Ben Folds Sucks

Discussion on new albums, developing listening skills, critical listening to others' work, as well as TOMB members' MP3 links, online recording critiques

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Girl Toes
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Ben Folds Sucks

Post by Girl Toes » Sun Dec 25, 2005 6:18 pm

There. I said it.

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seaneldon
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Post by seaneldon » Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:02 pm

last album = not so great. i feel its kind of sacrilegious to me to call the rest of his catalog bad, though.

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Post by Cowbell Anarchy » Sun Dec 25, 2005 10:17 pm

Way to use your ears!

...

I love him, but I will agree that the vast majority of his solo material is lacking. My favorite tracks with his new band were on one of those EPs he released (I think one of them was called "Dog"), but I found out later these were early Ben Folds Five demos, so that explains things.

Also, The Bens suck.

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Re: Ben Folds Sucks

Post by John Jeffers » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:24 am

Girl Toes wrote:Ben Folds Sucks
LIES!

I wasn't too enamored with Songs for Silverman, but I wouldn't say it sucked. I do agree that Ben Folds Five is superior to the solo stuff.

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Post by cgarges » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:05 pm

What sucks about Ben Folds? To me, the guy's a brilliant songwriter and a breath of fresh air to the music industry. Sure, he's not the greatest singer in the world, but to me, that's one of the awesome things about him. He's quirky and has a great sense of humour in his writing (again, something that was lacking from almost everyone in the mainstream except Barenaked Ladies when Whatever and ever... came out). He made it cool to have piano on the radio again. He made it okay to put out records that weren't recorded to a click. He's friends with William Shatner. He threw his drums into the lake at University of Miami when he got fed up. He played the shit out of a cowbell on a travel commercial with Lisa Loeb and Eric Marshall. He played a bunch of different instruments in a bunch of different really great bands in the southeast for years before The Five with Darren and Sledge took off (can you say "The Semantics" with Will Owsley?). I almost ran over him in my car at Music Row this summer (I guess he was in a hurry). He recorded stuff on his last record with a bunch of Lomos.

You may not like his style or asthetic, but sucks? C'mon.

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Post by joelpatterson » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:13 pm

I think it's fated that "sucks" is a subjective judgement. There isn't really any appeal or reasoning with it. It's like beauty. If you see it... it's there.

Now, if you had run over him, would that have sucked?

Depends.
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Post by cgarges » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:16 pm

joelpatterson wrote:Now, if you had run over him, would that have sucked?
I think so for a number of reasons. He was coming out of the RCA building.

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Post by MichaelAlan » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:54 pm

"Kids these days are growing up too fast... They get nostalgic 'bout the last 10 ten years before the last ten years have past"

best line EVAH...


Mike
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joelpatterson
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Post by joelpatterson » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:27 pm

cgarges wrote:
joelpatterson wrote:Now, if you had run over him, would that have sucked?
I think so for a number of reasons. He was coming out of the RCA building.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
But then it might have been a Sam Cooke moment, you can't know which hooker he was fleeing or who he had just robbed.

You can't deny the guy needs a comeback or a bitter end or a SOMETHING.
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Post by drumsound » Mon Dec 26, 2005 8:12 pm

Girl Toes wrote:Ben Folds Sucks
Interesting........



















WRONG!

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Post by mertmo » Wed Dec 28, 2005 5:31 pm

the "reinhold messner" album is genius. Plain and simple.

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Post by jwnc » Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:35 pm

One of my closest friends plays bass in the ex-BF5 drummer Darrians band called Hotel Lights. They should have let Darrien sing.. he is great.

Jason

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Post by cgarges » Thu Dec 29, 2005 4:27 am

jwnc wrote:One of my closest friends plays bass in the ex-BF5 drummer Darrians band called Hotel Lights. They should have let Darrien sing.. he is great.
You mean Darren? Does he have ANOTHER new band now?

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Post by MichaelAlan » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:42 pm

cgarges wrote:What sucks about Ben Folds? To me, the guy's a brilliant songwriter and a breath of fresh air to the music industry. Sure, he's not the greatest singer in the world, but to me, that's one of the awesome things about him. He's quirky and has a great sense of humour in his writing (again, something that was lacking from almost everyone in the mainstream except Barenaked Ladies when Whatever and ever... came out). He made it cool to have piano on the radio again. He made it okay to put out records that weren't recorded to a click. He's friends with William Shatner. He threw his drums into the lake at University of Miami when he got fed up. He played the shit out of a cowbell on a travel commercial with Lisa Loeb and Eric Marshall. He played a bunch of different instruments in a bunch of different really great bands in the southeast for years ...
Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Add to all this " He recorded some stuff with WIERD AL on the new record.."
All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet...

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Post by greatmagnet » Thu Jan 05, 2006 2:45 pm

Favorite Ben Folds story relating to people thinking he sucks: Saw him live on his "just me and a piano tour" thing, and he mentioned that he was flipping though a Spin magazine at the store and came across an interview with Korn. As he scans the interview he notices his name..."Ben Folds? That guy plays CHEERS, music, man!"...which became the foundation for "Rockin' the Suburbs".

I love Ben folds, and the only album I actually own (after hearing a lot of his recordings with The 5 from a friend of mine over the years) IS "RTS" which he did with the guy who produced Filter and it has all those kinda overproduced sounds on it. A lot of people her bash that record because it's so processed, but fuck it man...great songwriting speaks for itself regardless of production values. To me it's not that processed stuff sounds "bad" and room-ey stuff sounds "good"...it's just two different ways to go about making a record and either can be awesome.

He's a great songwriter pure-and-simple. Amazing lyrics, amazing arrangements, all that.
"All energy flows in accordance with the whims of the great Magnet"
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