THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #1000 - May 17, 1998
Magical Armchair Digest Sunday, May 17 1998 Volume 01 : Number 1000
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
song for the flansed
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #998
why should frank sinatra die when the backstreet boys live?
Kane wo Kaese
1000
Thursday's show in Austin
Dallas show
Dallas show II
Underground intro
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 21:32:06 EDT
From: Rocket no8 <Rocketno8@aol.com>
Subject: song for the flansed
hmm, hopefully this'll make it onto #1000.
the Song For The Dumped video will premiere on MTV's 120 Minutes this
sunday(at 12 midnight EST). directed by John Flansburgh of They Might Be
Giants.
on tuesday i picked up the ARD Teleconned Vol 1 We Want The Airwaves disc.
very good, for a good cause. the version of Them From "Dr. Pyser" with
strings is very upbeat and fun. at this point there are recordings of many
BF5 songs with strings(boxing, fair, brick, selfless, kate, smoke, steven's,
evaporated, she don't use jelly, dr. pyser), and while i can't say i prefer
all of the string versions to non-string versions, it is kina cool.
i wonder if the guy who wrote the boring post about how he hates boring posts
appreciates irony.
- -al
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 21:56:07 EDT
From: Zyah <Zyah@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #998
I know this is not BFF related, but if you like to listen to music that
doesn't sound like what they are playing on the radio, G. Love & Special Sauce
& Guster will be opening for Widespread Panic across the U.S. I don't like WP
though. :) But I will put up with them for it. I think you all will like G.
Love----tell me if you want dates.
Lauren
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 19:50:48 PDT
From: "chrissy cramer" <rccmeg@hotmail.com>
Subject: why should frank sinatra die when the backstreet boys live?
yaaa! 1000th armchair!
okay i want to comment on all this 'teenbopper' stuff.
look, this happens to every band that gets some quick attention. look at
the beatles, chief example. they had some quick attention for some radio
friendly songs, but got progressively better adn took most of their
audience wiht them. i would like to think that bff will do the same.
so come on. a fan is a fan. when iw as 12 i loved paula abdul.
ive grown from the experience.
'ill send my best...cause god knows youve seen my worst'
this is my story humble and true, take it to pieces and mend it with
glue.
everyones favorite chrissy(the silly old bananafish)
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 23:11:31 EDT
From: HndOfChaos <HndOfChaos@aol.com>
Subject: Kane wo Kaese
Okay, since we were all great people and picked up the Brick single with the
Song for the Dumped in Japanese I'm assuming you can help me here...
One of my friends who is Japanese (and incidentally really hasn't heard of
BFF) tried to write down the lyrics for Kane wo Kaese after I made her a copy.
Here goes:
(Sorry if I mess up, her handwriting isn't that great. :-D )
Soryanai sa
kyuu ni
hitori ni
nari tai naste sa
Fuck you, too
Kane wo kaese, kane wo kaese, you bitch
Ore in kaese
Wasureruna
Kuro no T-shatsu mo ore no dato
Takai meshi
ogotta sono
ato de poi to(?)
sayonara suru nante
Kane wo kaese, kane wo kaese, you bitch
Ore in kaese
Wasureruna
Kuro no T-shatsu mo ore no dato
Soryanai sa
kyuu ni
hitori ni
nari tai naste sa
Kane wo kaese, kane wo kaese, you bitch
Ore ni kaese, ore ni kaese, and don't forget...
NOTE: in Japanese what is written as an "R" is pronounced as an "L"
...and this is what I got for that weird thing at the very end
4:07 A Strange Rambling (NOTE: This is two different people, Ben and Darren?,
talking at the same time and is a bit confusing.)
"And so it came to be, that the three young men known as Ben Folds
Five soon after played cruise ship dates. Darren's (?) problem was exacerbated
by this. The 'Good Fat Mother Six Tour(?)' turned out to be just exactly that.
Ben Folds gained another 75 pounds. Coming out of the closet two years later,
Darren Jessee was quoted as saying, ' (?)' ...the white cliffs of Dover, I
roll over, rover and phone."
"...(?) damn ass bitch...(?) pass the damn live damn bitch...(?)...and you
can go meet me in town talking about all the good time towns with all the
pretty people in them and go find one damn(?) my goddamn ass bitch(?)...every
damn bitch. And she ruined my damn speech pattern, fucking with my goddamn
stupid head. All I can do is watch TV. I can't even get up, out of my goddamn
bed, I weigh so much. You can hold my hand if you want to. I love you, I want
you to hold my hand."
I think I ruined my speakers again.
Damn.
~Kathryn
..............................................................................
..
"Howard, The Strangest Things have happened lately..."
THE STRANGEST THINGS
http://members.xoom.com/HndOfChaos
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 00:20:23 EDT
From: Schmooze1 <Schmooze1@aol.com>
Subject: 1000
Are we there yet?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 98 23:55:47 -0500
From: <bluejay@mail.com>
Subject: Thursday's show in Austin
I don't post much to the Armchair any more, and I don't even enjoy
reading it as much any more since it's increasingly less and less about
the MUSIC -- as a musician, that's what I'm most interested in. Anyway,
the band played here Thursday night, and here are some notes about that.
I know it's long, but this is a rare post from me, and you're free to
skip it if you like.
Thursday was the band's 6th Austin show, and their 5th different venue.
They played the Austin Music Hall, their largest venue yet. It wasn't
sold out (like previous Austin shows), but there were still several
hundred people at least.
I went to the venue early in the afternoon to see if I could talk Ben
into giving me a piano lesson. No one tried to throw me out, probably
because the road crew recognizes me from having played onstage with the
band in February in Dallas, and at 30 years old I guess I don't look much
like a young fan trying to sneak in. I found Ben and he seemed willing
to chat for a few minutes. I asked about a piano lesson, but he said
that (after hearing me play in Dallas) it didn't sound like he had
anything to teach me. I told him that I was flattered but that that's
clearly not true -- Ben is twenty times better than I am. Ben said he
just didn't think he'd be very good at teaching piano, although he
thought he'd be good about teaching drums.
So we talked some shop, which I enjoyed. I told him that when I learned
to play the bass octaves solo on OAD from the CD, I played it with three
fingers on each hand, so it sounds exactly the same as what Ben's doing
but it doesn't LOOK terribly exciting to play, and how I was surprised
the first time I saw him play it live when he used ONE finger from each
hand, several inches above the keyboard, so his hands had to fly very
quickly all over the place. He intentionally made it more difficult, and
also more visually impressive. He told me that when they first started
playing that song, he played the bass octaves solo with ONE hand, but
that it just didn't have the power he wanted. (Playing it with one hand,
your fingers can't get very high up above the keyboard, so they don't
have a lot of power when they strike the keys. Also, it's a hell of a
lot easier to get the alternating rhythm going with two hands instead of
just one.)
I also remarked that I was finally convinced that on many of his solos,
he's not trying to hit certain notes, but is just going for an overall
effect, where he swirls his fingers around on a general area of the
keyboard without trying to hit the exact same notes every time. He
readily agreed that that's indeed part of his style. He remarked that he
was impressed when he recently saw Bruce Hornsby play, and remarked that
Hornsby is a trained jazz pianist. But he said that if Bruce was trying
to play Ben's stuff, he'd be trying to analyze it and figure out which
NOTES he was playing, which just doesn't work for some of the solos since
they're based on regions rather than individual notes.
I asked if I would get into any trouble if I wrote out some sheet music
for WE&EA and posted it to my web site. He said he wouldn't care
personally (but the label probably wouldn't take kindly to it). He did
say that there will likely be an official book for WE&EA published soon.
(Since there's an official book coming, I'm not going to bother
transcribing and posting anything. By the way DO NOT WRITE TO ME asking
for sheet music, transcriptions, or any more information about them.
I've told you everything I know. And the chord charts on my web site are
the extent of what I've bothered to write out.)
Ben said that the books are transcribed by musicians at the publishing
company, and that the drafts of the upcoming WE&EA book have the same
problem that the eponymous book had, which is that the written chords
contain more notes than Ben actually plays. Ben said that the publishing
company is willing to fix the book if he told them what to fix, but, just
like last time, there's so much to fix that he'd have to start rewriting
everything from scratch and he just doesn't have the time. I did ask if
the right-hand piano staff would actually be the right-hand piano part
this time, rather than the melody (since Ben doesn't play the melody with
his right hand). This was a problem with the first book, in that they
wasted the right-hand staff by repeating the melody that they'd already
written in the melody staff. Ben confirmed that the new book will
properly contain the right-hand piano part in the right-hand piano staff,
rather than simply repeating the melody.
Ben also related that the transcription listed a part as a "piano
overdub" on a certain song (I think it was "Evaporated"), but that in
fact, Ben merely crossed hands and played the high part with his left
hand -- it wasn't an overdub at all.
I remarked that Ben's music was interesting because it covered a broad
range of difficulty -- some of it I can sit down and play like it was
nothing, but other parts are so hard that I actually just have to give up
and pick some alternate notes to play. He seemed amused by that. He
relayed how it was ironic that their big hit doesn't have more than two
notes playing at the same time for most of the song.
I found out through a local fan that Darren is a vegetarian, and I asked
Ben about that. He said that meat made Darren sick, so he stopped eating
it. Ben told me that he himself doesn't eat meat, but he doesn't like to
call himself a vegetarian. Later I ran into Darren later and mentioned
that I'd been a vegetarian for 13 years. He said it had been three for
him. I gave him directions to the only restaurant within walking
distance that had decent vegetarian food.
Robert came in and I congratulated him on his article in Bass Player
magazine. (http://www.bassplayer.com/9806/sledge.htm) I told him it was
kind of silly that they printed a sample of all of TWO measures from
"Smoke", as though you could get any context from just two measures. Ben
thought that was pretty funny, too. I also remarked to Robert that the
octave bass part on "Fair" with the eighth note followed by two 16th
notes an octave higher reminded me of the bass part of Rod Stewart's "Do
Ya Think I'm Sexy", and gave it a real disco feel. Robert said that he
hadn't thought of that before, but he could hear the song in his head and
see how that was so.
Ben mentioned that he's getting some new mics for the piano. I told him
I remembered reading in Musician magazine about his piano was miked. He
offered to let me play his piano through his Marshall stack after the
sound check, but the sound check ran late and they opened the doors right
after the sound check, so I didn't get to play the piano.
SuperDrag opened the show, playing upbeat hard alterna-rock. I'd have to
say that they were the most entertaining band I've ever seen open for the
boys, although the crowd was pretty rude, shouting things like "You're
horrible" and chanting "Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five!" after they'd
played just a few songs. They seemed a bit shaken by that. Between
songs, one guy up front said, "You rock!", and the singer looked down and
very sincerely said, "Thanks, man!" They're touring with an old organ --
a real, large one, which they only seemed to use for one song (and only
seemed to play two notes on during the song). It was kind of scary
because they've got the thing on an X-stand, which isn't too stable, and
the way they were jumping around the stage, I thought the organ was going
to fall off the stage and kill somebody. They really should be using a
double-X stand, at least. The doors opened very early so fans could
watch Seinfeld on big video screens, so SuperDrag couldn't finish their
sound check. When they played, they thanked "Jerry Seinfeld for f*****g
up our sound check." They also mentioned that there was a reason why
VCR's were invented.
BF5 opened with OAD, and launched right into Underground (sans the
opening schtick), for a killer 1-2 punch. It was the exact opposite of
the show The Knack did here in 1987, when they didn't even do "My
Sharona" until the encore. They played a long set, with very little
goofing around compared to other shows. They didn't do any impromptu
jams or impromptu covers. (Robert did lead the group on an old Molly
Hatchet song during the soundcheck, though.) They didn't play "Brick",
although it was on the set list. I asked Robert afterward whether it was
intentional or accidental, and he said it was intentional. I thought
that was pretty cool. I think they have a lot of guts to avoid doing
their biggest hit.
Before the show, I went to the Salvation Army and bought 20 black
t-shirts for $20 and brought them to the show in a bag. I turned all of
them inside-out so they'd be even blacker without the logo showing. When
they started playing SFTD, I passed out the shirts, and at the
appropriate point, we threw half of the shirts up onto the stage. It
looked pretty good visually, with the shirts covering Ben, the piano, and
the rest of the stage. (I was sorry we couldn't reach Robert or Darren,
but we were on the wrong side of the stage.) When the chorus came around
the second time, we threw the remaining shirts. Then during the jam part
of the song, Robert and Darren played while Ben looked through the
shirts. He found one he liked, took his shirt on, and put the black
t-shirt on. Then he threw the rest of the shirts out to the crowd one at
a time.
I had a good time, but I think this might be my last show. I think I've
got everything out of BF5 shows that I could possibly get. I've gleaned
as many playing tips as I can absorb by watching Ben play, I've been
motivated to practice and pursue my own music, I got to play with the
band, and, of course, I've been thoroughly entertained. What else is
there?
And yes, the crowds are getting less fun all the time. I was surrounded
by people who were literally less than half my age, everyone was singing
the lyrics to all the songs so I couldn't hear Ben sing them, and the
intense pushing was fairly uncomfortable. My date left halfway through
the show because of it. To top it off, the bigger clubs don't let you
bring water inside, and if you go get some water then you either lose
your place or fight a huge battle to get back. (Thanks to Sandi for
getting some water for me or I might not have made it.)
Finally, I think I've probably annoyed the guys by hanging around so much
and they could use a break from me.
-- Michael Bluejay * ICQ #3749849
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://pobox.com/bluejay | Home of AUSTIN MUSIC, KING CHEESE,
| BIKING IN AUSTIN, VEGETARIAN pages, & more
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 00:48:53 -0600
From: Deidre <a0028897@airmail.net>
Subject: Dallas show
Man, they seem tired. Or just weren't into it at the Dallas show
tonight. They did a great job, but I have seen them preform so much
better before. The crowd was horrid. A bunch of 12-17 year olds who
had to sing louder than Ben on every song..even the ones they didn't
know the words to. I would shell out an extra $50 bucks to see them at
an 18 & up venue. Oh well, such is life.
Always,
Deidre
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 May 1998 00:55:37 -0600
From: Deidre <a0028897@airmail.net>
Subject: Dallas show II
I forgot to add that they didn't play brick. How great is that. I was
so psyched. =)
Always,
Deidre
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 23:33:37 PDT
From: "Jessica Kinsaul" <icebox_6@hotmail.com>
Subject: Underground intro
This is to anyone who has seen Ben Folds Five since Naked Baby Photos
came out. I've heard they do play the intro to Underground I've heard
they don't. So could you guys let me know whether they did at your show
or not..
I don't know about you, but that's my favorite part of the song..
"And I'd love to mix in circles..." right, Sara???
- -Jessica
"I would swallow my pride, I would jump on the ride,
but the lack there of would leave me empty inside.
I would swallow my doubt turn it INSIDE OUT. Find nothing but faith in
nothing.
One for my tender heart in a blender. Walk and spin round to a beautiful
oblivion.
Rondevu, then i'm through, now I'm through with you!"
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------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1000
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