"...and our football team."
I apologize for the lag in posting over the Thanksgiving weekend, so I'm going to play a little bit of catch-up. I hope you had all your Thanksgiving dreams come true. Although, does anyone really aspire to anything on Thanksgiving besides self-inducing a tryptophan coma? Mission accomplished.
The reason Ben Folds originally stuck out to me as needing to be featured on this blog was because of his truly unique resume of musical projects. Below, I've highlighted some of the more creative projects Folds has been a part of.
Concert w/ WASO (2005) - After setting out on his solo venture, he organized this concert, at which the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra was his backup band.
University A Cappella (2009) - Ben Folds challenged composers around the world to submit a cappella arrangements of his songs, and thousands responded. College a cappella groups from across the world submitted recordings of their versions of Folds's music. Folds chose the best dozen-ish, contacted them, directed them, and worked with them to produce recordings to put on the album. But, the really impressive part of the album is the two songs that Folds does himself - overdubbing his own voice to create a rich, full sound. Hear him showcase his creative arranging talents on the song "Effington" - the song from which I pulled the quote for the title of this very post. The song was born when Folds was driving through Effingham, Illinois on his way to Normal, Illinois, hence the name of his preceding album, Way to Normal. **Sidenote: The football team in Effingham, IL is the Effingham Flaming Hearts. How glorious is that?
Chatroulette, "Ode to Merton" (2010) - One day, a man named Merton started going on Chatroulette.com and playing songs on the piano for the random people who appeared on his screen. Wearing thick-rimmed glasses, many people thought this was Ben Folds. Ben Folds thought this was awesome. So, under the banner of "Ode to Merton", Ben started doing Chatroulette sessions live at shows. Here is a collection of some of them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfamTmY5REw
Lonely Avenue (2010) - This year saw the release of a collaborative album between Ben Folds and beloved English author Nick Hornby. Hornby wrote all the lyrics and Folds wrote and recorded the songs.
“Rock and roll is - and should be - a kid's place.” - Ben Folds
4 comments:
I really love From Above, thanks for passing that on to me.
Ben Folds with WASO is awesome. If I remember right didn't fans arrange the orchestral pieces? Great title quote btw, hah.
Yes, the orchestral pieces were all submitted by "fans," although a couple of them were already pretty established composers, like Kerry Marsh, who is also the director of one of the featured college groups.
Myke, "From Above" has become one of my all-time favorite Ben Folds songs.. gives me the chills every time.
Post a Comment