Benny Being Benny
This is a little late in coming–it’s been in the works for about 7 months now–but it’s still more than worth talking about. If you’ve ever seen a Ben Folds show or listened to one of his records, you know he’s all about having a good time. He’s also about manipulating the form, whether its in how he composes his comedy pieces around musically-accepted cliches, in performing a new and improntu verison of “Rock this Bitch” at almost every show, or, like in his Ben Folds and WASO: Live at Perth DVD, teaming up with a 90 piece symphony. It may not look like it at first glance, but Folds is pretty daring . (Just check out BEN FOLDS FIVE’S The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, if you don’t believe me. Check out how he plays with sounds in “Free Coffee” or his use of the elusive mellotron in “Kylie From Connecticut,” both on his Way to Normal album.)
And now there’s this: Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella, due out April 28th. And yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.
Online one day, Folds came across videos of college a cappella groups performing renditions of his songs. No instruments, no studios—just a group of singers, a video camera and a roomful of their passion. And he was taken back. He fell in love with the simplicity of it, how their voices weren’t produced or toyed with or put through machines. He fell in love with the reminder that music is an expression, something to be experienced–not just an output.
So he issued an open letter to university a cappella groups everywhere for song submissions–just raw video of them singing, “old fashioned talent scout style,” he called it. Then he sifted through them, picked his favorites, contacted the groups and recorded with them; and now a compilation of these sessions has been mixed and mastered and is almost ready for release.
If you’ve seen The Office, then you probably remember Andy singing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” among others, a cappella, raising his hand enthusiastically with the pitch of his voice. And you probably remember it being ridiculous. It was, but don’t let that turn you off of this idea. This isn’t funny, red-and-white-striped-jacket, barber-shop quartet a cappella. It’s a bunch of people who take their craft seriously, and who really put out some impressive effects.
In the Live in Perth DVD Folds experimented with his songs, not trying to make them louder or grander with the symphony but simply different–and for the most part to good effect. They were still his songs, but at the same time they kind of weren’t. They’d gone from maybe just a few piano lines to a whole composition. And as he spoke between songs and jumped around behind his bench, you could really tell just how much the show meant to him and how much fun he was having, and you couldn’t help but be taken away with it. This new album seems like the same idea—only the complete opposite. Instead of him on piano and 90 people behind him, there will be groups of about 20, some less, just singing, with the least amount of production possible. He wants to keep it pure, wants to capture “the moment and the feeling of being IN the group.”
It’s something new, and from what I’ve heard of it, not at all just rehashes of things he’s done before. Watching some of these groups sing in YouTube videos they’ve posted, I couldn’t help but smile. It’s just so feel-good and honest. Now, if you’re strapped for cash, this may not be your first choice at the end of April, but find some way to hear it. Worse comes to worst, just go to Folds’ website. He’s so excited about the project that he’ll be posting the songs there for free listening–”because they should be heard.”
“This is not a novelty,” Folds says. “I consider this my new record…I’m incredibly proud of this. If this were Ben World, this would be my greatest hits album. I’d rather this be [it] than someone collecting my masters and slapping on a photo of me leaning against a piano. This is a better way. I’m a songwriter, and these are my songs.”
Here’s a tracklist that was posted in November of the final contenders. Because of time, not all of them will make it to the record, but most will. And go on YouTube. You can find a lot of these groups on there, belting out their songs on stage or just in groups, dancing and smiling and being the harmony.
1. Blue Notes (Wellesley College) – Annie Waits
2. Midnight Ramblers (University of Rochester) – Army
3. Leading Tones (Ohio University) – Brick
4. Lady Bens – Cigarette
5. Newtones (Newton High School in Boston) – Evaporated
6. Fifth Element (University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire) – Fair
7. Gracenotes (West Chester University of PA) – Fred Jones Part 2
8. Loreleis (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) – Jesusland
9. Colorado University Buffoons – Landed
10. Voices In Your Head (University of Chicago) – Magic
11. Spartones (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) – Not The Same
12. Jazz Singers (Sacramento State) – Selfless, Cold and Composed
13. Mosaic Whispers (Washington University – St Louis) – Still FIghting It
14. The Amateurs (Washington University – St Louis) – Luckiest
15. Nassoons (Princeton) – Time
16. With Someone Else’s Money (University of Georgia) – You Don’t Know Me
17. All Night Yahtzee (Florida State) – Missing The War
18. Treble in Paradise (American University) – Zak and Sara
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 10:00 pm and is filed under music, prog-unrelated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
