Ben Folds

Playing at Red Rocks June 21st

We love Ben Folds! It has been many years since I have seen him live but it was a fantastic show! He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He became interested in piano at age nine. His father, a carpenter, brought one home through a barter trade with a customer who was unable to pay. During this time, Folds listened to songs by Elton John and Billy Joel on AM radio, and learned them by ear. During his years at Richard J. Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, Folds played in several bands as the pianist, bassist, or drummer. In the late 1980s, Folds (as a bassist) and longtime friend Millard Powers formed the band Majosha. The group released several locally produced records. They played their first gig at Duke University‘s Battle of the Bands in 1988, and won. They played at bars and fraternity parties, and self-produced an EP called Party Night: Five Songs About Jesus (1988), which they sold locally. The EP has four songs, none of which are about Jesus. They recorded Shut Up and Listen to Majosha in 1989. It contains, among other tracks, the four songs from Party Night (remixed and/or re-recorded) and “Emaline” and “Video”, which Folds would later record with his own band. The song “Get That Bug” from Party Night was released as a dance mix in Japan. After Majosha broke up in early 1986, and Folds played drums in a band called Pots and Pans with Evan Olson (bass) and Britt “Snuzz” Uzzell (guitar and vocals). The newly formed band lasted only about a month. Olson and Uzzell formed Bus Stop with Folds’ brother, Chuck Folds, on bass, and Eddie Walker on drums. Folds eventually got a music publishing deal with Nashville music executive Scott Siman who saw Folds open for musician Marc Silvey (as well as playing bass for Silvey’s band Mass Confusion), and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue it in 1990. He played drums for a short stint in Power Bill, headed by Jody Spence, Millard Powers and Will Owsley. Power Bill was later renamed The Semantics. Folds did not take a creative role in the band. He attracted interest from major labels. He ended up playing drums there as a session musician. Folds attended the University of Miami‘s Frost School of Music on a percussion scholarship, but dropped out with one credit to go before graduating. He devoted a lot of time to working on piano technique. “I spent maybe six months just running scales with a metronome like a freak,” Folds said. “I suppose that did something.” Folds moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and began to act in theater troupes in New York City. He enjoyed it in 1993 to the point where he did not want to keep pursuing a musical career. He also played weekly gigs at Sin-é, famous for being the cafe which had helped start Jeff Buckley‘s career. Soon after, Folds moved back to North Carolina. The trio, of Folds, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee, formed Ben Folds Five in 1994 in Chapel Hill. As Folds put it, “Jeff Buckley was being signed at that time by Columbia and I was talking to Steve, his A&R guy, and somehow we knew the same people or something.” In 1995, Ben Folds Five released their self-titled debut album. The debut was followed by Whatever and Ever Amen in 1997, and the odds-and-ends compilation Naked Baby Photos was released in early 1998. Whatever and Ever Amen spawned many singles such as “Brick“, “Song for the Dumped”, and “Battle of Who Could Care Less”. In 1999, the band released what was to be their final album for over a decade, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner, which included the hit, “Army“. Folds has described this band as “punk rock for sissies”, and his oddball lyrics often contain nuances of melancholy, self conflict, and humorous sarcasm, often punctuated by profanity. Despite its presence on multiple Billboard genre charts, no Ben Folds Five singles reached the US Hot 100, although they did show well on both adult contemporary and modern rock charts. However they gained a strong following in the United Kingdom and Australia early in their career, and like many other ‘alternative’ American acts this was largely thanks to consistent support from national broadcasters in those countries, the BBC in Britain and the ABC’s Triple J youth radio network in Australia (and ABC-TV’s music video show Rage). The group’s first chart breakthrough came in the UK, when “Underground” made the lower reaches of the Top 40, peaking at no. 37. Britain was the Five’s strongest territory in terms of chart success, with five singles making the national Top 40 there – “Underground”, “Battle of Who Could Care Less”, “Kate”, “Brick” and “Army” – although none managed to crack the UK Top 20. In Australia “Underground” likewise broke the band locally and while it did not make the ARIA chart, it came in at no. 3 the 1998 Triple J Hottest 100 poll. The 1998 single “Brick” became the group’s only major chart placing in Australia, reaching no. 13; it also came in at no. 53 in the ARIA Australian Top 100 for that year and earned a Gold Record award while its parent album Whatever and Ever Amen peaked at no. 9 and charted for 32 weeks. Folds and his bandmates have moved many albums since 2001. He said, “The songs have been getting a great reaction, it makes me look forward to having a new album out there because it’s been a while. This feels like a really free period in my life and I’m really enjoying it.” Ben Folds Five reunited to perform its first concert appearance in nearly 10 years on September 18, 2008 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill‘s Memorial Hall. The one-off gig was part of the My Space “Front to Back” series, in which artists play an entire album live. The band played its final album before their split, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The concert aired during October and can be viewed at Nowwhat.com. All proceeds from ticket sales benefited the charity Operation Smile, of which Folds’ uncle, Jim Folds, is on the board of directors for the North Carolina Chapter. The band reunited once again in 2011 with a subsequent release of the album The Sound of the Life of the Mind, leading to a 2012 of promotion of their new work.

We got our tickets to see Ingrid Michaelson at Red Rocks Amphitheater! An American, New York-based indie pop singer-songwriter. Her first album, Slow the Rain, was one of our favorite albums, and she has since released five more albums, Girls and Boys, Be OK, Everybody, Human Again, and her most recent, Lights Out. She is going to be performing with the Colorado Symphony while at the amphitheater as well.