Alicia Witt & Ben Folds "I'm Not Ready For Christmas"

Call me cynical, but these days, there is only one reason write a Christmas song:

For the mailbox money.

Unlike other songs, which have a regular arc of popularity, in that they play, they gain popularity, and they fade over a period of months or years or (if the songwriter is lucky) decades.

Christmas songs are different.  They fade from January to October, to return in November and December.  The cycle repeats.

If you are lucky enough to write a Christmas song that will get played from year to year---and the bar to clear to join that club is pretty low---then as a songwriter, you’ll be getting publishing check for years to come.

So it’s not surprising that Alicia Witt and Ben Folds were able to create a memorable, hummable Christmas tune.

What’s unfortunate is that it ain’t so FCC friendly.

Even though this song beats the pants off a lot of the 2nd rate stuff that gets played on radio at Christmas, it’s not likely to see the attention---or ASCAP/BMI fees---that it could potentially create . . .

So blast this one on your own.  But remember that it’s NSFW.

Ben Folds "All U Can Eat"

You know what I can't quite reconcile?

I feel pretty disgusted by the whole Black Friday insanity of our consumer culture, and am very, very put off that some businesses tried to get a jump on Christmas (which is still a month away!) by opening on Thanksgiving.

I reject participating in any of it.

On the other hand, I am not opposed to having a large, lavish meal on Thanksgiving.

Why is one okay in my mind, but not the other?

Isn't it all, as Ben Folds sings about, just crass consumption?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Ben Folds & Rufus Wainwright "Careless Whisper"

Scenes from Saturday's mvyradio Thank You Party:

Saturday night at the Ag Hall was just about the perfect, uniquely-Vineyard kind of get together, with lots of friends and familiar faces coming together to enjoy some music, as the station celebrated, well, just being alive.

We reached our goal of raising $600,000 to keep the station afloat and online, and we were very thankful for the community effort and relished the opportunity to thank folks in person.

Jess had the great idea of setting up a "Tech Table" where we could show listeners different ways they can listen and connect to the station, if they've never listened online.

I spent a good chunk of the night there, showing folks how to load the App on their phones, and demonstrating some of the simple devices you can buy to make car-listening easier.

One of the very-Vineyard things about this event, was that many people brought their kids---an event at the Ag Hall automatically implies a warm, friendly environment that you'd feel perfectly comfortable letting your children run free in.

Somewhere later in the evening, when the music, no doubt, had lost interest for a few of the kids, I found myself surrounded at the Tech Table by a group of youngsters who didn't need the technology explained to them---they wanted to use it.

"Can we listen to hip-hop on this?"  "Can you turn this on?"  "Do you have 'Gangham Style"'?"

So that's what Laurel came upon when she snapped this picture.  Me, trying to locate Katy Perry's "Firework" on my phone, so I could play it for the kids:

While it was most certainly a family event, there were also folks who did brown-bag it.  And when one fairly tipsy gentleman careened through the front door later in the evening, I was happy that we'd hired a cop.

It's always good practice, if you've going to have a large crowd, to have a police officer on-hand.  And the strapping young Tisbury police officer (who was covering for a West Tisbury officer/friend), was dispatched immediately to ensure that the large man bumping his way through the crowd and the walls was going to sit and listen to the music, peacefully.  (He did)

A few minutes later, I took a Tech Table break and headed into the bathroom.  Right behind came the officer, shutting himself in the stall next to me.

I heard the faint sound of music.

Now, I'd been in the bathroom earlier that night and hadn't noticed any music or P.A.  It wasn't Muzak.  It was definitely coming from in the room.

I recognized the melody too.

"Careless Whisper."  The Wham! song.

The officer didn't look like a Wham! fan.  But who am I to judge?

Listening more closely, I realized it wasn't the Wham! version.  I could hear Rufus Wainwright.

Oh yeah, Rufus Wainwright did "Careless Whisper" with Ben Folds.

Well now I had a very new perspective on this officer.  He was doing his detail, and rocking out to a Wham! cover on his headphones.  But it was this hip version that I remembered can only be found on the Ben Folds boxed set---so only a real music junkie would know about it or have it on their . . .

Wait a minute.

I took my own iPhone out of my pocket.

And the music got louder.

Yeah, the music wasn't muffled because it was coming from the officer's headphones in the stall next door.  It was muffled because I had "pocket-dialed" my own iTunes library and was inadvertently playing songs from my pants.

I'm sure the officer has great taste in music.  But I think we can all rest easier knowing the local police force is probably not the one rocking out to Wham!


Hear the song on Youtube.

Yo La Tengo "Ohm"

There are some great artists who were close, but never quite fit mvyradio's sound or sensibility.

But then, as time went on, with the maturing sound of the band, and the evolving sound of the station, the band fit.

We didn't play early Decemberists records, but eventually the band softened a bit and the station started to sound more contemporary, so we added them.

We didn't play early Ben Folds.  But as he toned down the rocking/punky aspects of his music, and lyrically became more mature, we added him.

I've always thought Yo La Tengo could make a record that would work for mvyradio, but that they their style and ours hadn't quite crossed paths yet.

They've got a new song out, so it's a good time to check in with them.

I'm not to sure this is the meeting of sounds I'd been waiting for, but what do you think?


Hear the song on Youtube.

Ben Folds "The Luckiest"

Total "Nerding Out!" weekend, bolstering my geek credentials.

I curled up on the couch on Saturday with a Charlie Kaufman movie.

I spent the weekend getting excited to hear Ira Glass of "This American Life" at a speaking engagement in Woods Hole (though he got hung up in that mid-West snow, and had to postpone).

Delved deeply into one of the most interesting interviews I've read in a long time, with one of the most thoughtful interviewees I've read, the "I'm A PC" guy, John Hodgeman, who eloquently illustrated that sports metaphors are nearly impossible to avoid, and that sometimes being a Democrat is like getting punched in the face, repeatedly.

Oh, and I'll wait to post a video tomorrow, but I discovered "Chap-Hop" (thanks Hugh!).

But I hit total geek Nirvana with this video.

Wait until you hear the sneaky, subliminal way Ben Folds managed to convey that the characters in the song are married. Brilliant!


Ben Folds discusses and performs "The Luckiest"

Ben Folds Five "Best Imitation Of Myself"

This week, I'm looking at artists that we came to play later in their career, asking the question "should we go back and play the band's earlier tracks?"

What a fun coincidence!

Ben Folds was one of the first names I thought of, when I planned this week's theme. I am a huge fan of his early work, but understand why we never really played any Ben Folds Five tracks on mvyradio, in the band's late-1990s incarnation.

How amazing is it that just yesterday came word that Ben has reunited with Darren Jesse and Robert Sledge (the original Ben Folds Five) to record a couple of new tracks for a Best Of Ben Folds set?!

Okay, so going back . . .

I loved Ben Folds Five's albums, because they seemed to fit perfectly into my life at the time.

In the mid-and-late-90s, I was young and single. I was listening to a lot of melodic pop (like Matthew Sweet) and a lot of melodic Punk (like The Descendants). And, like much of my generation, I was awash in a weird mix of irony and detachment and drama.

Ben Folds Five seemed like the ideal of my musical world. I loved the noise, I loved the tunefulness, I loved the smart and I loved the snark.

And I played the hell out of these records on my Alternative specialty show on WABN in Virginia.

But as the 90s gave way to the 2000s, I knew that Ben Folds Five wouldn't translate to my new station, mvyradio.

mvyradio's audience was slightly older than the average Alternative Radio listener. The artists we were playing a decade ago were not of the generation of detached irony. They were not noisy. They were not snarky.

Increasingly, neither was I. As my 20s gave way to my 30s, and maturity took hold, a gentler sound gradually entered my life.

And all along, I knew that it would happen to Ben Folds, too.

He had disbanded the Five, and gone solo, and I knew that as he grew and matured and moved from his 30s into his 40s, it was likely that his sound would evolve to something more in-line with mvyradio and Triple A Format station.

"Landed" from his 2005 album "Songs For Silverman" was the first Ben Folds tune that seemed to really make sense for the station. It's a song about marriage and old friends and epiphanies and reconciliation. Not theme you write about, or relate to, as an single 20-something.

But now looking back over his full career, are their songs from the early days that we could play? Are there tunes that would fit easily?

Funny enough, Ben is looking back over his career too, with the release of the 3-Disc set "The Best Imitation Of Myself," featuring the song of the same title.

Is there anything about this song that makes it sound like something we wouldn't play?

And now that Ben has worked again with his old band---the group that made a joyful noise, too snarky for mvyradio---are they making music that sounds like their young selves, picking up where they left off a decade ago? Or are they reconvening as adults, not the same guys they were in the 90s?

What do you think? Is the new song, or the old song, something we should be playing?

Hear the new Ben Folds Five song, "House."


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Ben Folds "Fred Jones Part 2"

I wonder if Hosni Mubarak listens to Ben Folds?

I've been watching the developments in Egypt, heard translations of some of the signs being carried and slogans being chanted, and I thought of "Fred Jones Part 2."

Let me lay down the disclaimer here that I don't know a thing about Egyptian politics and I won't act like I do (unlike so many of the talking heads I've been hearing jabber on the coverage). I don't know if Mubarak's exit from power would ultimately be a good thing, or a bad thing.

Here's what I do know: It is a rare person that truly knows when to exit the stage gracefully.

In this song, Fred Jones is a newspaper man of 25 years who is let go and escorted from the building. The world has changed and he has not changed with it, and the newspaper and the world have moved on without him.

A leader of 30 years clings to power, but has the world around him changed so irrevocably that he cannot possibly move forward with it? And is anyone in that position---Mubarak, the aging Rock Star, the bookstore owner who will not sell an eBook---ever willing to admit that their time is drawing to a close?

Or are they always surprised, angry and disappointed, when they hear:

"I'm sorry Mr. Jones, it's time."

Ben Folds - "Rockin' The Suburbs"

This week, guest blogger Lori Bargeron writes about 5 Celebrity encounters where she works, at Bobbie's Dairy Dip in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Holy Grail of any Nashville music celebrity sighting is, of course, the mighty Jack White. While I haven't been fortunate enough to run into this elusive figure, we at the Dip did enjoy the patronage of his fellow Raconteur Brendan Benson. It's really too bad that story isn't colorful enough to write about.

However, I will talk about the time I met Nashville's other celebrity Holy Grail (if there were such a thing). In the wintertime, Bobbie's is closed, so I was working in a coffee shop my big boss also owns. At the time, my husband (then fiance) lived in South Carolina, and I only got to see him every so often. On this particular day, the door to the cafe opened, and I greeted the person who walked in with my usual smile and "hello," momentarily gasping, "Holy cow! Andrew's come here to surprise me!" I started to run around the counter to give him a big ol' welcome smooch. But as the man said "hello" back, immediately my smile fell. I thought to myself, "Oh. That's not Andrew. That's just Ben Folds."

Whenever I hear this song, my husband’s favorite, I will forever think of that day when I was actually disappointed to meet one of our songwriting heroes.

(By the way, it’s not like Andrew looks especially like Mr. Folds. I think it was mostly the glasses style and boyishness they share that fooled me. Andrew’s much taller.)

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby “From Above”

There are the crappy cartoon crossovers (“Hello, ‘Flintstones Meet The Jetsons’!”) and then there are the awesome cartoon crossovers, like when Spiderman helped out The X-Men.

This is an awesome crossover.

Ben Folds, the bespeckled, piano-playing, off-Broadway-understudying, Shatner-record-producing, college-a-capella-recording, "Sing Off" judge, has a new collaborator, in Nick Hornby.

Yes, Nick Hornby the author of “High Fidelity,” “Fever Pitch,” “About A Boy,” “Songbook,” and a portion of my wedding vows.

"From Above" is the album. Words by Nick Hornby. Music by Ben Folds.

Nerd-vana by PJ Finn.

Those Darlins “Let’s Talk Dirty In Hawaiian”

There is no shortage of pitfalls, when you’re going to cover an iconic artist’s song.

You hear it on American Idol all the time. The judges will complain that the singer just did an impersonation of the artist, hewing too closely to the original version.

So perhaps the hardest challenge, is to record a cover of a funny song.

If the entertainment value of the song is in the jokes, then it is really difficult to recreate the comic timing, without just doing the song the way the original artist did it.

I think it’s why artists like Paul Westerberg, Ben Folds and John Prine are rarely/poorly covered, unless the interpreter tackles one of their more somber tunes.

I mean, I can tell a joke that is Seinfeldian, or Carlinian (yeah, I’m making up words) in style, but if I just repeat their jokes, the impact is muted, and therefore moot.

Those Darlins have the right idea, they have fun with Prine’s song. That’s the best you can do. You just can’t tell someone else’s joke.

Ben Folds Five “Steven’s Last Night In Town”

“Steven’s Last Night In Town” is a song about a guy who throws a party for himself on the eve of his announced departure, only to not actually leave town. He repeats this a number of times. “Last week it was funny, now the joke’s wearing thin.”

I had a friend who had this same lack of self-awareness.

He’d announce his plan to change careers, leave town, or geez, go get something to eat. And shortly after the pronouncement left his lips, it seemed to cease to exist.

You’d see him a few days later, and ask him if he did that thing he so emphatically said he was going to do, and he’d look at you blankly, as if hearing it for the first time.

He’s a sincere guy. I don’t think he was ever bragging or bullshitting. In the moment, I think he truly believed whatever he was saying. But then it was said, and Poof . . .

I hesitated writing this post, in case he reads it. But the thing is, I know he likes the song “Steven’s Last Night In Town.” And in a non-ironic way. I think he sees Steven as ridiculous, but doesn’t see himself in the song.

And if he doesn’t see himself in the song, he wouldn’t see himself in the post. Right.

So yeah, this post is not about you.



Ben tells the real story of Steven