THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR
The Ben Folds Five Digest
Issue #164 - November 27, 1996
THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #164
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Topics for Today:
new Built To Spill - "Perfect From Now On"
Playing by ear
Re: A Plea for Tour Dates
first try
BFF & Alagia & Derryberry?
Snuzz/Bus Stop
Diggin' The Diggers
Re: THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #163
Leadmill
lyrics
BF5, Birmingham, England
Re: Australian Tour Dates
I spoke to...BEN!
Who are the Klezmatics?
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 20:24:32 -0600
From: Adam Metz <ajmetz@students.wisc.edu>
Subject: new Built To Spill - "Perfect From Now On"
Since I'm a fancy-shmancy music writer for the Badger Herald, I snatched the
copy of the new Built To Spill disc of the editor's desk as soon as it came
in. I bet Ben F***in' Folds doesn't even own this one yet. It's quite a
bit mellower than their previous releases.
Lots of cellos and emo-type guitars make it kinda like an indie-rock-wimp
version of Mazzy Star. I'm not sure whether I like it yet, but I love their
first two albums. Hmmm. I'll post a review soon enough.. Give me a few days.
-->A.J. Metz
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 03:30:21 -0500
From: PowerVegan@aol.com
Subject: Playing by ear
>> And then loud bloke
>> shouts "Can you play the theme tune of Jonny
>> Briggs?" which is a well-known british kids show. Ben asks how it goes
>> and loud bloke shouts/sings it. Ben instantly, I mean instantly, plays it
>> back perfect, note for note! Half the crowd fainted at this point.
>What a guy, I am soooooooooooooooo excited now.
Come on, people, this is NOT that hard! Playing that bit at the end of
"Uncle Walter", now THAT's hard. Heck, my band will play entire SONGS we've
never played before when people request them during a show.
But, now that I see how impressed you all are by melody parroting, maybe I
should buy a Melodica and solicit the audience members to hum unfamiliar TV
show tunes. :-)
-- Michael Bluejay (Austin, TX)
==============================================================================
Date: 23 Nov 1996 13:23:00 +0100
From: Daniel Rodrigues Parreira <parreira@aquawolf.xs4all.nl>
Subject: Re: A Plea for Tour Dates
Jed Gilchrist <jed@keck.whittier.edu> wrote:
> I too, would love to see Ben Folds and crew hit the states once again.
Now that we Europeans have had BF5 for a couple of weeks I think you can
have them back for a while. :)))
But please return them when they'll promote the new album! :+)
_ _ _
_ | \ |_) |_) parreira@aquawolf.xs4all.nl
(_iao... |_/aniel | \odrigues |arreira parreira@ecsi.chem.uva.nl
parreira@tmbg.org
amsterdam, the netherlands, europe
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 16:34:52 +0000
From: K.J.Smailes@durham.ac.uk
Subject: first try
hi, this is the first one of these i've written so i'm not sure how to
start. first of all to chris, the song that goes "give me my money
back" is called "song for the dumped", bff played it at the reading
festival in august. does anyone know if it'll be out before the album
comes out or if it'll be on the album, as it was a bit of an anthem for
that weekend for my friend and i. i don't know if anyone has written
about reading before on here, but it is one of the major uk festivals
and holds about 50-60,000 people. bff played saturday afternoon to a
packed tent, which was unusual given their starting time of 2.30pm and
the relatively small amount of attention they'd received in the press.
it was a brilliant show and the crowd cheered for ages at the end, even
going round to the side of the stage to wave at the band through the
wire fencing. they were the band of the weekend for me, better than the
stone roses (not difficult, admittedly, they were very out of tune),
garbage, prodigy, gene etc etc. i'd been looking forward to the show as
i worked in a record shop and we played the album all the time. we were
sponsoring the festival too, so at one point there was a rumour that bff
would play in the shop, sadly it never happened (we got rocket from the
crypt instead).
to anyone who got to see bff this time round, i am SO jealous of you!
they are playing on my birthday in london, which would be cool if i was
at home (reading) but as i am at uni in durham (about 350-400 miles away
for those not familiar with british geography) it's not possible. does
anyone know if they are coming back next year?
anyway, i'd better finish it for now,
love from katherine (new girl)
my address is k.j.smailes@durham.ac.uk if you have the answers to any of
my questions or if you want to write about bff related stuff.
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 14:56:38 -0500
From: RnRinDC@aol.com
Subject: BFF & Alagia & Derryberry?
I saw an ad in Friday's Washington Post weekend section for a John
Alagia/Doug Derryberry show. For those of you who are not familiar with
Alagia/Derryberry, they are fairly big names in the local (mid Atlantic)
music scene. In addition to being in several local bands together, they
produced Dave Matthews Band's first album (Remember Two Things) and have
worked with Hootie & the Blowfish among others. The ad for their January
shows says something about "when they are not working with DMB, Hootie, & Ben
Folds......".
So here is the question - what work has Ben Folds or BFF done with Alagia &
Derryberry? Are Alagia and Derryberry producing the upcoming Sony release?
Frank, do you know how they are related?
Any info would be great.....Thx!
Rich
==============================================================================
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 96 17:02:16 -0000
From: Charles D Folds <4rachuck@concentric.net>
Subject: Snuzz/Bus Stop
>For those of you who don't know Bus Stop, if you can find any of
> their CD's, BUY THEM!! They are great. I kept hoping they could stay
> together long enough to maybe ride Ben's coattails to success, but
> alas.
Thank you very much, John!!!!
We will continue with a new project called 'Snuzz' which is the name of
the guitar player in Bus Stop. Ben just happens to be a big fan of Snuzz
(and in fact, Ben played drums and piano on some of Snuzz's early
recordings, dont know if there are any around or not) so I hope that BF5
fans will check it out. We wont be playing out live til the beginning of
the year and I will be pestering Ben to let us open for him.
>(See ya' at the Brewery, Chuck!!)
I hope you came out last night, I believe it was a good show.
And thanks again for the nice words.
see ya
chuck
oh yeah, just to toss in my 2 cents on the band list, everyone must check
out Nil Lara from Miami.
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 14:36:04 +0000
From: Darren / Tara <scuzz@globalnet.co.uk>
Subject: Diggin' The Diggers
> Sorry for the non-BF5 content;I'll keep it brief. I've seen numerous
> comparisons of Ben's music to both Jellyfish and Built To Spill, and am
> interested in checking out both bands. But I don't know which CD's to buy.
> Can anyone recommend their choice for best album from either of these?
> Rod
Rod, I love Jellyfish (and Imperial Drag!)... it's hard to decide between
Bellybutton and Spilt Milk though, so I'd have to recommend that you buy
them both!
> I really disagree with you. I went to the gig thinking "Oh well, another new
> Creation band that'll go away after 2 records", but I was wrong. these guys
> can really play and sing. And they could REALLY sing. The 3 part harmonies
> were spot on.
Jay, thank you for sticking up for The Diggers! I was reluctant to step in
as it seems we're supposed to keep non-BFF comments to a minimum, but I've
been a huge Diggers fan since I saw them supporting Heavy Stereo in August.
So I was thrilled to find them supporting BFF, and I wish I could have got
tickets for the first Dingwalls show. If anyone wants to know more about
The Diggers, check out their page in Scuzz at http://www.scuzz.com/ -
complete with two RealAudio song clips.
See all you Brits at the LA2!
Cheers - Tara
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:49:44 GMT
From: Mark Piper <pipermf@ugs1.ph.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR, Issue #163
Me old mucker Jay wrote:
> Woah, seems like there was a few of us at the Dingwalls show on Monday.
>
> They were incredible and how much does Ben make me laugh? The guy is just so
> entertaining. I think the new song they played was _Battle of who could care
> less_. It was great. I think he may have muttered something about the new
> record being called _Cigarette_. Did anyone else here that?
>
> Just wanted to comment about this :
>
> > The show opened with a band called the Diggers, who were Britpop. Nuff
> > said. They trudged thru some tunes that sounded like the Beatles songs
> > no-one remembers. They left after half an hour.
>
> I really disagree with you. I went to the gig thinking "Oh well, another new
> Creation band that'll go away after 2 records", but I was wrong. these guys
> can really play and sing. And they could REALLY sing. The 3 part harmonies
> were
> spot on. OK they may have got a little samey towards the end but there were
> some really cool pop songs amongst it. And they sounded more like the
Monkees
> than the Beatles...to me anyway....
>
> Sorry, I've gone on a bit.
>
Yep, have to go with Jay there. I thought the Diggers were cool (Robert
was wearing a Diggers T-Shirt at the Brum gig). But, two words:
TEENAGE FANCLUB
Okay, yeah, maybe TEENAGE FANCLUB MEETS THE BEATLES. The fat guitarist
even had that old McCartney shuffle.
I would spout on about how great BFF were last night, and how I can't wait
to go to the Astoria 2 tomorrow and how I was dead chuffed that I made
Robert go and fetch me the setlist and how the crowd cheered when Robert
was told to say "S*** On The Villa" (much to their bemusement), but I
guess you all know anyway.... >8)
Mark
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 96 15:55:31 PST
From: Derek Ebbrell <dse@postman.sabwabco.co.uk>
Reply to: derek.ebbrell@sabwabco.co.uk
Subject: Leadmill
I now I wont be the only one to write but here goes,
basically the same as London but with out the Johnny Briggs theme,
We got Champagne Supernova and Saturday night fever instead,
even little bits of Rage against the machine, F@~k you and all that,
A bit of piano dancing from Ben and some one dragged from the crowd,
not to much to her disappointment,
Much more will be written, and a lot betterer, so I will leave it here,
Just waiting for the bares to do a joint tour next year, hope hope
Derek Ebbrell
derek.ebbrell@sabwabco.co.uk
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 16:15:31 GMT
From: Mr Benjamin R Day <ph41bd@surrey.ac.uk>
Subject: lyrics
Hi.
does anyone have, or know where to get, the lyrics to the BFF album?
ta muchly, spinach.
[Look on the web page, under Discography. -fjm]
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 14:35:01 GMT
From: "A GARBI REG:00263121" <GARBIA-U@m4-arts.bham.ac.uk>
Subject: BF5, Birmingham, England
Jesus!
Arrived at the venue to find what was surely the longest queue in its
history. Stuck down near the bottom of the queue, I bumped into Mark
(regular Armchair contributor) and we stated our determination,
despite being about 200th in the queue, to be right at the front of
the pit. Turned out to be dead easy. I sat upstairs in the bar until
the end of the Diggers (my vote - they were s***), and came down to
find it surprisingly simple to push through the mob. Must be that
British trait - too polite to complain, but nobody said a word to me.
So there they were, B,R & D looking totally un-rock'n'roll. A
couple of hellos, then into Jackson Cannery, and the crowd was
instantly activated. I did expect a few die-hards, but it seemed that
everyone knew all the words, and were totally into BF5. The whole gig
was amazing, even though I think I almost had my legs broken a couple
of times by the masses pushing me harder against the stage. Piano
playing by arms, arse and stool, piano-vaulting to get across the
stage, a truly magnificent extended drum solo on Sports & Wine, the
whole album plus excellent new songs, and still Ben and Robert found
time to indulge in a little conversation with the crowd. Well done to
Robert for proclaiming 'S*** on the Villa' (you have to be in
Birmingham to really appreciate that one).
Still can't really get my head round it. Might post again when I
remember it a bit more clearly.
Anyway, the set list, as abbreviated on Darren's list (complete
with Darren footprints) :
Jackson
Summer
Battle
Polka
Uncle Walter
Alice
Steven (can anyone who was there tell me if it was out of tune,
or whether it was meant to sound like that?)
Kate ?
Dwarf ('about a kid, certainly not me, who got bullied at
school', then something about putting people in cupboards and 'doing
naughty things to them')
Best
Video
Chopsticks
Dumped
Sports
Underground
Philosophy (introduced as 'hand me my falafy (or something)
please')
----------
Boxing
Julianne
This is actually wrong. Julianne came earlier, Sports & Wine came
after Underground and was followed by Video Killed The Radio Star
('it's in C#, which is a pain in the ass').
Anyway, that's that. Best gig ever? Oh, alright then.
Andy.
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 96 09:56:37 +1100 (EST)
From: thompson@mpx.com.au
Subject: Re: Australian Tour Dates
Hi People...... I'm just enquiring quickly as to whether anyone, including you
Frank, knows whether BF5 are playing any other gigs while out here in January,
apart from the Big Day Out, in either Melbourne or Sydney......please help
me.....
PS I went to the final Crowded House concert on the steps of the Sydney Opera
House last night...and with a quarter of a million people packed in the area
it was amazing.....i just mention this because I've seen other people make
reference to them before on here..
Erika
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 14:27:17 +0000
From: Kare Kare Man <JOA95JWA@sheffield.ac.uk>
Subject: I spoke to...BEN!
I interviewed Ben on Saturday before the Sheffield Leadmill gig and
he's a really nice guy...he talked for ages on all sorts of topics
and, ooh, it were smart!
Darren Jessee decided to leave the band during the course of my
interview, citing a need for cheese. Ben was undisturbed and said
that a drum machine would be better anyway. Ben said the album title
was between two things, the Little Girl With Teeth or Cigarette.
The tour manager, as said before, was a really sound bloke as well.
The high point of the soundcheck was when he took over on vocals for
Where's Summer B?, including the immortal line 'What about the
winter?'
The gig was absolutely awesome...the whole of the first album bar
Boxing, five new ones at least, the Liz Phair song about f***ing from
behind plus Champagne Supernova (country-style), Killing In The Name
Of, a shambolic Staying Alive, Video KIlled The Radio Star. Other
high points were a girl dancing on the piano, serenaded by Ben.
I will post the interview if people want it...I have to say that it
was my first one ever though so I may not have reached the skilled
levels of Lester Bangs yet.
Oh, and off topic, have any UK listies seen the Jason Falkner album
in this country in record shops? Is it only on import? Oh, and
what's it called? Please send helpful, glowing e-mails to moi.
JOHN A---------I'm leeeeeeeeeeaving this factoreeeeeeee-----------
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 96 08:12:36 UT
From: Bruce Herrier <BHerrier@msn.com>
Subject: Who are the Klezmatics?
Who are these Klezmatics that Ben & Co. are hanging out with? (See Rolling
Stone blurb) Has anyone heard of them, or more importantly, heard their CD?
If so, please post a review to either warn us off or encourage us to run out &
buy the thing. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs a Folds-like album to
bide the time until the new album.
Bruce Herrier
"The whole thing smacks of effort."
-One of Lisa Simpson's "beach friends"
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