Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live

Ben Folds - Ben Folds Live

Published 2002

Wikipedia

Wait a second, I hear you say, that isn't the new Queens of the Stone Age!  You're right, I lied.  I am going to do it, but I want to make sure to do it justice, and I think that I can just write this one without editing.  So, fuck you, delete key on my mac, let me pick an album at random from my gigantic playlist of things that I have on my computer.

Ben Folds! That's a great idea, alphabetically listed by Artist's name column on my iTunes!  Hey, we'll even get to do a live album for this one! Fluffed notes! Audience Applause! Jackholes screaming to get on the album!

Maybe this is the wrong one to talk about those three problems.  Ben Folds' audience is way too nice to not listen appreciatively to his beautiful songs.  It's like listening to a Canadian rock album (Quick, I have done Rush before this right?  I haven't!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!????!?!?!??!??!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING WITH MY LIFE?  Jesus, Moving Pictures is on the list.  I'm coming for you, Today's Tom Sawyer. [By the way, taking time off from doing these write ups has really showed me how much I intended to do, and haven't.])

This album is interesting to me, because I feel like someone said to Ben Folds, "just play the hits" listening to it now, but it may be because these recordings of his songs are so popular.  Is it a selective feedback that these songs have lodged themselves in my conscious because they are some of my favorite versions of his songs or am I remembering correctly that these are the most popular in general, and therefore became some of my favorites?

Fred Jones Part 2.  This song is just amazingly beautiful.  You should know it completely forwards and backwards.  It's a lovely, melancholy, haunting, and sad song.  This performance is just beautiful.  The duet is well done, and the piano is incredibly expressive.  I love this song. Also, his cover of Tiny Dancer is just awesome.

I have to recommend this album.  If you're a Ben Folds Fan (I'm looking at you, Jake), you already know how good this album is, and probably are shunning me for not getting on it earlier.  If you're not, you owe yourself to check him out.  I'd probably, very generously, because my opinion matters like crazy, favorably compare him to Elton John and (Old, awesome) Weezer style songwriting.  Or something, whatever.  I'm just writing this to keep you people off my back.

Moving Pictures and ...Like Clockwork are coming soon.  Feeling inspired to write.  This bodes well for the next like month.  Who knows after that.

"I'm not crazy!"
"Said the man to the dog."

Matt

Turn The Radio Off - Reel Big Fish

2011.

20-fucking-11?!

Are you kidding me?

It's been nearly two years since I wrote an Album Project?

This is a shame, a sham, a terrible travesty.  I mean, it's not like music stopped being made, right?  Did it?  Because I really haven't been listening to any.  I mean, other than that hot new Queens of the Stone Age album, and the Original Production Recordings of West Side Story, and you know, all the music.  I mean, Gangnam Style came and went, Robyn Thicke and Justin Timberlake both released music videos full of tits, and I haven't written shit about music in a long time.  Jay Z has retired and come back at least 30 times since then, right?

Yeah, I know, I left you. I did you wrong. I went away, but I came back, baby, and you know I loves you, it's just producing some 2000 words for no pay about an album that people don't care about hurts so bad, but missing you hurts too, so fuck it, we'll do it live.  We're here, we're album projecting, get used to it.

Let's get this out of the way.  This shit will not be regular, but I cannot stop myself from coming back.  I'll probably do it in fits and starts.  But your job is the same.  Your job is to give me suggestions, and give me albums that you love.  I promise to write swear words interspersed with incisive-esque commentary about them.  Drop me a line, or throw something in the comments. QOTSA is probably next.

Turn The Radio Off - Reel Big Fish

Published in 1996

Wikipedia

This was a middle school miracle.

I was in middle school when these guys got onto the radio in a big way, and they were super inspiring.

You see, I was a saxophone player in middle school, and I loved rock music.  Ska was the natural progression that I didn't know about.  For a brief moment, Ska became cool while I was a kid, and that was pretty awesome.  And then, in an instant, it was gone from the radio.  

You know what, I know why.  The songs are interesting, but it doesn't have quite the appeal that it did back then for me.  I've grown up, grown older, and kind of grown out of the worship that I had for ska. However, this album still kicks ass, and I'll tell you why.

Nostalgia.  It's a super important factor for what music stirs your heartstrings, as we have discussed in this space before. Reel Big Fish is great for nostalgia for three reasons.

1. Reel Big Fish sounds like whatever age you were when you discovered them.  At least for me, they remind me of being in middle school and high school, and that cusp of maturity.

2. Reel Big Fish has very distinctive runs in the horns that allow you to remember them with clarity, giving you the same kind of nostalgia as a really good guitar solo.  (Aside: why the fuck haven't I done a Satriani album or [duh] a Hendrix album? [Have I done a Hendrix album? {It's been so long, I had to look through the archives to make sure I hadn't done this one. -(How sad is that?)-}])
3. Reel Big Fish is able to write timeless lyrics.  They may not be great, but they are timeless.

Let's talk more about that third one.  The lyrics are not super complicated.  They are not poetry of the first order.  But they are and always will be, about real shit.  Girls, complicated relationships, wanting to be famous, trying to make a band, all of these are neither new or old.  They're just wheelhouse topics that nearly everyone can relate to.  The band has a really relatable tone about the whole thing too.  They seem to be winking with the audience, knowing that some of what they say is ridiculous, but it's okay, because everyone is having fun.

And it is fucking fun.  Not everything is going to be 808's and Heartbreak, or The Cure.  Sometimes, you just want to hear a guy sing ridiculous lyrics about his vegetarian girlfriend.  That is okay.  We're only human.

Look, do I think this is not optional? No. It's great, fun, and enjoyable for me.  That's the key.  For me, this is great stuff that I enjoy coming back to, but your mileage may vary.  However, if it varies a lot from mine, this blog might be a trudge.

Anyway, TAP is back.  Get excited.  Or don't, you know, whatever. (This line brought to you from 1996.)