THE MAGICAL ARMCHAIR

The Ben Folds Five Digest

Issue #1470 - April 16, 1999



Magical Armchair Digest    Friday, April 16 1999    Volume 01 : Number 1470



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TOPICS IN THIS DIGEST:

    Fluid Ounces (off topic)
    Chicago webcast
    don't make bad puns on song titles..
    Radio Diversity
    UK Army singles to trade
    Silver Street Conspiracy
    Chicago show IS sold out...
    One more song

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 22:48:02 EDT
From: YourPalCM@aol.com
Subject: Fluid Ounces (off topic)

Hello everyone,

FYI - Spongebath Records (www.spongebath.net) is offering a $10 limited 
edition version of the new Fluid Ounces CD to the first 100 people to ask for 
it via their website.  I was #41 yesterday morning.

Your Pal,
Chris Mal

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 22:46:27 EDT
From: Eze114@aol.com
Subject: Chicago webcast

This is so odd. I just saw on the official site that BFF are doing a live 
webcast from the Park West in Chicago on May 3. It's weird cuz I am going to 
that show and when DMB did their first webcast it was at the Chicago show at 
the United Center which I was at. I guess they just love their Chi-town 
audiences!!! -Erin 
<A HREF="http://proxy.imagineradio.com/player/player.asp?A=610179">Customized 
music At Imagine Radio
</A> ----my station

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

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 02:50:14 EDT
From: KNULPREK@aol.com
Subject: don't make bad puns on song titles..

(forgive the quoting, but so everyone knows what i'm talking about)

In a message dated 99-04-14 20:06:35 EDT, BenF0lds05@aol.com writes:

<< to the few who have heard TUBORM: is this something *completely 
different*? 
 is this gonna change their music category or something? cause from what i've 
 been getting is that there is brass and violin all over the album. changing 
 is great - its what keeps them fresh, interesting, and their fans 
 anticipating, but have they drastically changed a whole lot? the real thing 
 i'm getting at is i want to know if the new cd is so involved with these 
 foreign instruments that they'll introduce more members to the band. i'm 
just 
 a little curious that ben folds five might turn out to be what its literally 
 interpreted as...five. (or more.) anyway - messner could be more advanced, 
 deeper, and generally more meaningful and maybe thats whats making TUBORM 
 sound like some cluster of bacharach, horde, and early demos. i'm kind of 
 thinking that you shouldn't mess with a good thing - if it isn't broke, 
don't 
 fix it. again, i'd be bored if nothing changed - but is this cd an immediate 
 contrast to the earlier?..comments? >>

I think it's a bit embarrassing that you've chosen your screenname to be such 
a straightforward Ben Folds Five reference if you have such a distrust of 
their artistic decisions. But alas..

TUBORM is wonderful. When i first listened to it, yes, it was quite a change. 
But it's still them.. just another side of the band. I think you wrote that 
last message elluding to, but purposely avoiding, the claim of "sell outs." 
So, to answer your question directly: no. They didn't do this for the money, 
and they didn't do this for the attention. In fact, making this change does 
gamble with their previous fans (take a look in the mirror, buddy), and the 
songs aren't as poppy and radio-friendly as they were previously. In fact, 
most of them are of the length where radios might not WANT to stick it on. 
(please see my earlier post on 
<A HREF="http://www.radiodiversity.com">radiodiversity</A>) Playing the same 
stuff isn't always easy, thought it'll bring in the cash. Isn't that what you 
meant when you said "if it isn't broke, don't fix it"?

This album represents, as far as i can tell (being that i'm not close to the 
band or anything), an artistic change based on personal feelings.. not due to 
what anyone with fat wallets said. (If you'd like to see an example of that, 
then go pick up the Bosstones' "Let's Face It" and compare it to their 
earlier records.) Does it sound like a different band? Slightly. But there's 
still that distinct BFF feel, which can't be smothered regardless of how many 
strings they toss in to spice things up which, if you'd like to know, are 
sometimes quite an addition.

TUBORM is going to muster up a whole lot of talk.. some people will like it 
more, some people will like it less, and some people will be turned onto 
these more emotional tracks (as the most of the album is of the feel of 
"Evaporated") when they were turned off by the previous angry/silly songs.. 
and some will be visa versa. But if there are any claims of this happening 
for any other reason that artistic maturity, then you shall be gravely 
mistaken. 

And this is what i have to say.

  -jason.
 
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/knulprek/home.html">The Happy Scrappy 
Page</A> 

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

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 02:50:12 EDT
From: KNULPREK@aol.com
Subject: Radio Diversity

In a message dated 99-04-14 20:06:35 EDT, baltus@mediaone.net writes:

<< First of all the version of PYSER is from that "Americans for Radio
 Diversity thing from a while back for all of your informations.  by the way
 i would have to agree it does kick ass. >>

Yep.. not only is that a great song, but it's an AMAZING album (i hate 
compilations, but this one is just great) with an amazingly important 
purpose. Corperations are, by FCC standards, able to buy up as many radio 
stations as they wish, which is why there's such a disgusting decrease in 
independent radio stations playing good music, and all now seem to conform to 
the same exact format.

The only station in America to play all the Soul Coughing singles was based 
in Minnasota, and consequently, 1% of the population of, i believe, 
Minneapolis owned Soul Coughing material! That's WONDERFUL! (this happening 
before "Circles" littered living rooms nationwide) Then what happened? Some 
large buisness saw a cash cow and screwed over the company, eventually buying 
it out and changing formats to provide MN with their THIRD heavy metal 
station.

Do we need this?

I mean, if anyone lives in the Boston area... WBCN? WFNX? Some other station 
i can't even think of? ALL CLAIMING TO BE THE "real rock" when what do they 
play? Matchbox 20. Sorry, folks. This isn't cutting edge.

It's an abuse of an art, and it's disgusting. I urge everyone to check out 
their site, 
<A HREF="http://www.radiodiversity.com">http://www.radiodiversity.com</A>.. 
even if you don't want to purchase anything, just the knowledge of what's 
going on around us is worth your while.

    -jason.
 
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/knulprek/home.html">The Happy Scrappy 
Page</A> 

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

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 11:17:02 +0000
From: "Del" <prs14097-001@popmail.prestel.co.uk>
Subject: UK Army singles to trade

I have two copies of the UK Army singles to trade.

I really want to get a copy of Ben Lee's Cigarettes can kill you.

If you have anything else to trade or you just want to buy them off 
me, please email me privately.

Del.

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

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 11:17:02 +0000
From: "Del" <prs14097-001@popmail.prestel.co.uk>
Subject: Silver Street Conspiracy

I have downloaded two versions of Silver Street from two different 
sources and they both have glitches in them. I have run uncook on
them and it doesn't seem to make any difference. I think they both 
came from the Beginnings CD.

Could somebody tell me if it runs OK on the CD and if a problem free 
decent quality MP3 is available.

Thanks.  Del
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://members.xoom.com/soundsurfer/
Realaudio samples of albums from Allstar Utd, Ben Folds Five,
New Radicals, Stereophonics, Switchfoot, Weezer
& Stereophonics.

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

Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1999 23:10:02 CDT
From: "Dan Mauer" <dmauer@iname.com>
Subject: Chicago show IS sold out...

For the record:
The park west show in chicago IS sold out...

AND I DON'T HAVE A TICKET because I was expecting to be in a play 
which would have been performed that evening.  But since then I've had 
to drop out of the play due to school getting crazy, so now I'm free 
that night, and it's freakin' sold out!!!

If anyone has any way to get ahold of tickets (I've tried several 
scalpers, to no avail), PLEASE email me at dmauer@iname.com.

G'bye
- -dan


______________________
Postmaster 1.0b6 for BeOS
http://cs.ubishops.ca/postmaster

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

Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 17:18:45 EDT
From: Snlpiscopo@aol.com
Subject: One more song

Why couldn't they add one more song to the new album? The other two 
all-studio albums have 12 songs and this one only has 11. They should have 
carried the tradition.

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

End of Magical Armchair Digest V1 #1470
***************************************


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