Lugging a baby grand piano onto a punk club stage in the ’90s was about conspicuous as bringing a baby elephant—and twice as inconvenient. But any patrons who feared that they were about to endure a Gershwin recital were soon set straight by Ben Folds, frontman and primary songwriter of Chapel Hill, North Carolina’s Ben Folds Five.
Flanked by an explosive rhythm section in the form of stickman Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge (PSA: the Five are actually three), Folds earned a reputation as the Jimi Hendrix of the piano—a violent virtuoso who punished all 88 keys...
Flanked by an explosive rhythm section in the form of stickman Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge (PSA: the Five are actually three), Folds earned a reputation as the Jimi Hendrix of the piano—a violent virtuoso who punished all 88 keys...
- 2/25/2017
- by Jordan Runtagh
- PEOPLE.com
Among those familiar with the output of Ben Folds, one thing is taken for fact, which is his music has never been quite the same since parting ways with Ben Folds Five bandmates, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee. At best, the fans I’ve encountered consider his solo work inconsistent.
Looking at his sales figures, though, no one would guess it. With Way to Normal, his second to most recent solo record, he landed his highest chart position yet, climbing all the way up to #11 in just its first week of release. Funnily enough, it also brought with it perhaps the most detractors of any of his records. Based on what I’ve heard, from friends and fellow Ben Folds fans, the consensus is it’s among his worst, if not the worst.
Then again, discrepancies between sales figures and reception are commonplace. Many would argue that there’s an...
Looking at his sales figures, though, no one would guess it. With Way to Normal, his second to most recent solo record, he landed his highest chart position yet, climbing all the way up to #11 in just its first week of release. Funnily enough, it also brought with it perhaps the most detractors of any of his records. Based on what I’ve heard, from friends and fellow Ben Folds fans, the consensus is it’s among his worst, if not the worst.
Then again, discrepancies between sales figures and reception are commonplace. Many would argue that there’s an...
- 9/22/2012
- by Travis Smith
- We Got This Covered
New York — Until his epiphany in a photographer's darkroom, Ben Folds used to have nightmares about a reunion with his old group, Ben Folds Five.
Seriously. He'd dream of getting ready for a gig and being whisked away to a theater where Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee were waiting before a big crowd. He'd wake up sweating.
Those days are over, with the combustible trio of singer-songwriter and pianist Folds, bass player Sledge and drummer Jessee a unit again. Their first album since 1999, "The Sound of the Life of the Mind," is out this week and they'll be on tour this fall.
Why they broke up in the first place isn't easy to explain.
"We've never even talked about it," Folds said. "We've been asked together, but when we're asked, we all sort of look at each other because we're not sure. There's a trail of emails that can probably tell you.
Seriously. He'd dream of getting ready for a gig and being whisked away to a theater where Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee were waiting before a big crowd. He'd wake up sweating.
Those days are over, with the combustible trio of singer-songwriter and pianist Folds, bass player Sledge and drummer Jessee a unit again. Their first album since 1999, "The Sound of the Life of the Mind," is out this week and they'll be on tour this fall.
Why they broke up in the first place isn't easy to explain.
"We've never even talked about it," Folds said. "We've been asked together, but when we're asked, we all sort of look at each other because we're not sure. There's a trail of emails that can probably tell you.
- 9/19/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
It was announced earlier this year that after a 13-year hiatus, sprinkled with some one offs and an Ep over the past few years, Ben Folds Five would be headed back into the studio to record a new full length album. The album was completed back in June, and is now available for your listening pleasure.
Today the video for the first single off of The Sound of The Life of The Mind was unveiled at the Nerdist. In the video for "Do It Anyway", Ben Folds Five is joined by none other than Jim Henson's Fraggles!! Along with marking the release of the album, today also coincides with the 30th Anniversary of Fraggle Rock.
Ben Folds Five don't seem to have missed a step in reforming. "Do It Anyway" is a worthy single, featuring a western saloon-style piano riff from Ben Folds, thumping bass lines that melt into...
Today the video for the first single off of The Sound of The Life of The Mind was unveiled at the Nerdist. In the video for "Do It Anyway", Ben Folds Five is joined by none other than Jim Henson's Fraggles!! Along with marking the release of the album, today also coincides with the 30th Anniversary of Fraggle Rock.
Ben Folds Five don't seem to have missed a step in reforming. "Do It Anyway" is a worthy single, featuring a western saloon-style piano riff from Ben Folds, thumping bass lines that melt into...
- 9/19/2012
- by Eli Reyes
- GeekTyrant
In the new video for "Do It Anyway," the single from Ben Folds Five's forthcoming album The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind, Ben Folds and Co.—including Rob Corddry and Anna Kendrick, along with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee—have an adorable studio session with the denizens of Fraggle Rock. The video is a collaboration between Nerdist and The Jim Henson Company to mark the upcoming thirtieth anniversary of the show's premiere, as well as the release of Ben Folds Five's first album since the group disbanded in 2000. It's also probably ...
- 9/17/2012
- avclub.com
Chatting with singer/songwriter, pianist and drummer Ben Folds last week was life-affirming and giddiness-inducing, but also an exercise in evaluating irony. When the last Ben Folds Five album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, came out in 1999, Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee didn’t have iPhones to tend to between songs. Twitter obviously didn’t exist yet, so interacting with fans in up to 140 characters would have been incomprehensible. Few people, much less musicians, owned laptops, and no one existed in a bubble of Wi-Fi. Buzzwords like “digital crowdsourcing” and “fan-funding” had not yet pervaded the public’s lexicon....
- 5/23/2012
- Pastemagazine.com
After 13 years apart, Ben Folds, Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee are finally back together, where they belong. Ben Folds Five has premiered their new track, “Do It Anyway,” the first off their yet-to-be-titled album due out in August.
Instead of working with a traditional label, Ben Folds Five will release the record via PledgeMusic, a crowd funding site.
Folds debuted the unmastered track on his official Facebook page.
“The intensity of the track is typical of the rest of the album, but each song is quite different," wrote Folds. "That always was the way with our records I suppose. We’re nearly done and I think it’s a cracker.”
This will be their first album since 1999′s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.
Ben Folds Five is also offering up the chance for super fans to be a part of the album. Fans who download “Do It Anyway” from...
Instead of working with a traditional label, Ben Folds Five will release the record via PledgeMusic, a crowd funding site.
Folds debuted the unmastered track on his official Facebook page.
“The intensity of the track is typical of the rest of the album, but each song is quite different," wrote Folds. "That always was the way with our records I suppose. We’re nearly done and I think it’s a cracker.”
This will be their first album since 1999′s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.
Ben Folds Five is also offering up the chance for super fans to be a part of the album. Fans who download “Do It Anyway” from...
- 5/9/2012
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
Ben Folds Five is back in the studio. The singer and pianist announced on Twitter that he and bandmates Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee are currently working on a fourth Ben Folds Five album, and that fans can expect a spring release. “It’s happening fo sho – Day 1 in studio with Robert and Darren through March,” the musician wrote, adding the hashtag: #NewBenFoldsFiveRecord. The album will be the group’s first since 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, their third studio album. Shortly following its release, the trio announced a split in 2000. Following the band’s breakup, Folds
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- 1/26/2012
- by Sophie A. Schillaci
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ben Folds has revealed that his band the Ben Folds Five may reunite for a new album later this year. The 'Rockin' the Suburbs' singer said that he and his bandmates Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee will "probably get together" in the winter to record new material. Ben Folds Five's last full album was 1999's The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. They recorded three tracks together for Folds's album The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective, which will be released on October 11. Folds teased that he would be interested in recording some (more)...
- 9/19/2011
- by By Tom Eames
- Digital Spy
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