Ben Folds Five to Reunite For A One Time Performance of Reinhold!

MYSPACE LAUNCHES NEW MUSIC PROGRAM "FRONT TO BACK"

Program Reunites Beloved Alt-Rock Heroes Ben Folds Five for Special One-Time Concert Presented By NowWhat.com

We are honored and excited that Ben Folds Five is helping launch this new music program," said Josh Brooks, VP of Music Marketing for MySpace. "Front to Back is about connecting and re-connecting the MySpace community, fans and bands alike with some of the most acclaimed and inspirational albums ever produced."

Front to Back asks leading artists to perform one of their own seminal albums, from front to back, in a live concert that is then later aired on the site. The airing of the event includes interviews with the band as well as artists who were influenced by the album. Presented by Nowwhat.com, tickets to the Ben Folds Five Front to Back taping will go on sale to the public through etix.com on September 8th at 10 AM EST. Additional Front to Back performances will be announced by MySpace in the coming months.

Piano-based rock trio Ben Folds Five formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1993. Comprised of Ben Folds on vocals and piano, Robert Sledge on bass and backing vocals and Darren Jessee on drums and backing vocals, the group quickly became heroes in the world of indie alternative-pop. The band, well-known for their hit single "Brick" from their platinum-selling 1997 album Whatever and Ever Amen, was together seven years before disbanding amicably in 2000, at which time Ben Folds began his esteemed solo career while Darren Jessee went on to form the band Hotel Lights and Robert Sledge went on to play in the now defunct International Orange. Folds' third solo studio album, Way to Normal, releases on September 30, 2008. The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner was released in April 1999 and was the fourth and final album from Ben Folds Five. It cracked the Top 40 of Billboard's Album chart and reached No. 3 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart.

Portion of proceeds from concert will benefit Operation Smile: Changing Lives One Smile at a Time. For more information, please go to operationsmile.org.

4:36 AM - 58 Comments - 76 Kudos - Add Comment

Here, have a song!

A few have asked where to find the fake leak songs. We'll put one up here each week for download until the real album comes out.

6:34 AM - 34 Comments - 56 Kudos - Add Comment

Why I Leaked It......

Ben Folds Comes Clean About His Fake (And Real) New Album, "Way To Normal"

Plus: A track-by-track comparison of the false and actual tunes

By: DAVID DOWNS

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/22595157/why_i_leaked_it_ben_folds_co

Singer-songwriter Ben Folds responded to the inevitable leak of his forthcoming album Way To Normal in a unique way: he leaked it himself. Only the songs weren't real - he spent eight hours recording "fake" versions of six tracks during a late-night Dublin, Ireland session in early July, then let friends work their magic on the Web.

"You see so many rock bands in the studio and it's serious, serious business," the 42-year-old singer-pianist tells Rolling Stone. "They got the making-of camera up their ass the whole time and they're on the BlackBerry the other half of the time. I just think that we all need to remember how to have fun."

The self-leak idea came during an early July flight to Europe with drummer Sam Smith and bassist Jared Reynolds (the trio were traveling as part of a year-long tour that includes 15 dates in the fall; Way To Normal hits stores September 30th). Folds says the group rented studio time with nine joke songs in eight hours as the goal. They finished six at the pace of Sixties studio musicians and had a blast.

"The word 'fake' came up when we started doing it and it takes all the responsibility out," he explains. "You can just be free to write and let it go." Some of the session went a little too well, though. Folds really likes "Bitch Went Nutz" - a song told from the narrative perspective of an ignorant ex-boyfriend - and is now hosting it on his MySpace page.

"They sound like roughs because they haven't been worked over and ruined like everything else that gets released these days," Folds says. "I figured a lot of people would get it and a lot of people wouldn't, but that's the way it is with my music in general."

Folds' friends leaked the six tracks in late July, bundling them with real singles "Hiroshima," "You Don't Know Me" featuring Regina Spektor, and a piano-and-orchestra version of real song "Cologne." A week went by without a response. "Fan sites would delete it," he says, explaining Webmasters were afraid of being sued. If people must scrutinize new Folds files for authenticity, Folds says, "I'd be happy with that.

"I may be on crack, but I think if that was half the real record, it'd be good," he adds. "Everyone I know keeps wanting to put it in and play it. We're all not honest these days about the way we listen to music. It all has to have context. I think some people hate it because they were told it was a joke. In the end people got free songs and we had something to do on July 11."

Keep reading for Folds' track-by-track comparisons of the leaked and real songs from Way To Normal. READ MORE

 

 

Kings Of Leon on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace

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Way To Normal Album/Ticket Pre-sale

Ben Folds' long-awaited third, solo studio release, Way to Normal is due in stores Tuesday, September 3oth. As a gift to devoted fans, and to get things rolling, we've got a special exclusive offer to not only pre-order Ben's new album, but also to gain access to a ticket pre-sale for Ben's 2008 Fall Tour.

Here's how it works… Starting Monday, August 4th at 10 AM thru Thursday, August 7th at 10 PM, iTunes and Ticketmaster will be running an exclusive Ben Folds album/ticket pre-sale promotion.  When you pre-order Way To Normal ($12.99 – 13 new tracks) you instantly gain access to a Ticketmaster pre-sale that allows you to purchase Ben Folds tickets before they are available to the general public. CLICK HERE

Wait, there's more… For participating in this offer, you will also get two instant gratification tracks from the new record - available for immediate download – 6 weeks before the new album is available.
"Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)"
"You Don't Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor)"

On September 30th, you'll receive notice to visit iTunes and complete your download of the remaining tracks on Ben Folds' Way To Normal release.
 
Not only that, when you complete your album download, you'll also receive 2 exclusive, additional bonus tracks from your friends at iTunes.  

Be first in line for tickets to the show.  Get 2 songs now!
Get extra tracks on the album. 

Order Today!

Wednesday, September 24th - Washington DC Constitution Hall***

Friday, September 26th - Boston, MA Orpheum
Saturday, September 27th - Storrs, CT University of CT
Tuesday, September 30th - New York, NY Terminal 5
Wednesday, October 1st - New York, NY Terminal 5
Friday, October 3rd - Fort Wayne, IN ** Embassy Theatre**
Saturday, October 4th - Louisville, KY ** Whitney Hall**
Wednesday, October 8th - Athens, OH Ohio University
Thursday, October 9th - Detroit, MI State Theatre
Friday, October 10th - Chicago, IL Congress
Saturday, October 11th - Green Bay, WI Resch Center
Thursday, October 16th - St. Louis, MO Paegent
Friday, October 17th - Minneapolis, MN Myth
Saturday, October 18th - Kirksville, MO Truman State University
Wednesday, October 22nd - Kansas City, MO Uptown Theater
Thursday, October 23rd - Dallas, TX Palladium Ballroom
Friday, October 24th - Houston, TX Warehouse Live
Saturday, October 25th - Austin, TX Stubb's

Thursday, November 13th - San Francisco, CA The Warfield***

Friday, November 14th - Los Angeles, CA  Wiltern Theater***

*Check back often - more tour dates to be added!
**Denotes shows not included in ticket/album pre-sale promotion
***Dates will be available for pre-sale starting Tuesday, August 5th at 10 AM and ending Friday, August 8th at 10 PM!

1:30 AM - 47 Comments - 38 Kudos - Add Comment

Ben Folds to Release New Record, Way To Normal, September 30, 2008

Way to Normal

Over the last 15 years, Ben Folds' first-class melodic gifts, irony-laced lyrics, and punk-rock tendency to play piano as if it were a contact sport have earned the North Carolina native a legion of devoted fans of all ages. These people, quite simply, are going to go nuts for Way To Normal. The album, Folds' third solo studio release, is dominated by the kind of irresistible hooks and piano-pounding pandemonium that listeners haven't been treated to since Folds' years with his previous band, the platinum-selling Ben Folds Five. Way to Normal is an exuberant, raucous, and sometimes profane mix of sure-fire crowd-pleasers ("Hiroshima," "Bitch Went Nuts," and the frenetically fuzzed-out "Dr. Yang"), cheerful snark-fests ("The Frown Song," "Brainwascht"), and thoughtful, moving ballads ("Cologne," "Kylie From Connecticut") that Folds wrote at the end of 2007.

"This new album is really about me being free, which is why it feels cathartic and expressive," Folds says. "It's about me coming back to being myself." (Hence the title.) The album's buoyant mood could also be due to the fact that Folds recorded the majority of it at his own studio near his home in Nashville, with his friends, long-time bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Sam Smith. "We were just having a good time," Folds says. "This was the most fun I've ever had recording." Here are some of the album's highlights:

"Hiroshima" — "I fell off the stage and landed on my head during a show in Japan," Folds explains. "I had a concussion and got x-rays of my head. I just wanted to recount it literally, because when you are that literal, it can produce a surreal effect. The song is kind of about public failure, or perceived public failure. The video could almost consist of famous shots of important people at their worst moments where everyone's watching."

"The Frown Song" — "That's about nouveau riche, bourgeois motherfuckers who forget how close they are to being the servant," Folds says, acknowledging that it's one of the more sharply acerbic songs on the album. (The lyrics skewer faux New-Age types who gossip about which of their friends is "fucking the guru.") "I've seen so many people like that in spas, fancy shops, and yoga studios," Folds says, "people who don't tip their waitress and walk around bumming out baristas when they're supposed to be in some kind of spiritual place."

"You Don't Know Me" (featuring Regina Spektor) — "One of the things that's not often said in pop songs, or in real life for that matter, is how sad it is to spend significant time with someone and realize that you just don't know each other because the most important things are completely off-limits," Folds says. "That's a failure not many people are happy to admit." Folds recruited singer-songwriter Regina Spektor to sing breathy back-up on the track. "She gave it more life," he says. "I think she's one of the best singers out there, she's just so talented."

"Cologne" — "It's both a love song and a break-up song," says Folds. "The '4-3-2-1' chorus comes out of two people on the phone not wanting to hang up, like when you finally go, 'Okay, we've gotta hang up, we'll count it down, and then we'll both hang up.'" The emotional centerpiece of the album, "Cologne" features imagery that meant something to Folds regardless of how universal he felt it to be, like the reference to former astronaut Lisa Nowak who "put on a pair of diapers and drove 18 hours to kill her boyfriend," as Folds puts it in the song. "That was exactly what was going on in my mind when I wrote it, so I left it in. You do a song a real disservice by going too wide sometimes."

"Bitch Went Nuts" — "First off, can I just point out that this is the first time I've ever personally written the word 'bitch' into a song?" Folds says. "[Ex-Ben Folds Five drummer] Darren Jessee wrote the 'Give me my money back, you bitch' line on [Whatever and Ever Amen's] 'Song for the Dumped' and then we covered Dr. Dre's 'Bitches Ain't Shit,' so I've become the 'bitch' guy, which is one reason I didn't want this song on the record." But producer Dennis Herring convinced Folds to keep the track by telling him it was one of the most fun songs on the album. "I agreed and so we're stuck with it," Folds says brightly. "But no one ever 'stabbed a basketball.' That's silly."

Several things keep the mood light on Way To Normal: the sheer musical virtuosity, the joyful melodies, the laugh-out-loud humor, and Folds' heart-breaking tenor voice. "We wanted to keep the smile in the record," Folds says. That job fell to its producer, Herring (Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, The Hives), who was also tasked with getting Folds to stop stalling and get to work.

"Not only did I need to work with someone who knew more about record-making than I did, which Dennis does, but I really needed someone to just kick me in the ass," Folds says. "Before, we'd play for two hours then I'd decide we should all go get coffee, then come back and sit around and watch YouTube. It was pathetic. So this guy came in and made me work. He didn't want to see an idea rot on the vine, he wanted to see it done."

Folds has been going pretty much non-stop since the 2001 release of his debut solo album Rockin' the Suburbs, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide. In short order, Folds has released a live album (2002's aptly titled Ben Folds Live) and a pioneering series of three Internet-only digital EP's: Speed Graphic (which topped the Billboard Internet Album, iTunes, and Soundscan Downloadable Tracks charts), Sunny 16, and Super D in 2003-2004; co-wrote and produced William Shatner's 2004 solo album Has Been; released 2005's pensive Songs for Silverman (which featured the Adult Top 40 hit "Landed"); contributed three original songs to the soundtrack for the 2006 film Over the Hedge; and produced a forthcoming solo album by Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer.

In 2006, Folds released Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP — a compilation of tracks from the Internet-only EP's and B-sides, including an inspired cover of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit," which climbed to No. 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has now sold 132,000 digital singles at iTunes. "It's my biggest hit," jokes Folds.

Along the way, there have been numerous tours, including a few with The Bens, a "supergroup" Folds formed with fellow singer-songwriters Ben Kweller and Ben Lee in 2003, as well tours with Rufus Wainwright and Guster in 2004, and John Mayer in 2007. A classically trained percussionist, Folds has also gone back to his roots by performing with various orchestras over the years, including the West Australian Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony in 2005 and the Boston Pops in 2007. In September 2008, Folds will perform with the Nashville Symphony, opening their 2008-2009 season.

Beginning in May 2008, Folds began to give songs from Way To Normal their first public airings as he made the rounds of several outdoor festivals, including the legendary Glastonbury Festival in England and the annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. His electrifying performance at the latter led one critic to call Folds' performance "pop music at its most satisfying."

"The songs have been getting a great reaction," Folds says. "It makes me look forward to having a new album out there because it's been a while. This feels like a really free period in my life and I'm really enjoying it."

Way to Normal will be released by Epic Records on September 30th, 2008.

8:21 AM - 64 Comments - 109 Kudos - Add Comment

Langerado Loves Ben Folds -Article

Ben Folds
March 8, 2008
Langerado
Better than: Whatever and Ever Amen on constant rotation

I missed Ben Folds last time he came to town with John Mayer. I figured I couldn't stomach the fans of pasty folk hipster Mayer any more than I could stomach his music. But I'm sorry I couldn't find the constitution then to do what I had done just now: Watch Ben Folds come out and just ravage through a set of piano rock that managed to turn a huge crowd of mostly unfamiliars into new fans.

That's sort of a tough task to begin with, but not one unfamiliar to the versatile singer-songwriter, Folds. Piano - even the slice-of-life piano ballads tempered with a dose of punk that Folds plays - doesn't usually equate raw energy, and getting throngs of fans more accustomed to traditional rock bands to buy into the sound takes confidence and conviction. But Folds has confidence to spare. He ran practically full tilt to his piano, leaned forward as if to lunge at it, and never let up -- and rarely sat down -- throughout his whole set.

I'll get this out of the way now: Yes, he still plays Ben Folds Five tunes, and he does them better than ever. He charged through an uptempo version of "One Angry Dwarf" with a sneer, chuckled a bit as he sang the chorus to the perfectly apropos "Kate" (about an sweet, hippie chick with a yen for Krishna and weed), and throttled back into a satisfying rumble for the balladic "Narcolepsy." There was no "Brick" or "Song for the Dumped," but that's OK. Folds is obviously willing to oblige long-time fans with a bit of nostalgia, but he's moved on from his days in BFF. He's got a new catalog of perfectly crafted pop rock tunes to hum along, feel pissed off, or get emotional to.

As far as the new material goes, "Landed" showed off Folds' chops as he navigated the meandering melody with ease, while "Rocking the Suburbs" and his totally-fucking-silly white-boy cover of "Bitches Ain't Shit" had the crowd singing along in glee. I don't know why, but I was still shocked to see the group of forty-somethings in front of my mouthing along with "Bitches." I guess the magic of Folds works two ways: In one regard his brand of brazen, punky piano rock manages to endear the instrument to young hipsters, while in the other he's managed to show the Elton John crowd that you can still say "fuck the man" in B flat. That's a pretty broad cross-section for any artist to maintain, but after seeing Folds man the stage for an hour, it's easy to see how he's managed it so brilliantly.

I only wish Langerado had given Folds a slightly longer set. Hopefully they get him back next year so he can earn a bit more of the fanship he rightly deserves.

--John Linn

9:28 AM - 25 Comments - 40 Kudos - Add Comment

Ben Folds at BONNAROO!

Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment are proud to announce the initial lineup for the 2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. The seventh annual four-day camping and music festival will be held on June 12-15 on the same beautiful 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, 60 miles south of Nashville. A full list of confirmed acts follows, and more will be announced in the coming weeks. The final Bonnaroo 2008 lineup will total over 100 bands and over 20 comedians performing on 13 stages over four days.

Tickets go on sale exclusively through www.bonnaroo.com

on Saturday, February 16 at 12:00 PM EDT.

2008 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival Confirmed Artists:

Pearl Jam
Metallica
Jack Johnson
Kanye West
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss Featuring T Bone Burnett
Phil Lesh & Friends
My Morning Jacket
The Allman Brothers Band
The Raconteurs
Willie Nelson
Death Cab for Cutie
B.B. King
Sigur Ros
Levon Helm and the Ramble on the Road

Ben Folds

O.A.R.
The Bluegrass Allstars Feat. Luke Bulla, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Bryan Sutton
M.I.A.
Umphrey's McGee
Iron & Wine
Yonder Mountain String Band
The Swell Season
Talib Kweli
Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi's Soul Stew Revival
Gogol Bordello
Broken Social Scene
Robert Randolph's Revival
Rilo Kiley
Mastodon
Lupe Fiasco
Against Me!
Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings
Pat Green
Ozomatli
Tegan & Sara
Solomon Burke
Drive-By Truckers
!!!
The Avett Brothers
Israel Vibration
Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet featuring Bela Fleck
Phil Lesh / Larry Campbell / Jackie Greene
Aimee Mann
Ladytron
The Fiery Furnaces
Orchestra Baobab
Ghostland Observatory
Jose Gonzalez
Dark Star Orchestra
Minus the Bear
Donavon Frankenreiter
Lez Zeppelin
State Radio
Battles
Jakob Dylan
Two Gallants
The Sword
Vampire Weekend
Little Feat
Nicole Atkins
The Felice Brothers
Mason Jennings
MGMT
The Lee Boys
Black Kids
Serena Ryder
Steel Train
Grupo Fantasma
Back Door Slam

Bonnaroo Comedy:
Bonnaroo Late Night Chat About with David Cross
Janeane Garofalo
Zach Galifianakis
Jim Norton
Brian Posehn
Mike Birbiglia
John Mulaney
Michelle Buteau

More artists to be announced!

1:14 PM - 35 Comments - 49 Kudos - Add Comment

Ben Folds Michigan State University Interview

Published March 29, 2007

2:48 PM - 17 Comments - 44 Kudos - Add Comment

Tour with John Mayer

John Mayer has tapped Ben Folds as the primary opener for his Continuum summer tour, which kicks off June 1 in Ridgefield, Wash. Additionally, blues-rocker Rocco DeLuca, Dueltone artist Brett Dennen and British songwriter James Morrison will all spend time in the supporting slot during the 38-date trek.

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Ticket Pre-Sale Dates

New pre-sales for this week:

Here is the link for the pre-sale: https://ticketing.concertmaps.com/benfolds/

10:29 AM - 33 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment