THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #855 - March 2, 1998
Magical Armchair Digest Monday, March 2 1998 Volume 01 : Number 855
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
I need my beauty sleep!
st. louis show question
woo
I need my beauty sleep!
frank maynard i need your help
Re: REEL BIG FISH
Looking for Tatum2420
2/27 Breakfast with Ben in Burbank
Re: Twin Falls
RE: Popularity of Brick
radio play--NOT brick!
tfi friday
SPENCER CORDEN and Life In General (the band)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 10:17:30 -0500 (EST)
From: vanvalnc@is2.nyu.edu (Chris Van Valen)
Subject: I need my beauty sleep!
Hi kids
I missed all three TV appearances this week(Zzzzz...). I will trade concert
tapes(including Hammerstein NYC) for a video cassette with all three(MTV<
Leno, Kenan) appearances. If need be, I will trade 2 for 1 as an incentive.
Private e-mails, please.
CV
If you have an unpleasant nature and dislike people
this is no obstacle to work. -- J.G. Bennett
Catch "Forever Knight" on the Sci-Fi Channel every
Mon-Thurs at 9PM and 1AM EST. -- Lucien LaCroix
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 03:02:27 +0000
From: Nancy Bennett <n.bennett@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: st. louis show question
hello all.....at the st. louis show.....there were two girls who threw their
bras onstage at ben...and i was wondering if anyone knew who it was, if they
were on the armchair...i was just wonerin.....and i do have the st.louis
show feb 14th on tape..if anybody else is wanting to trade.....i got a lot
of reponses..so thanks everyone.....bye!!!
~Kristi~
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 19:35:00 -0600
From: Belinda <shadow@ballarat.hotkey.net.au>
Subject: woo
gotta love that Jay Leno appearance. Was Robert wearing silver nailpolish on
one hand? Or was I seeing things? Anyway, what might be a good idea is a
list of all the colors he's worn? I only know that he's worn Mauve, Blue and
Black, but that's all I know. Wish Ben would wear some one day....
I got 4 extra copies of Jay Leno for people in Aust who couldn't get it. I'd
love to trade. Still think Letterman was better....
Plus I have that [v] interview on tape now, haven't checked my mail for
about a week, but I really am looking for Hava Nagila, All Shook Up,
Kalamazoo, Roberts disco diva underground, Freebird or Freebird Jam
(whatever), Crosstown Traffic, demo of Where's Summer B.?, Japanese SFTD, &
Majosha stuff, + any live shows. I also have a demo tape and half a live
show if anyone is interested (if you add an insult about Bush, I'll be
incredibly nice to you!)
Just over a week until Robert's 30th B'day....WOOHOO!! :)
'anti-gavin'
************************************
*BENFOLDS5*ADAMSAIDGALORE*GRINSPOON*
************************************
*311*RADIOHEAD*ASH*GAVINROSSDALESUX*
************************************
"this week I'm trying to think of a way to sue Gavin Rossdale"
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 15:24:26 -0500 (EST)
From: vanvalnc@is2.nyu.edu (Chris Van Valen)
Subject: I need my beauty sleep!
Hi kids
I missed all three TV appearances this week(Zzzzz...). I will trade concert
tapes(including Hammerstein NYC) for a video cassette with all three(MTV<
Leno, Kenan) appearances. If need be, I will trade 2 for 1 as an incentive.
Private e-mails, please.
CV
If you have an unpleasant nature and dislike people
this is no obstacle to work. -- J.G. Bennett
Catch "Forever Knight" on the Sci-Fi Channel every
Mon-Thurs at 9PM and 1AM EST. -- Lucien LaCroix
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 22:20:18 EST
From: luckyday6@juno.com (Jason A Masi)
Subject: frank maynard i need your help
i have not recieved an armchair for about a week and i think i am off the
list. please help me out and fix this problem either put me back on the
list if i am not on it and i appreciate all your help.
thanks
Jason
write back ASAP
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------------------------------
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 17:18:31 EST
From: AMGruss <AMGruss@aol.com>
Subject: Re: REEL BIG FISH
sorry, RBF soldout so, um....NO!
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 14:15:05 -0000
From: David.J.Holloway@student.shu.ac.uk
Subject: Looking for Tatum2420
Hey y'all, this is a kinda searching for someone email so I'll keep in short.
A few weeks ago, somebody with the mail address Tatum2420@aol.com
mailed me off my web site asking about getting questionnaires from Ben
and Robert (I already have Darren), I tried to reply a few times this week
but haven't been able (it may take a while but I reply to every mail I get). If
Tatum2420 (no name given) is out there, I'm working on getting them but it
could take a while...
Dave
Ben Folds Five: Helmet Heads
http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/lot/5009
"I'd rather regret what I have done, than what I haven't."
- My housemate, Pete McArdle
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 18:27:28 EST
From: Garit RN <GaritRN@aol.com>
Subject: 2/27 Breakfast with Ben in Burbank
Hello hello again,
Before I get into the wonderful loose breakfast show for KROQ at Dalt's
restaurant in Burbank, CA from this morning with BFF, I'd like to briefly
write about my experience going to see The Tonight Show the other day for
guess who? NBC Studios is about a block or so from the Breakfast show so that
kinda ties it together.
Well, it was a pretty good show. I love ER so it was a treat to see Noah
Wyle, even though he can be a bit smarmy at times. Jenna Elfman was on
next...how is she related to Danny Elfman? BFF came out from behind the
curtain and started to play Brick right away. Ben was dressed very nicely,
but you probably know that by now. After the song, Ben just marched up on to
the sofa stage. But Darren and Robert were so funny because they weren't sure
whether to go backstage or whether to follow Ben...they did eventually follow
Ben.Rumor has it that when Jay likes the band he lets them sit on the sofa.
After the show Jay did some promos and he kept saying "Bens Folds Five."
Jenna Elfman tried to help by saying "it's like Ben Folds Five Dollar Bills!"
He finally gave up and said something like "tonight's musical guest is...."
then Jenna
would chime in and spout "Ben Folds Five!"
I couldn't go to Keenan yesterday cause I had to work. I'll let Courtney and
Janet talk about that. Enough of this...on to the real show.
We got to Dalt's restaurant in Burbank which happens to be in the same
building as KROQ (and Star 98.7 for that matter) at about 8:00, fighting heavy
morning traffic. Luckily, Courtney and Janet were already there so we took
mild advantage of that fact. Some people were there since before 5 a.m.! I
was so bummed they wouldn't let me videotape. I thought they would since it
wasn't a _real_ show. Oh well...as Gloria Gaynor says, I will survive.
Marilyn Manson was doing an interview right before the show, but we never got
to see his smiling self. He'll be at Tower Sunset tonight for the obsessed.
He requested them to play Sister Christian and they did.
BFF came on the "stage" (actually a corner of the smallish restaurant) and did
about a minute of Sister Christian as part of their soundcheck! Ben wore the
same jean jacket as last night on Keenan and Robert wore a loud flourescent
vinyl jacket for some reason. Darren wore a green, not a black t-shirt. We
were scrunched up front on the right. On my knees a good portion of the time.
Ouch!
Soundcheck:
Sister Christian
Battle of Who Could Careless - minus "you're my hero i confess"
- -Robert goes for a little "sub action" as he says. It _is_ a restaurant you
know.
Missing the War - half of it anyway
Philosophy
Show
Kevin and Bean come downstairs, saying they were anally probed by Marilyn
Manson. Soon we discover that Ben's mike is messed up and it delays the show
by like 15 minutes. Bean says "we have a terrific engineering staff."
Ben soundchecking his mike verbatim - "This is Ben. Check one two. Hey.
Hello, hello. Hello Scott. One two three four five six seven eight. This is
Ben. Hey. You want me to keep talking? Hello this is Ben. Hey. Heeey. Uh
huh. This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If it were an actual
emergency, they would just go to commercials. booooooop. Hey baby (elvis
style). Let's see. What can I talk about? My first memory when I
was two years old I remember getting a banjo....."
Bean took questions from the audience. First question - What inspired you to
do strings for the HORDE tour? Robert - it was stupid. Ben - cause we didn't
want to make any money.
Ben then revealed that he was playing this week with a rental piano. No
wonder there were no scratches on it.
Okay, now the Show
BATTLE OF WHO COULD CARELESS
- -A group of annoying people shout in unison "Where's the guitar?"
- -They pause for commercial and everything goes to limbo....
Ben/Kate divorce confirmation - They're no longer together. Ben is asked if
he "has a girlfriend" and he says "No, not at the moment." But Darren and
Robert do of course.
Then I get to ask Ben a question on the radio. One that's been bugging me for
over two months since NBP came out. My question - "Who plays guitar on
Emaline?"
The answer (drumroll please) - "Oh that was me. (Ben) An acoustic guitar.
The three chords I know." If you missed it, here it is more clearly: Ben
Folds plays acoustic guitar on Emaline. So did anyone hear me on the radio?
Some dorky guy asked why they always play "She Only Uses Jelly." Never heard
that one...
SELFLESS, COLD AND COMPOSED
Janet got to ask Ben a question, asking if BFF would tour with Belle and
Sebastian...if you heard this, she's got a neat voice, no? Another guys
offers Ben a demo, and he asks "Have you heard of Tinker City before?" - Can
anyone elaborate on this?
A girl asks Ben to do Linus and Lucy and he complies with about 20 seconds of
it!!! He does say to her "You're gonna go to hell for that." Someone else
asks Ben about the Doobie Bros Farewell '81 Tour shirts and I can see Trey
totally cracking up over it.
Bean asks Ben to do Brick but Robert has his electric bass out so Ben had to
say "we'll do it later." I would have liked to see electric Brick.
SONG FOR THE DUMPED - with profanity (remember, this is a morning radio show)
and 100% Love intro (see 2/8 review)
Ben says "L.A. are you ready to rock?" - in a sleepy voice. At 9 AM Ben? I
dunno...
BRICK - ummm...did I mention I have the Japanese Brick single? It rocks.
Ben was asked about "the girl who looks like Axl Rose." He replies, "Actually
she looks more like Indira Gandhi." Someone else asks about their popularity
in Japan and they do about a minute of Kane o Kaise (Song for the Dumped!)
Eric asks about Video Killed the Radio Star and a bunch of people (including
me) shout "Play it!" but Ben says "we forgot how to play it." awww....
ONE ANGRY DWARF
It was a very fun show, despite my sore knees and dirty pants. (I hope your
stain gets out Leslie!) Actually 90 minutes long thanks to the mic problems.
They were gonna sign outgraphs outside by the dumpster but ran short on time
and had to catch a flight....somewhere. They wouldn't say where. =(
I did get this on audio tape and I'm expecting an FM version from Eric, who
set his VCR to record the radio. (silly boy) E-mail for trades, but check
out my webpage first before you make offers (http://members.aol.com/GaritRN).
Thanks much!
Larry
P.S. Ben plays guitar on Emaline
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 17:41:54 -0500
From: Mike Wilkinson <mwzoso@neo.lrun.com>
Subject: Re: Twin Falls
>Then, out comes a studio version of Twin Falls, not the live verision
>from Baby Photos.... ...Does anyone out there know where I could
>find this studio version of Twin Falls?
Are you sure it wasn't the original Twin Falls by Built to Spill?
Just a thought.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 23:23:25 EST
From: Sarah85520 <Sarah85520@aol.com>
Subject: RE: Popularity of Brick
I've been a little bit bothered by all of the "I hate Brick" and
"You're not a real fan if you like Brick" talk. Let's all try a
little exercise...
Think back to when you first bought WEAEA and brought
it home, put it in your CD player and pressed play. After months
of playing the hell out of the first albvum...here was a new one!
And you're listening, loving it, and Brick comes on. You were probably
blown away. Here was something completely different, with that
mournful piano and the upright bass. So sad, so beautiful. You
LOVED the song, admit it. Hell, I remember all the talk about it on
the Armchair. What does it mean, isn't it goregous, they've outdone
themselves with this one....
Flash forward. If somebody sends a message to the Armchair
saying how beautiful Brick is, half the listees jump down his/her
throat shouting "newbie!" That doesn't make much sense.
Now I, and probably most of the people on here, have heard every
song on all three of BFF's albums probably hundreds of times. I don't
play the radio, I play Ben Folds Five. So it can't be that Brick has just
been overplayed. I've heard Jackson Cannery 10 times as much as Brick
and IT isn't overplayed in my mind. The reaction to Brick is simply due
to the fact that it's being played to EVERYONE and listened to by
EVERYONE. It doesn't seem fair that people can listen to some crap
top 40 or alternative station and get to hear this song that we had to go
to the store, put up with a "Ben Folds who?" reaction from the clerk,
pay money for, bring home and press play on our CD player to hear.
But, to quote another band, the song remains the same.
And it's a great one.
Clay
Okey dokey, Clay.... When I got first bought myself WEAEA was the day after I
saw the video for One Angry Dwarf about 2 years ago or so, so I didn't have
Ben Folds Five first. The first few times I listened to the whole cd, I loved
every little morsel of it. It never left my cd player for a second. But,
during those times, I thought Brick was just a tad draggy for the whole cd. I
didn't like it, to be honest with ya. I still don't.
I loved One Angry Dwarf!! That's the whole reason why I spent the $15 to buy
their cd. The video was so cool and they hooked me in right away. After that
first time I saw that video on MTV, was also my last. They never seemed to
play it anymore. Maybe I just wasn't watching the tv at the right times to see
it, but they didn't win the popularity with that song.
It was after a yearish that they released Brick, and I still to this day
haven't seen the video for that song. I hear it all the time on the
alternative radio stations here in the Windy City, because it attracts all the
13 year old posers who hear 1 song by a group, and love the band cause its on
MTV and Q101.......
It pisses me off because it's those assholes who went to their concert and not
me. It made me soooo mad when I heard they were sold out.
And I hate to say it, but I kinda wish that BF5 didn't get their videos played
on MTV or airplay on the radios because it's all those little posers who go to
their concerts and stand still and only sing along with Brick... Gag me.
Luckily for me, I got to see the telecast live over my computer when they came
to Chicago, and knew EVERY song that they played, so that was kinda cool. But
what kinda made me roll my eyes, was when they did Underground and Darren said
his line.. I was never cool in school.... the whole crowd screamed WHO THE
FUCK ARE YOU??? He was just like, hold on, let me finish the sentance... It
was funny on the cd, but wasn't there.... Hey maybe, thats just my opinion...
Bye Bye,
Sarah
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 1 Mar 1998 22:57:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Ginger Nance <gnance@email.unc.edu>
Subject: radio play--NOT brick!
Well, I just scared the crap out of my neighbors by running into the hall
and shrieking like a banshee b/c the local alterna-crap station played
Underground!! It's their Sunday night "stuff you've (supposedly) never
heard before" program, and the djs were talking about how they think Linus
inspired BF5 and how it was cool that the boys played Freebird at the
Chapel Hill show in Nov. Insipid remarks aside, a cool experience b/c
that's maybe the second time I've ever heard Underground on the radio!
Thanks for letting me share...
Ginger :)
Ooooo Ginger Nance
( ) ginger_nance@unc.edu
) ( http://www.unc.edu/~gnance
(o) GO HEELS!!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 13:42:54 +0000 (GMT)
From: ER Burningham <u7g83@ugg.keele.ac.uk>
Subject: tfi friday
hi,
to any british fans out there - do you know when the guys are meant ot be on
tfi friday, someone said this friday but it seems unlikely as they're still
touring (are they?).i hope i dodn't miss it, it's worth it even if only 4
one song. are they gonna be on anything else, anyone know??
thanks
love
em
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 08:34:35 CST
From: "Petra Starke" <naturalselection@hotmail.com>
Subject: SPENCER CORDEN and Life In General (the band)
Mr Corden has (un)officially dropped off the face of the earth...so if
you're reading this then please write back to me. PLEASE!!
LIFE IN GENERAL: they're a band, they're from Winston-Salem, they're
excellent, check 'em out. Tour dates at their website
http://www.clever.net/lifeingeneral. Thanks Chuck for the recommendation
(and they say hi)
cheers,
Petra
"I've got this great idea; why don't we pitch it to the Franklin fuckin'
Mint?"
"natural selection is weeding it out..." (you know who you are)
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------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #855
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