THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR

The Ben Folds Five Digest

Issue #589 - November 6, 1997



Magical Armchair Digest   Thursday, November 6 1997   Volume 01 : Number 589



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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:

    Stuck on an island, covers, no BF5 for Jer
    Re:  Magical Armchair Digest V1 #587 
    Boston Show
    Brick - but not what you think...
    Cannibal Corpse...
    The BFF Songbook
    hello bff fans!  intellegent post- promise
    Georgetown
    #3 best songs all tied for #1
    Live Brick lyrics @ Chicago
    'naked baby photos' track list
    I'm sure
    Chicago area Sessions
    TMBG from Brooklyn
    Beck vs. Ben Folds Five

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 01:22:33 -0700
From: uselink@juno.com (Jeremy V Davis) 
Subject: Stuck on an island, covers, no BF5 for Jer

Well, there's a few things I feel like addressing in this post so here
goes.

If I was stuck somewhere with only three songs they would be:
1. Philosophy - Most likely my fav song by the boys
2. Evaporated - Another fav lately
3. Satan Is My Master - For the pure entertainment value

Covers:
1. Stairway To Heaven - Led Zeppelin: Look at me funny all you want
I think that would be a great cover
2. Yesterday - The Beatles: The most covered song of all time I believe.
How could one more hurt?
3. Ripcord - Radiohead: Just a great older Radiohead song that I'd like
to 
hear.

No West 54th for me stupid PBS's in my area aren't carrying it I may
never see more then one live song per sitting due to the fact that I
can'y
go when they come to SLC Damn 21+. Ok, I'm done whining.

- -----------------
"I shake my booty to the Digital Underground" - Robert Sledge - BF5

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 03:39:48 -0500 (EST)
From: JoanneQ@aol.com
Subject: Re:  Magical Armchair Digest V1 #587 

Hi everyone,
For those of you wondering about Travis, they are a Scottish band that has
apparently been around for a while.  One of their songs is on a recent CMJ
disc (sorry, I can't remember which one) and it didn't sound too bad.  Well,
this Sunday will be my fifth BFF show and needless to say I'm counting down
the seconds.  By the way, Brad, if you're out there and going to the show
maybe I'll see you there....we can sing a little of The Brad Song.  (In case
you don't remember, I was behind you at the TLA show in April and I wrote a
review on here which you seemed to like).  Bye folks. 
                                               Q

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 04:42:41 -0500 (EST)
From: "CIT, Camp Newsie" 
Subject: Boston Show

The Boston show tonight was fabulous; one of the best concerts I've ever 
been to!  I'll post more details, but here's the quick summary.

Openers were Verbow and Travis, who dedicated one song to Ben Folds Five 
"since they seem to have some fans in the crowd tonight" (their whole set 
was full of people shouting BFF).  

The crowd was pretty cool, except for this loser guy right up front who 
would not stop jumping and ruining everyone else's view.  But some girl 
gave Ben a flower which he put in his piano which was awfully nice.  

They played just about everything I wanted to hear, about an hour and 
fifteen minutes worth of songs.

And to the other Armchair people I met, thanks for helping me take  
pictures.  Can't wait to see how they'll turn up.

Songs played in no particular order:
Philosophy
BOWCCL
Julianne
Jackson Cannery
Best Imitation of Myself
Last Polka
Video (I think, but maybe I remembered wrong)
The Last Polka
One Angry Dwarf...
Fair
Brick
Peyser
Song For the Dumped
Selfless, Cold and Composed
Kate
Smoke
Steven's Last Night in Town
Missing the War (Again, I think...)


Closed with Underground, and the encores where She Don't Use Jelly and Song 
for the Dumped.

Still on a BFF high,
Katy

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 10:29:57 -0000
From: "john.holloway" 
Subject: Brick - but not what you think...

Hey guys, whatsup?
Living over here in dear ol' blighty we UK armchairites sometimes
feel somewhat distanced from the majority of BF5 activity which 
would be, logically, in the states. Thus excuse my question which
may seem a little daft to you yanks but has Brick been released
on single over there yet? If so could somebody mail me with details
(catalogue number etc) and if not, when is it out? I don't suppose 
anybody knows if its gonna be released in the UK do they?

Oh yeah, if you're gonna mail me a reply do so to
dave-holloway@usa.net
This address is my dads you see and I'm heading back to uni today...

Later alligators
Dave

"listen here c*cksuckers, motherf*ckers, pay respect to my building..."
					- The Incredible PWEI

Ben and his Folding Five - http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/lot/5009

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 22:15:45 +1100
From: Petra 
Subject: Cannibal Corpse...

Somebody wrote: 

>"a Cannibal Corpse song" - Rob was saying something about "one
>of (their)favorite bands, Cannibal Corpse" and this was one of the >two
>songs they knew.  Just a brief blast of noise.

Ben mentioned on the Rage special that Cannibal Corpse was one their 
favorite bands and that their video 'Staring thru the eye of the dead' 
was the basis for the video of 'one angry dwarf', and how it had been 
"Robert's thing" to do that. Ben said how their touring manager had 
managed for cannibal Corpse one time, but "that has nothing to do with 
the fact that it's my favorite video." I made a post about this to the 
armchair a while back, and i got lots of email from people saying "Oh 
you gullible fool, they're just joking, as if Ben would like Cannibal 
Corpse blah blah" and now I'd just like to say to those people: HA! Cos 
I was right. :) (I'm so smug)

Cheers, Pet

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 11:31:04 GMT
From: "Edward Jung" <6518176x@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: The BFF Songbook

Hello all,

I'm a BFF fan in the UK. I was wondering if the BFF songbook is 
available outside America, or is it just by mail order from the 
distributors.

Sorry if this has been covered before. Thanks.

Edward

6518176x@mmu.ac.uk Edward L.C. Jung
        'Everything is nothing, if you've got no one'
*                                                Islands In the Stream 
* Mark Radcliffe | Visit my homepages at :
* BMX Bandits    |   http://tony.geog.aca.mmu.ac.uk/~junge/
* Helen Love     |
* The Red Cat    | Aaaahhh Yes!!!!Fantastic!!!!!Fancy a Brew!!!!
******************************           
  

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

Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 23:56:02 -0500
From: obscuredsp@juno.com (lawson t bennett) 
Subject: hello bff fans!  intellegent post- promise

bff fan for almost a year now- saw them 3 weeks ago at the ritz in
raleigh- hence my signing up for this mailing list.  i've been on
listessa (smashing pumpkins mailing list) for 2.5 years now so i am a
faithful list member- i should be here a while so learn me now...

first off, is there a bff faq? i havent seen one- if not, i promise i
will put one together, but i must wait a year while i gain all needed
knowledge- basically, they have impressed me so musically that im giving
them a one year lease for "2nd favorite band"  when that lease is  up and
trent gives us a new album, i will compare- but i hear by then bff should
have a bsides album, an intrumental album- ben folds and some other guy,
and probably a new album- so nin will be up against quite a lot- bff may
steal that #2 spot for quite a while.

whose number one?

well the smashing pumpkins of course- anyone who doesnt believe me,
PLEASE tell me, as well as those who dont- but of course, keep it off the
list unless its bff and sp related- now, since im such an experienced
list member, i have some tips- please read em as i will hardly ever bitch
about stuff like this again- it gets redundant but ive found that most
people have to do this once, though some of them do it in every post and
they get annoying- ok, here we go

1.   i'm assuming that the first few months this list was created,
everyone was nice and happy- that was how listessa was- less than 100
members up till 1994 even- when i got on there were about 300 or maybe
more- now there are 1700... and many of them are pretty pointless and
shallow- or at least they seem that way.... IT HAPPENS!!!!!   bff is
getting big- its happening and there's nothing you can do about it. there
will be people who may sign up on this list cause they heard brick on the
radio, and they may just goosh about them until your heart bleeds for
relief from the tortuous posts- DONT flame them DONT post to the list
about how it sux now and DONT loose faith in the band that won you over-
so what if that was 2 years ago- everyone has to start somewhere! bff
started 45 min from my house in chapel hill- and though i caught them
right before their new album, i still caught them later then that dorky
girl in my comp class that i borrowed their first cd from- and come on
whose cooler, me or her........ well, who cares, but I AM STILL COOL and
so is anyone who doesnt find out about BFF until they all die, but still
loves them with an honest heart!

whew... i actually dont think im going to go any further with this one,
but you get the idea- maybe a few more words about the pros and cons of
the progress of listessa, but after that, no more- i just want this to be
a cool list! hell, we had to limit the daily postings to 50, reject posts
for 1- no subject line  2- pointless swearing 3- not enough relevance to
sp 4- stuff better handled in personal email 5 just cause there were more
than 50, and yours got cut! 

so to the guy that said he doesnt have time for these crappy digests- you
aint seen nuthin- i expect my time here will be well spent, and i look
forward to conversing with you all about bff, trading boots (i'll trade
sp boots for bff boots! i have tons!), and hopefully getting some cool
things going on this list that would make us all feel like a big happy
unified group

quick question- how can i get info on how many people are on this list,
how often they post, etc cause cant you get those from a list server?
they are so fun

oh, and dont diss on people cause of their age- im 17.5, and i'm cooler
than all of you- and my piano skillz will kick all of yours :)   ok, and
im also very witty, slighty sarcastic, and relatively confident :)

lawson bennett       ----obscuredsp@juno.com
devout follower of:
  THE SMASHING PUMPKINS       BEN FOLDS FIVE   TORIAMOS 
 PJ HARVEY   MManson   NIN    Bjork    Drum and Bass

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 09:04:09 -0500 (EST)
From: marc s kaplan 
Subject: Georgetown

I called georgetown's tix office, and they confirmed that bff will be
playing dec 4th, they told me the theater holds about 700people.  They did
not know though the exact date the tickets would go on sale, but they told
me 1.5-2 weeks before the show starts.  As far as buying the tickets, they
also said they were not sure how they would be sold, but they said at
least you could buy them at red square (their ticket office?).  

I will be going with my brother, and mabye a copule of other people
(depending on how much the tickets are.)  If you all want to meet before
the show, drop me a line

till then

			-/\/\arc

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

Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 09:16:50 -0500 (EST)
From: marc s kaplan 
Subject: #3 best songs all tied for #1

Thats a hard one, but I THINK it goes like this

#1-Where's Summer B
#1(2)-Uncle Walter
#1(3)-Philosophy

Its Impossible to rank which ones in order.  

And I can tell you that tommorow the top three will change, and then again
the next day!!

I wonder what the album art will look like for the 'new' cd???


				-/\/\arc

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 09:22:15 -0600
From: Tina Archer 
Subject: Live Brick lyrics @ Chicago

Hey all,
I noticed people were talking about Ben changing some of the lyrics and
my friend Jay who I drug to the show and who is now a convert, swore
he thought Ben sang "Police surround the parking lot" instead of "I pace
around the parking lot."   Interesting, huh?  Unfortunately I can't confirm or
deny this because I was singing at the top of my lungs, right Erik  : - ))  
Later, T 

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

Date: 05 Nov 97 11:26:03 +0000
From: lou papineau 
Subject: 'naked baby photos' track list

this just in from caroline records:

BEN FOLDS FIVE SHOW THE WORLD THEIR NAKED BABY PHOTOS!!

November 4, 1997--New York, NY.  Caroline Records prepares to release a 
new
Ben Folds Five album, Naked Baby Photos, on January 13, 1998.

Naked Baby Photos' 16 tracks include 8 soon-to-be favorite studio songs,
five of these tracks have never been available before despite their
frequent inclusion in the band's current live set.  The other 3 studio
tracks are rare and hard-to-find versions of Ben Folds Five favorites.  
The
remaining 8 tracks are live versions of songs which capture the band's
in-concert intensity which has made them one of the hottest live acts
around.  Three of these live tracks are new, not even available as studio
versions.

The complete track listing is as follows:
*Eddie Walker-this was recorded during the first album sessions and has
never been available before.
*Jackson Cannery-this is the original out-of-print 7" version
*Emaline-this was recorded during the first album sessions and has never
been available before
*Alice Childress-recorded live on KCRW
*Dick Holster-this was recorded during the Stiff Johnson sessions and has
never been available before
*Tom and Mary-this is the third previosuly unavailable track which was
recorded during the first album sessions.
*For Those of Ya'll Who Wear Fanny Packs-this has never been available
before, it was recorded during soundcheck
*Bad Idea-this is the original version.
*Underground-live at Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC
*The Ultimate Sacrifice-live at Lupo's, Providence, RI.  This has only 
ever
been performed live.
*Satan Is My Master-live at Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, NC.  This has only 
ever
been performed live
*Julianne-live at LA2, London
*Song For The Dumped-live at LA2, London
*Philosophy-live at De Melkweg, Amsterdam
*Twin Falls-live at Club Quattro, Tokyo.  This is a cover of a Built To
Spill song which has only ever been performed live.
*Boxing-live at Club Quattro, Tokyo.

lou

"i can't wait til the future gets here"

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 11:03:01 -0600
From: "Erik C. Lyons" 
Subject: I'm sure

I know you already know this, but ALL the info on the upcoming release
has been announced by Caroline. It is too long to post (and I am sure
someone will post it anyway) so I have put it on my webpage. I (and other
sites) will be working with Caroline to include more info about this CD on my
webpage and other fan sites. So stay tuned to the BF5 fan websites. 

Homepage for the Dumped
http://members.tripod.com/~elyons/ben_menu.htm


                    I was never cool 

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

Date: 4 Nov 1997 17:39:05 -0500
From: "Worth Wagers" 
Subject: Chicago area Sessions

I just checked channel 11 (WTTW)'s program guide and Sessions (w/ Beck and BFF) is not on Saturday, but is on at:

Sunday, 11/9 12:30 a.m &
Monday, 11/10 2:00 a.m.

Hope this helps.
Check your local listings.
- -Worth

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 10:42:03 -0700
From: Greg Whitehead 
Subject: TMBG from Brooklyn

Actually, they're from Brooklyn, ("Brooklyn's Ambassadors of Love"
not Mass.

>
>In short, theyre a goofy band from Massachusetts-released several albums
>was only 2 men,john+john with their instruments and tape backup
>known for their witty lyrics-have played free hatchshell(boston)concerts
>2 years running
>i recommend their cd "Flood" feauturing great music
>~Elisabeth
>"make a little birdhouse in your soul"
>Desert Island BFF songs? how to choose!!
>Julianne(its got a funky beat, and I can bug out to it!)
>Video-Underground-One Angry Dwarf-Evaporated(I cant whittle it down!)

=========================================
Greg Whitehead  gumby@icentral.com
Icentral Software Engineer Extraordinaire
=========================================

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

Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 10:28:48 -0700
From: Greg Whitehead 
Subject: Beck vs. Ben Folds Five

I don't want to drag this discussion out much longer either,
but I would just like to say that nearly *everyone* in and out
of the music industry wrote Beck off as a one hit wonder when
"Loser" became a hit.  No one believed he'd bounce back and 
suddenly become one of the best and most highly influential
artists of the past year.  I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I
just want to say that a couple years ago Beck was a footnote
now he's an entire page at least in music history.  BFF
is merely a footnote at the moment, but that's not saying they
can go somewhere too.  Personally, I prefer them as a footnote
although they deserve an entire book!  I just prefer the bands
I like not to gain mass commercial popularity.  I'm sure I don't
have to explain why.  Cheers!

>"In Beck's case, 
>it's cheesy 90's music.  No one is clamoring for the worst of the 
>80's 
>nowadays,
- --Au contraire--The 80's are big, and the cheesier the song the
better on most radio stations where I live!

> and down the road Beck won't be much more than a footnote 
>from the 90's.  In terms of pure song writing ability, Ben Folds has 
>
>more talent in his pinkie finger than Beck will ever exhibit in his 
>career."
>
>Ummm...okay.....well, I just hope you're not basing this on a couple
>of retro-music vids, in which case I could maybe almost see where
>you're coming from.  However, I just can't.  I am completely in awe
>of Ben Fold's talent in both writing and performing, and I think 
>that
>BFF puts out some excellent pop music; however, Beck is a 
>completely separate category, and it ain't the cheese section. 
>Beck's music encompasses an entirely new generation of thought,
>both in music and in the opinions which he expresses through his
>songs, while BFF puts out wonderfully thought-out and beautifully
>presented pop songs.  Please don't flame me, I am a tremendous
>fan of Ben Folds, but I don't believe there is any doubt that Beck
>will be the page in the history book, and BFF a footnote.  No, that
>doesn't mean that they're not a great band with solid musical 
>talent, just that they will never be (and from what I understand 
>never planned or need to be) the innovative and influential 
>artist that Beck is.  And all the proof you need of this is to get
>one of his albums and LISTEN.
>
>- -JLPD/Sadie
>

===========================================================
Greg "gumby" Whitehead http://icentral.com/gumby/gumby.html
===========================================================
Featured album of the week:

Moog Cookbook:Ye Olde Space Bande
*****1/2 /6 stars

First they took on grunge music, now it's classic rocks
greatest hits.  Wonderfully and terribly reworked versions
of Boston, Steppenwolfe, Van Halen, Chicago, David Bowie,
Led Zeppelin, KISS, Lynard Skynard, Ted Nugent, and the
Eagles along with many hidden surprises by many other 
classic rock groups done completely on Moog keyboards grace 
this 10 song album.  Not for the faint of heart nor faint 
of humor.

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

End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #589
**************************************


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