Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

ben folds

Ben Folds has a new EP, Speed Graphic, out this week. The CD features 5 new songs, including a fun cover of The Cure’s “In Between Days.” My other favorite song on the EP is “Wandering,” with its reflective tone and memorable chorus. The other songs are great, too. Rob described “Dog” as “the Peanuts theme on speed.” “Protection” has a funky piano/bass thing going on. And the intro to “Give Judy My Notice” sounds just like the piano hook from “One Down,” on Ben Folds Live. (According to a recent Folds interview with Billboard, there’s another version of “Judy” floating around with a string back-up.)

Overall, good stuff.

Speed Graphic is the first of three EPs Folds plans to release this year, and is available for purchase/download only through Folds’s official site, the iTunes Music Store, at Folds concerts and other select venues — but not via the big music sellers. The songs on the EPs will eventually be collected into a formal, full-length album sometime next year.

Comments from Folds at his site:

quietly releasing my music as EP’s allow me to get it out there as i finish it. with a minimum of hype. it’s for people who buy my music anyway. it won’t be sold in the big ass chains, because that puts the price up and starts the big ass machinery - press, radio etc. then i have to pose naked at the piano, and really, i’m not a piece of meat, you know. the music will be available at gigs, and online, and on vinyl in some smaller stores.

In the Billboard interview, Folds offers some interesting comments on the business of music marketing, why he’s taking this route to release his music and the “singles vs. albums” debate. (“Folds Preps Three EPs, Teams With Shatner” - 07/03/03)

“But I think the institution of the album may be going away. That’s my gut feeling. I feel that it is more about songs and the album is a formality that packages things so that you can hype them real big and I’m just not very hype-able. We’ve tried that a couple of times and it is just not very effective.”

Speaking of interviews, in October 2002, around the time Ben Folds Live came out, Folds gave an interview to NPR’s “All Things Considered” about his way of promoting audience participation at concerts, using the crowd to fill in instrumental parts (as in “Army”) or 3-part harmonies (“Not the Same”). He tells the interviewer, regarding live performances of “Not the Same”: “What blows me away is how musical people are … 2,000 people singing exactly in tune. Y’know? They were all studio takes. They sounded amazing.”

(Thanks to Rob for the NPR interview link.)