JBTV Chicago broadcast of the BF5 show at the Metro
* The upcoming appearance on MuchMusic's "The New Music" on July 8th
* Any non-US TV appearances
* The M2 segment they did earlier this year
* The "Kate" video
* Any videos of concerts
* Good recordings of concerts from the WEAEA tour ESPECIALLY any of the 
shows with the "string section"

Finally, in perusing the various articles about Ben Folds Five and 
listening to their radio interviews, I've noticed the various yarns Ben, 
Robert, and Darren have told about how the band was formed and why they are 
called Ben Folds Five.  Now, has anybody compiled all the various tales 
they've come up with about the formation of the band?  I'm thinking of 
adding a section to my website dedicated to the "Legends of Ben Folds 
Five."  If you have any that you know of in regards to the formation of the 
band and the decision of their name, please E-mail me with them.  Thanks!

Mandel Ilagan
ilagan@fas.harvard.edu
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~ilagan

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 07:37:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: SSK17@aol.com
Subject: Summerstage show 

I thought the show was good...but a bit different.

After about an hour on stage, I noticed the promoter on the side of the stage
giving the"cut sign". I think the time was up, but the boys looked like they
were not ready to get off of the stage. Did anyone else notice that?

No "Jax Cannery"or "Battle". The show seemed abrupt.

The strings were good...added another dynamic. This was the first time
out(w/strings), and the band seemed a little nervous. The tempo of most songs
was a little slower.

They said they will be using the strings all summer.

gbg

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 07:52:32 -0400
From: Steffen Donath <SDonath@compuserve.com>
Subject: Out of my way...

Hello everybody...


Out of my way...I want to jump off that bridge too...so here we go!

1. Jackson Cannery
2. Philosophy
3. Julianne
4. Where's Summer B.?
5. Selfless, Cold and Composed
6. Underground (wow that was hard!!)
7. Sports & Wine
8. Uncle Walter
9. Best Imitation of myself
10. Video
11. Missing the war
12. Evaporated 
and (yes I do have the Japanese CD's) last but by no means least
13. Song for the dumped (Japanese Version)

BFF: 9
WAEA: 4

I am still looking for BFF tape trades. Have a look at my BFF webpage:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/SDonath

Steffen

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 11:56:25 -0400
From: Jeff Suarez <smooth@jhu.edu>
Subject: guster for your bff?

hey.

i was just wondering if anyone would be willing to trade some bff
bootlegs. i don't currently have any bff, but i have a lot of guster
bootlegs, a lot of old beck bootlegs, some g. love, jackopierce, and a
bunch of other various tapes... 

by the way, if anyone here hasn't heard of guster, they are a great band
from boston. and are very similar to bff, not necessarily in their sound,
but they also have 3 members, have a very unique sound (two electric
acoustic guitars, and a bongo player, with the two guitar players on 
vocals), the guys in the band are very cool and hang out with fans all the
time, and they also do a lot of improv type songs (like the fannypack
song). so if you get a chance, they are definitely worth checking out...

- -jeff

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 12:00:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: Daniel Lynch <dflynch.esq@internetmci.com>
Subject: BFF @ Central Park Summerstage

 Here's the setlist:
 6/25/97, Summerstage, Central Park, NYC

 String Quartet Prelude
 One Angry Dwarf
 Fair
 Selfless, Cold and Composed
 Kate
 Steven's Last Night in Town
 Underground
 Smoke
 Theme from Dr. Peyser
 Alice Childress
 Song for the Dumped
 Philosophy

 String Quartet worked really well, especially in Smoke
 and Alice.  Ben arranged the Quartet to play along with
 his Rhapsody in Blue quote at the end of Philosophy, and
 it worked *great.*

 Sorry that Brick was not performed.  It would have worked
 nice with the Strings, imo.
 Otherwise, a fairly complete list for a show that only ran
 57 minutes.  Less chatter on stage, and less messing around,
 saved some time I suppose.  Would have liked to see more
 1st album stuff (Summer B, Uncle Walter, Las Polka), but
 really liked that after Ben was given the "one more song"
 signal, he chose to go into Philosophy instead of the
 more obvious Battle of Who Could Care Less.

 I taped the show on DAT, and would be interested in
 trading this and several other BFF DATs for the same.


 Dan
 

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 13:06:04 -0400
From: Allan Hsu <animate2@underworld.net>
Subject: Kicked off the armchair...

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else before, but this is the
third time I've had to *resubscribe* to the Magical Armchair... for some
reason, I keep getting kicked off the mailing list, and I don't know
why. Has anyone else had this problem?

- --
Animate2/Allan Hsu: Master of Reality
<http://www.underworld.net/allan>
Dept. of Eigenstate Theory, Dept. of Sleep Deprivation - Masters of
Reality
"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that everyone isn't out to get
me."
Ben Folds Five: <http://www.underworld.net/bff>

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

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 10:31:44 -0800
From: Michael Maas <mmaas@ptialaska.net>
Subject: Intro and best-from-albums-game 

Hello, all. I "discovered" BFF watching 120 Minutes on MTV when they played
the video for "Battle," the next day I bought the album, and a few days
after that bought the first album. Great stuff! I myself am a hack piano
player/songwriter/singer, so I love hearing someone do it well. I think the
main appeal of BFF for me is the songwriting - great stuff!

Anyway, I'll quit gushing and join in. Here's my list for "which album's
song for each track" game:

1. Dwarf
2. Philosophy
3. Brick
4. Song for the Dumped
5. Alice Childress (VERY tough choice)
6. Underground (again, VERY tough)
7. Smoke
8. Uncle Walter
9. Steven's Last Night in Town
10. Video
11. Last Polka
12. Evaporated

BFF: 6
WEAEA: 5

Mike

- --
Michael Maas
mmaas@ptialaska.net
"You don't need a torch to see the sun."

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

End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #378
**************************************


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