Ben
Folds Five news
Sept. 2012. The
newly-reunited Ben Folds Five releases a new album, The Sound of
the Life of the Mind, and launches their first tour in over a
decade. The Magical Armchair has the
tour dates.
Stuff on this site
• Ben Folds Five FAQ
• MP3 of me sitting in
with BF5 on "Best Imitation of Myself"
• Order albums and sheet
music
• Chord charts for some songs
• My lousy MIDI recording of Best Imitation
• Similarities between BF5 songs and other songs
• A Who's Who Guide to Ben Folds Five
• Interviews with the band from the 1990s
• BF5 Haikus
• Picture of my BF5 tattoo
• The piano market (piano stocks)
• BF5's shows in Austin
• SXSW 1996 concert photos
Other sites
• The band's official site
• Magical Armchair (well-known fansite)
• Wikipedia article about the band
• Lyrics at BestLyrics.com
• Misheard lyrics
• Ragogna interview, Oct. 2012. Excellent interview with Ben; touches on some technical aspects of the music as well as the meaning behind some of the lyrics.
• BF5 All Together Now. Japanese fan site, in
English & Japanese. Doesn't seem to have been updated since
2000, but has some cool GIF animations of the band.
• The Strangest Thing. This large fansite died
in 2002, but here's the archive.
• 1997 interview
• Hotel
Lights. Darren Jessee's critically-acclaimed other band
• ChuckFolds.com.
Ben's brother's site about his own music
• Phil's Finest Hour was an Australian band with a
BF5-like sound. Unfortunately they seemed to have disappeared,
and I can't find any recordings of them listed anywhere.
Ben
Folds Five timeline
1966. Ben born on
Sept. 12.
Mid-1980s. If
the song "Army" is truly
autobiographical, Ben works at Chik-Fil-A, contemplates joining the
army, and plays in an unsuccessful band.
~1987-90. Ben
forms Majosha with Millard
Powers. Band wins a "Battle of the Bands" contest.
1994. Band forms in
Chapel Hill, NC, with Folds,
Darren Jessee on drums, and Robert Sledge on bass guitar.
1995. Debut
eponymous album on Caroline Records.
"Underground" is a semi-hit single.
1996. The band gets
a large following in Japan, courtesy of a
Japanese TV drama in which one of the characters is a big fan, but gets
a lot less attention the U.S.
1997. Second album, Whatever
and Ever Amen.
The single "Brick" launches the band to stardom, and "Song for the
Dumped" and "Battle of Who Could Care Less" hits the Top 25.
1998. Ben releases
his first solo album, Fear
of Pop, though Ben Folds Five is still going strong.
1999. Third album, The
Unauthorized Biography
of Reinhold Messner. "Army" charts in the Top 20.
2000. The band
breaks up amicably in October. The bandmembers' projects
post-breakup aren't detailed here; instead see the Wikipedia articles
about Ben,
Darren, and
Robert.)
2005. A remastered
and expanded edition of Whatever and Ever Amen is released,
including seven new bonus tracks.
2008. The band
reunites for a single show in Chapel Hill. (NME)
2011. The band reunites to
record three new songs for the compilation album The Best Imitation
of Myself: A Retrospective.
2012. The band releases their fourth
studio album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, and begins
their first tour in over a decade.
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Ben Folds Five Haikus
(actually, Senryus)
By me...
I wrote
these
in February 1996, before the band was popular (hence the reference to
"no one else knows about them"). The "rented piano" was at SXSW in
Austin, 1996. "Frank" refers to Frank Maynard, moderator of The Magical
Armchair fan mailing list.
If I
practice hard,
maybe I can play like
Ben...
in a million years!
Damn Uncle Walter,
driving me out of my mind.
Just
shut the f*** up!
crazy little man
assaulting a piano
what'll they think of next?
Ben, Darren, Robert
playing
their little hearts out
i'm in heaven now
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my
favorite band
no one else knows about
them
what stupid losers
ben shows his talent
the piano surrenders
waving
a white flag
i love ben folds five
no one else has heard of them
that's fine -- more for me!
can you believe it?
they don't have a guitarist
it's
better this way
he plays at warp
speed
fingers act like they're possessed
how does he do it?
Whaddya got, man?
"I got
Jackson Cannery."
Don't need none o'
that. |
three
talented guys
playing the hippest music
the crowd goes insane
Robert plays like mad
Does
his life depend on it?
He sure must
think so.
Hey, look, there's
Darren.
I have a million questions,
but too scared to ask.
Rented piano
But
the rental store would scream
if they
saw Ben "play".
Frank does the
digest.
now we can love each
other on the internet
she likes my haiku
with a
ben folds motif,
we're flirting on the
'net |
By
others...
shares
love of ben folds
the bird on the list with poems
have a safe flight friend
—Heather Hurwitz
Haiku vs. Senryu
Date: 9/14/00
From: Takamichi Hijiya
To: Michael Bluejay
Your "BF5 Haikus" section is
very interesting for me. When I read them, however, I found they are
not haikus but senryus. But you might have no idea about the difference
between a haiku and a senryu, so I'd like to explain the difference.
Haiku is a Japanese form of
seventeen syllables (5-7-5) in three lines. Technically, a haiku must
contain at least some reference to nature/a season. (It means you don't
have to literally mention a season; you can refer to autumn by saying
that the 'leaves are falling down' and to summer by saying that 'the
beach was crowded'.) If it doesn't contain a season/nature, it is
actually called a senryu, not a haiku. Senryu is also a Japanese
form of seventeen syllables (5-7-5) in three lines. Unlike the haiku,
however, a senryu DOESN'T have to refer to nature / a season.
Of course, I could
understand that the Japanese view of nature may be impossibly foreign
to non-Japanese people, and our syllables, being based on the
consonants that surround each vowel, have no direct parallel in
English. But I feel at least you should distinguish a haiku from a
senryu by containing a season / nature or not.
In any case, I'm glad that
you have interest in Japanese culture, actually. Hope this e-mail is
helpful to you and your brilliant web site. Arigato!
Sayonara! Taka
from Tokyo, Japan (^o-)
(More
on senryu from Wikipedia)
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Ben, Darren, and Robert rode bicycles in the Uncle
Walter
video. If you ride a bike, check out my guide to How
to Not Get Hit By Cars.
Ben told me in 1998 that
Darren Jessee (BF5's
drummer) is a vegetarian. Vegetarianism and even
veganism are a lot more common now than they were in the 90s, so props
to Jessee for being ahead of the curve on that one. Other
vegetarian musicians include as Paul McCartney, Prince,
Madonna, Natalie Merchant, and a host of others (including many you've
never heard of, like me). Get the scoop
on meatless diets on my Vegetarian
Guide site.
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