THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #1124 - July 19, 1998
Magical Armchair Digest Sunday, July 19 1998 Volume 01 : Number 1124
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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:
COUNTING CROWS!!!
oh geez. such pressure! I CANT THINK OF A CLEVER SUBJECT!!
Ben Folds Five Startup and Shutdown Screens
BFF Fonts
The boys on Conan
Conan again
BFF/BNL
clubs, conan and coca cola
Australia here we come!
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
CONAN BABY!!!!!!
anatomy of a request (long)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 21:25:01 -0500
From: john_oc@juno.com
Subject: COUNTING CROWS!!!
Yoyo!
Picked up the new double live album(for a overpriced single disc price of
14.99plus tax)and it absolutely rawks. It is the best album I have
bought, in the sense of dominating my play list since the latest Elliot
Smith album(new one sooon!!!!!). Disc One is especially beautiful. On
both lists I am widely reckognized as the crazy indie wunderkind...but my
soft spot for Adam Duritz's voice causes me to lurch back into the
mainstream! Put down the YoLaTengo, put away the Pavement...hide the
vinyl...and stop playing the Sonic Youth for two minutes John!!! This is
what I said to myself...and I popped in the Counting Crows...except for
some Heatmiser vinyl and the new Looper 7" I haven't listened to anything
else the past 3 days!!! Keep in mind that disc one is only alternate
versions of songs!!! The most exciting tracks are Mr. Jones, Have You
Seen Me Lately, Angels of the Silences and the hidden track at the end
which I believe is a jazz version of the rare b-side These Days. "Mr.
Jones!!!" you exclaim! Yes, Mr. Jones. I hate the song...but not this
version...it is absolutely beautiful...combine the beauty of Raining in
Baltimore(which rules on disc 2) with the aura surrounding Walkaways(also
on disc 2) and you get the most kick butt Counting Crows song ever. It
is a totally different and new song. Beautiful accordian line...phat
bass line from Matt Malley!!! All new!!! Buy it!!!
Word. Wonder how long my venture into the mainstream will last...any
takers?
I am always itching for more Belle and Sebastian...some Beatnik Filmstars
anyone? Karl Hendricks Trio? Richard Davies? Sea and Cake? I might not
be able to resist!!!!
- --end transmission
johnbot
"So you wanna be a rock and roll star, well listen now to what I say,
just get an electric guitar and take some time to learn how to
play...just learn how to play."
--Adam Duritz, from "Mr. Jones"
"As for me, I could leave the world with nothing but today in my eyes."
--Truman Capote
"A light bulb went off in my head. Suddenly I'm none of the things you
said, did my body up and leave me? Or did someone finally fill me in? I
still feel like fake. I still have to lie. Still feel like a fake.
Like I could disappear before your eyes."
--Elliott Smith, from "Dissappearing Ink
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------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 20:46:09 PDT
From: "chrissy cramer" <rccmeg@hotmail.com>
Subject: oh geez. such pressure! I CANT THINK OF A CLEVER SUBJECT!!
hello hello.
1. didnt see conan... i had to work. i was standing in the grocery
store, saying to every customer that came up at conan o brien time 'i
COULD be sitting at home watching the best group ever play, but NO i am
here because im dedicated.' it was kinda funny. not really. my mom
wouldnt record it for me. it kinda sucked. oh well.
non bff related
1. new beasties album kicks some serious butt.... anyone who calls
themselves a fan of creative and innovative music should pick it up.
really cool packaging too.
2. i have a question. is there a barenaked ladies mailing list like
this one? if so please email me privately with the addy to join.
i tried the one on the rock spectacle website but i dont think thats
right *as in not current or something* because my message didnt work.
but i couldve written it wrong. there were no instructions like 'no
body' or 'say you wanna subscribe' or anything like that. i just got my
message back.
oh well im done.
'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)
************************************************************
deeply relevant to your soul quote
"we all know its the cheesiest, so you can call it kraft macaroni and
cheese or kraft cheese and macaroni, or just shut up and call it kraft
dinner like we do up in canada."
- -steven page, lead singer of barenaked ladies
************************************************************
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 00:10:03 EDT
From: HndOfChaos@aol.com
Subject: Ben Folds Five Startup and Shutdown Screens
Hello all--
Well, I must say that the Conan appearance of Ben Folds Five was cool. Messed
up in a strange sort of way, but cool nonetheless. Unless it really WAS those
five cappacinos.
Anyway, there is a point to this post. I have just finished uploading v1.0 of
my...BEN FOLDS FIVE SHUTDOWN AND STARTUP SCREENS FOR WIN 95. You can find them
at my web site:
http://members.xoom.com/HndOfChaos
~Kathryn
SUPPORT THE UN-CLUB!
http://drlove.home.ml.org
````````````````````````````````````````
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 13:54:28 +0930
From: "Ben Williams" <willsfam@eisa.net.au>
Subject: BFF Fonts
Does anyone out there have the fonts the boys use on their album covers,
or know where i can find them? i'm talking about the one they write "Ben
Folds Five" in, and the one they use on the inside of WEAEA in the "This
recording was made..." bit. Thanks!
>From Ben. (what a great name! ;-) )
- -------
Boycott shampoo! Demand the REAL poo!
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 21:55:37 PDT
From: "Lauren Talbot" <muffyhead98@hotmail.com>
Subject: The boys on Conan
I recorded the performance of the boys on Conan on my VCR. I just want
to say it was beautiful! The stool was a nice touch. I love Robert's
frontiersman look. Ben Folds Five never comes around where I am at so I
have never seen them live. I loved every minute of it. I even was
nervous before the whole thing started. I wrote a review of it on my
fan website at
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Balcony/2078/bf5.html. Oh yeah! I
just want to add that the Ben Folds Five song from the Godzilla
Soundtrack is so moving. love y'all
Lauren
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Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 22:19:56 PDT
From: "Lauren Talbot" <muffyhead98@hotmail.com>
Subject: Conan again
I didn't tape the whole show I just taped Ben Folds Five. To the guy
who said they sucked on Conan I am flipping you off right now and I am
mooning you too. ( ) ) See? Bf5 rules. I am posting the thing for
total Request on my website and I hope all you guys do the same. In
case you missed it here is the lowdown:
Wednesday July 22
at 8:30pm EST
everybody email total@mtvmail.com and request Song For the Dumped
I hope this works! It will take everybody's participation
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Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 01:55:44 EDT
From: TKate@aol.com
Subject: BFF/BNL
I agree with the post regarding how many BFF fans also have a thing for
Barenaked Ladies. I was a BNL fan for 5 years before discovering BFF and they
also faced a lot of the sell-out status Ben Folds Five faced when they hit it
big. I think many of the Ladies fans would most likely say it's their stage
presence that you gotta love (same with BFF) that "lets jam and make it fun"
and their comical attitude throughout both groups songs...if anyone i looking
for another great band that is just starting to get noticed in the Buffalo
area (not sure about anyplace else) check out Squirrel Nut Zippers!
Catch ya on the flip side
Kate
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 01:54:54 -0400
From: schander@juno.com (joe s schanderson)
Subject: clubs, conan and coca cola
CLUBS, CONAN and COCA COLA
Here's the deal with any negativity about the fan club I believe.
I think it's a great idea. Why not have an official fan club?"
I just think people, including myself, are a little annoyed by the
self-congratulatory comments being made by some of those involved.
Again, it's cool but do you really have to put(president or vice
president of the fan club after your name) and do we really need to feel
like we HAVE to be impressed by your, yes YOUR address being on the
official SONY page. It's cool, let's see what happens, PERIOD. A tad
bragadocious.
I thought Conan was great and I loved the pseudo "hard rock" moment
followed by the gentle tickling of the ivory.
Coca cola is a pop.
michigan joe
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 03:59:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: bree Nevin <slomo_hifi@yahoo.com>
Subject: Australia here we come!
Ok, got a few things to say.
1. BF5 are playing Hey Hey It's Saturday they just said it on the end
of tonights show. What song will they play because SFTD will not be
allowed cause of the word bitch.Must be Brick but that's not their
current single. We might see a repeat performance of the Midday Show.
2.Fear Of POP. Ben's solo album.He mentioned that it will be out in
September, it's an instrumental and William Shatner from Star Trek is
doing a vocal for one of the songs. There is a couple of guest
appearances on it too.
3.Are BF5 doing the horrible IMT show?? Anyone know?
4. Recovery is definate. I'd say the same for Triple J, Triple R,
MTV.Anyone know about any of these appearances?What about Ground Zero.
5. Everyone turn up early and support SNOUT!
6. Ben's girlfriend's name is Riley and she's from Adelaide! He plans
to return to holiday there when he finishes the Japan tour date, so a
US tour is unlikely to happen straight away.
Will end this here. hope it's been helpful to someone, somewhere.
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 09:45:36 EDT
From: Msksnow@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
Take me off this list
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 11:04:25 EDT
From: Ben4me123@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
This is a response to Jess, about telling Darren to eat something: same goes
for Ben, I'd say. He looked almost nasty on the front of naked Baby Photos
with that practically-concave stomach of his. Of course, his adorable face
sort of cancelled out anything else bad.
Lolo
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 11:08:06 EDT
From: Ben4me123@aol.com
Subject: Re: Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1122
Ben throws his stool because the audience likes it, I think.
Lauren
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 14:38:38 EDT
From: WAVMaker2@aol.com
Subject: CONAN BABY!!!!!!
In a message dated 7/18/98 1:50:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, owner-
armchair@maillist.il.fontys.nl writes:
OH MY FREAKIN GOD!!! THEY WERE AWESOME!!!!! That bass part was freakin phat
and Ben Going Nuts was freakin amazing!!!! Whoever said they stuck that night
is crazy because they rocked. And I think that pretty everybody thinks so
also. Well Hell yeah Ben!!!! Best thing I have seen since Giants Stadium!!!
Rock on Five!!!!
Ken
"I am assface" Conan O'Brien
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 18 Jul 1998 11:55:30 PDT
From: "V Hochschild" <charzi@hotmail.com>
Subject: anatomy of a request (long)
Hi, Fivers.
For those of you who couldn't give a rat's ass about radio and how it
works, you'd do well to scroll, with my apologies.
Yes, indeed, that Conan thing ruled. The glasses do work for Ben,
Darren does need to eat, and, of course, you had Buffalo Bob tappin' the
patch. ROWR. It was the best one-song representation of the BFF
experience ever on television. Happy happy happy. But I must also give
huge props to you fans who were there startling Conan by screaming your
lungs out. You made as great an impression as the boys did.
Okay, so about those annoying radio people. I'll see if I can shed
some light on Andy's requesting story, which surely many of you could
relate to.
>First, I go optimistic. I ask for Underground. The DJ (a throaty
>voiced sexpot, I'm sure) said she couldn't play it, "it's not in
>here." Now this, to me, means that they had the CD somewhere in the
>station, but she wouldn't get off her lazy ass and get.
In order for a station to even do a request show, they really should
have a big library. (tho' some stations do it anyway, the knobs..).
I'm not sure if this station had been playing "Underground" previously.
If they hadn't played it in a long while, it's likely the CD really
wasn't in the studio. As far as it being in the building - maybe, but
it'd be in the music director's office which at that point in the day is
probably locked and couldn't be acessed without the MD's permission
anyway. It may have been in the studio when it was a current single,
but they have to clear some things out to make way for new stuff coming
in. So she may have been honest there.
> I moved into Whatever.., and requested 1 Angry Dwarf & 200 Solemn
Faces.
>After repeating the title twice...
She may have been stalling to look it up in a library list or to
remember it herself...
>she told me she couldn't play that one because it "hadn't been
released to >radio" yet...I had even heard it played (once) on their
station.
Sounds like the station didn't play it regularly when it was a current
single, but maybe was played for some special occasion she didn't know
about. Usually your average jock doesn't know something's a single
unless it turns up on the playlist (which is why I'm still wondering if
"Kate" was a radio single in North America). I know our station (which
didn't play it) has that song on a Sony compilation CD (a sampler that
gets sent to stations each month - I know this one cuz Fiona Apple's
"Criminal", which we do play, is on that same CD), but if she hadn't
seen it before there, she wouldn't have known. Still, you did catch her
in the wrong there. Oh, and by this point she may be feeling a little
rushed, with other calls to take and programming on the fly. So she may
have been starting to draw her own conclusions to make this call turn
into something she can play.
>I sighed and asked for Battle of Who Could..., which she
>agreed to.
So it had been a single in rotation there and she knew it was around.
BUT she was positive where the current single was, and she wanted some
good tape of jock/listener interaction, so...
>Then, before I hung up, she says.. "Hey, what's their new
>one called?" I say, in a questioning tone, "Song for the dumped?"
>"You got it," she replies. So I say again, I don't want that one,
>though, you always play that one. I wanted Battle... .
>"Yeah, Okay, no problem."
She got what she wanted: a taped mention of a current song that may
have already been on the music log (the list that says, play this song,
then play that song, etc., generated by the music department - usually
but not always, there are songs on there during request hours, but holes
that are filled in with requests) and ready to go in the next little
while anyway (there's your lazy part), so your final protests went
unheeded.
>So I cruise home, listening to Semisonic's "Closing Time" for the
>3,000th time this month, when I hear my voice over the radio. "Hi,"
>sayth I, "I've got a request." "Shoot," sayth the throaty lazy DJ.
>Now, in the place where I had orginally said "Ben Folds Five,
>Underground?" I hear my questioning voice utter, "Song for the
>Dumped?" "You got it." And Ben starting counting.
Voila! One area she wasn't lazy in was in editing. Whether in a
computer or on reel, that was pretty damn slick.
>Now, why, I ask, is it such a freakin crime to want to hear a song by
>my favorite artist that HASN'T been played to pieces by the corporadio
of the U.S.?
Ah, the crime of an open mind. Yes, it does suck. Building a
"corpradio" music library takes a lot of time and effort - pretty much
every song that gets played or can be played (decision of the music
director or a larger consulting body of some sort) has to be documented
(as to its running time, intensity, age, how often it can be played and
a zillion other things if need be) and put into the studio or a hard
drive or a CD "jukebox" thing programmed by computer (and *that's* all
if the station isn't just a front for a syndicated program run out of a
central office hundreds of miles away!). So the choices aren't as
flexible as one would think. Again, there are also the time constraints
on the jock doing a request show without much assistance. As for playing
the same songs all the bloody time, this goes back to the Top 40 radio
philosophy that goes back about 40 years. Some guy noticed people
punching up the same songs in the jukebox time after time. So they
still take a few songs that they think (or likely some trade paper with
the help of a label thinks they'll like - and they do pay attention to
"phones" in this regard) and play the hell out of them until someone
determines they've burned out...as "Brick" has now. Then they get
played every once in a while, then not much at all, then they may go
back into the MD's office. What this all has to do with commercial /
"corporate" radio, I'm not positive. Maybe it's a business efficiency
thing. But that's the way it is, and we just have to appreciate the
songs before we're sick of them, request what you can request, and
embrace the quirky flukes when they happen. Otherwise, support your
local campus radio station.
I'm really sorry for the length here, but picking apart that post
brought up a lot of issues; and maybe the more fans are educated about
the business of this magic, perhaps the more we can help the guys in
their rock star future. (uh, although I do wish they'd take a damn
break.) And I'm not the be-all end-all here - I'd love to hear any
other input/corrections/experience from other radio people (those in the
UK or Australia would be great as well). Thanks so much for getting
thru this and take care.
Peace,
Valerie
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------------------------------
End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1124
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