ATTN: BEN

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

FOP

i don't want FOP goddammit im a dapper dan man

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: ItsNotTooLate

good reference, bob dylan.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

Way to watch a coen brothers movie brah.

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: +88 Kickin Keys

and later remember one of the lines, don't forget that part.

go read your jack karat, and fear and loathing poop literature

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

write that down

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

you're seriously kinda drunk right now, bd?

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

a little.

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: +88 Kickin Keys

bob dylan are you quoting Look Around You?

go read your jack karat, and fear and loathing poop literature

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

never saw that. i've been quoting forrest gump a lot at work this week.

"those look like nice shoes"

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

I've been quoting the mask a lot at work.

SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOKING (kim carry pet detective 1999)

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

Somebody stop me from doing this! (liar liar jim carney 2002)

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

i've been smokin a lot too. cigarettes though not the shibby.

"we were always goin around lookin for a guy named charlie"

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: ass

"Ooooooooookey dokey now." Jim Truman, Bruce Eternal

Skinhead from Maine 1: Whatcha whittlin' the-yah?
Skinhead from Maine 2: Hate stick for beatin' the Spanyahds.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

"i have aids" Thom Flanks, Castaway

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

ATTN: BEN: Please check out my skate video.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Weeb9797

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

i should get even more alcohol in my system and then do a .org driven chris crocker style youtube video "leave ben alone"

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: kelbellene

Thread: crumbl'd

I smell a Ben Folds Five Reunion in the works...But I'm not exactly complaining about Ben Fold's solo projects...What buckwildly jiggy talent!!!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: ass

Shit, can somebody delete everything after Phil's post?

Skinhead from Maine 1: Whatcha whittlin' the-yah?
Skinhead from Maine 2: Hate stick for beatin' the Spanyahds.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Webb

Bruce Eternal is a quality post, leave it!

you're so cute, i love it, haha. what is that little hat you've got on?
-Fronk

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Bob Dylan

free speech is important - GWB 45th President, USA

hahahahhahahahahahahhahaha ahahaha ha ah haha ha ha LOL!!!!

But I Was Going to Toshi Station to Pick Up Some Power Converters!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Jimbob

Ben, if you're reading this, I just came on here for the first time in about a week and saw what was going down.

It'll probably sound a little sycophantic, but for what it's worth, in regard to the Ben Folds v !gas!panic! debate 2008, I'm basically on your side.

That said, you should totally post on this thread:

http://www.benfolds.org/forum/59425

Angeline Fishguarde, your actions will be dealt with in good time, you mark my words!

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: benscottfolds

thank you illustrious. that's absolutely fair and eloquently stated. i will be just as long winded, that's my nature unfortunately. and hopefully as clear and honest. see? get me started and i'm offfff....

i've told you i'm totally fine with someone saying what they think about my music and i'm glad you do/did.

we all move on both in our output and what we can relate to coming from others, whether our output is musical or otherwise, and we're all fans of something. i've watched bands i used to like walk right off the end of the earth but i figure they're on their own little trip and i'm on mine... and i figure they don't care anymore and now they blow donkey dicks. i've got a whole dozen of those lined up for after i post this. but really, chances are we don't all remain on the same proverbial page.

for a musician, once you put out your second album, you quickly realize that from that point on, your most recent effort is likely to send half your fan base into nausea. its just the way it is. artist change over time and often become stagnant, or reactionary. fans have similarly cliche trajectories that we take. i don't think that's good or bad. one could get really defensive, as i'm sure i have, and say that the more people hate my newest music, the more they'll be sorry in ten years time when they realize its beethoven. but who knows. i can only do my best. all we know is people change and move on. it does make sense that songs i wrote when my life more resembled those on this site, would be the ones you could relate to.

so i think your criticism is valid, and i get it, but i can't really take it on board too much or i'd either quit or try to conform to what others wanted to hear. i felt like doing both when 'whatever and ever' came out because i was new to that kind of criticism. there was one i read on frank maynard's site that got to me, and it shouldn't have.

many who loved the first bff album had a problem with 'whatever'. while others, who'd thought BFF was billy joel trying his hand at novelty, thought 'whatever' was a step up. 'reinhold' had a pretty mixed reaction too but i was getting thicker skin by then. anyway... i've quickly searched frank's archives and found the specific one part about 'selfless cold and composed' that had gotten under my skin. its pretty much as i'd remember it:

 <<Date: Fri, 21 Mar 1997 14:32:54 -0500 (EST)
 From: Jason Martin <un036034@wvnvaxa.wvnet.edu>
 Subject: WARNING!!! Realistic Comments About the New Album!!! AT OWN RISK!!!

 Well, here's my take, track by track:

 1.  One Angry Dwarf-  Highest energy of any of the tracks...maybe the best
 song on here, but it wasn't exclusively new for this album (a point I will
 make later).  Rating: 10

 2.  Fair-  Not a bad song...nice harmonies etc.  Rating: 7.5

 3.  Brick-  ARGH!  I would just like to comment that there are TOO MANY
 FRIGGIN BALLADS ON THIS CD!  BFF is all about high energy, high
 performance music.  Some slow-downs are fine, by all means, but this album
 (as I will further elaborate) has too many.  That said, Brick is the best
 of the soppy slow pieces of crap.  It's actually quite a good tune.
 RATING: 7

 4.  Song for the Dumped-  Okay, I'm spoiled.  I've seen this showstopper
 in concert and it was a billion times better.  But I take this song with
 the same grain of salt that I take a Dave Matthews record...you just can't
 imitate the live show on cd.  This is of course a classic, just wish they
 could have squeezed something more out of it.  RATING: 9

 5.  Selfless-  Hi, I'm Ben Folds.  I'm the bastard love child of Billy
 Joel and the Peanuts guy (props to Bruce Herrier).  This song absolutely
 sucks.  It's not what BFF is about.  I once read that Ben said that any
 song he writes that sounds remotely like Billy Joel, he tosses out.  Well
 not this one.  This is pure crap, and it seems like on this and the
 remaining ballads they said piss off to Robert and Darren, who don't get
 their just desserts on tracks like this.  RATING: 3.5

 6.  Kate-  Great song.  Rollicky, classic.  RATING: 9

 7.  Smoke-  Bah.  The only thing saving this song are the accompanying
 instruments.  Still very bad, very sappy, not enough Robert and Darren.
 RATING: 4

 8.  Cigarette-  Needless on the record.  Absoutely.  I HATE this track
 it's a waste.  RATING: 1

 9.  Steven's Last Night-  Another one I heard in concert, but the
 Klezmatics bolster this song.  It's great.  Can't miss.  Blah blah blah.
 RATING: 9

 10.  Battle of Who-  Up there with Dwarf for best song...I can see this
 doing some good on radio if people pick it up and its marketed right.
 This has all the elements a BFF song should.  RATING: 9.5

 11.  Missing The War-  Pure crap.  Thank you Billy Joel, the Antichrist.
 RATING: 2

 12.  Evaporated-  Not quiiiite as bad as the other ones due to
 accompaniment again.  But still not top quality.  RATING: 5

 Well, there you have it.  I just think that Robert and Darren aren't
 featured enough here.  The last cd was BEN FOLDS FIVE not Ben Folds and 2
 other guys.  Is he a Sony sellout?  Indie gone big label gone crap?  No,
 this cd is still solid, I like it more each time.  But 7 ballads out of 12
 tracks is too much.  Where's the energy of Julianne or Uncle Walter?
 Where's the quirky lyrics and inventiveness of Underground?  You can't
 count Dwarf, Dumped, of Steven because those were old songs.  Only Battle
 and Kate stand out among the 9 I've never heard before.

 Overall rating: 7-8

 If you're new to the group, by all means get the first record first.  Find
 out what BFF is supposed to mean.  That album is easily a 10 in any book.

 Sincerely,

 Jason Martin
 WVU>>>

i pasted the whole thing to be fair. and i'm not saying, "look this guy was wrong and so are you". i'm just saying that people move apart pretty quickly and to each his own. they want you to do the same record again, and if you do that, they want you to move on. so you can't really win if you're worried, and you can't be human and not worry.

there are times people have hated something and a few years later i hate it too and realize they're right. oh well.
and yeah i can see its more fun to say this or that album was a piece of shit than to say, well somebody might like it.

i'm not sure i understand the elitist part of the criticism but if we ever cross paths, then i'm happy to try to talk about it. i'm curious but just not wanting to get into it over the internet. those kinds of things get easily misunderstood over the internet. and i'm shoving off after this. i gotta send one to the other site maybe tomorrow.

rock this bitch. i understand. haha. i really do. i do tell myself i'm not going to do that anymore and i do give in more often that i'd like to. but really, i'm still intrigued by it. i don't plan it. i don't work out or preconceive it to any degree. the guys have to follow. if i didn't have a title that remained the same (rock this bitch...) then there'd be nothing to hang it on. but its absolutely new and different most nights, at least as much as someone can possibly put together chords and drums and bass and a few freestyle lyrics. there have been exceptions (march to reenergize iowa- i cheated and made it up backstage).

but i like finding out what's going to come out. its like getting up in the morning to a blank page except people are looking and expecting something to happen. i'm not aware of many people who improvise songs. i think when you read a setlist online and see 'rock this bitch' it doesn't take into account that it was a moment unique to the people in the room at that time. some of them suck to the high heavens but i like the risk. i pulled that on the west australian symphony orchestra and i was scared to death. it happened in the moment. some of them are pretty good and it keeps us on our toes. some of the songs on the new record came from those and its because i felt they came from a very simple and honest unedited place that i was interested in capturing. i may realize that was wrong, but i gotta try when i feel it. there are a few hundred at the most of you who are 'in the know', the other hundred or often thousands in the audience are taking my shows in as one time only event.

when a new album comes out i check in with you guys in some way. i always have. i appreciate you're here and i appreciate your opinions up until you've said things that are just mean or in bad taste, that my kids can read and not understand yet. the stuff that attracts and encourages us to wallow in the negative. so its a relief to me to have this exchange.

the fake tracks were to have fun with the people on the boards. it wasn't something i was doing against anyone. haha. it was free music and meant to be fun and most of you probably got that. i would have gotten shut down by the label just a couple of years ago doing that stuff. i still have to do quite a bit of slick talking to make it work out. i'm giving away music that is technically owned by the label and the systems aren't set up for that. they're coming around though because they realize the biz has to adapt somehow or they're all quickly heading out of jobs.

anyway, i'm just giving you my perspective, that i hear what you're saying but that i have to be me. not everybody likes us when we do that.

enough said. i'm happy to say goodbye until the next record. i'll be doing more hanging out after shows like i always have. i couldn't last year on tour for a variety of reasons. i've made this post too long and something seems to have dried in my ear...

yours,
ben

ps. i hate that big as elvis thing too. wasn't my idea

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: !gas!panic!

damn, some thesis writing going on up in here.

11. Missing The War- Pure crap. Thank you Billy Joel, the Antichrist.
RATING: 2

hahah jesus.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: !gas!panic!

this is a happy ending tho. both in a serious sense and in a making-fun-of-feelings sense.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: caats19

tbh i think the new album sounds pretty cool. bye ben. nice chattin wid ya. i've shakin your hand twice, with the same hand i touched chuck norris. u shud know that obv.

No hard feelings to the benfolds.org unless that's what you want in which case you can all go smoke a ten foot dick? Is that in the spirit? God bless you all.
Love,
ben

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: caats19

this is a pretty happy ending. fuck.

No hard feelings to the benfolds.org unless that's what you want in which case you can all go smoke a ten foot dick? Is that in the spirit? God bless you all.
Love,
ben

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Vanya

Well, I imagine Billy Joel gets a lot of shit, too, at billyjoel.org

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: caats19

btw ben improved on ill's .org name imo

No hard feelings to the benfolds.org unless that's what you want in which case you can all go smoke a ten foot dick? Is that in the spirit? God bless you all.
Love,
ben

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: ItsNotTooLate

barn floods still loves the dorg.

Aug 29th (2 years ago)

Posted by: Willie

thanks ben. sorry for being assholes sometimes. do whatever makes you happiest.