So far, the track on the upcoming Lonely Avenue that’s pulling the most interest is Levi Johnston’s Blues, a profanity-laced look at the brouhaha surrounding the circumstances of Johnston’s illegitimate child with the daughter of the one-time Republican presidential running-mate from Alaska. It’s been covered in The Huffington Post (with clip and lyrics), jambands.com, Mediaite, and other media, and could be on the verge of catapulting Folds once again into the spotlight for a song about a controversial subject – something he’s not afraid of taking on. Giving credit where credit is due, however, Ben says “the brilliant chorus lyrics are a direct quote from Levi’s old MySpace page!”
News
BBC interview with Ben and Nick
In London as part of a European PR tour, Ben and Nick Hornby visited BBC Radio 4’s Today programme and chatted with reporter Nicola Stanbridge. Listen here.
Brick, the Musical
Omaha, Nebraska’s SkullDuggery Productions, a small, offbeat theatre company, is running a show titled Brick: The A Capella Musical, through the month of July 2010. It’s based on Ben’s music and story lines, including the eponymous Brick along with Effington, Zak and Sara and Fred Jones. The show’s writer and director, Andrew McGreevy, says the lead character, named Ben, isn’t necessarily supposed to be Folds himself, but rather a guy “who has breezed through his life without staying committed to much.” The Ben character goes on a road trip, encounters the football coach in Effington, meets a female couple who run the town restaurant, and gets involved in a love triangle where he discloses that he had taken his former girlfriend (Emaline) to a women’s clinic. More in this story in the Omaha Weekly Reader. The show runs through July 31; tickets are $20 and reservations may be made by calling the theatre at (402) 317-7893.
Lonely Avenue
Ben’s newest opus, Lonely Avenue, drops September 28 on Nonesuch Records. Departing from the Sony/Epic label that he’s been with since the second Ben Folds Five record, Whatever and Ever Amen, the album represents a collaboration between Folds and the author Nick Hornby, who penned the lyrics, to which Ben wrote music. String arrangements are by well-known pop arranger Paul Buckmaster, who also arranged for Elton John, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. The album has been sequenced and mastered, specifically as a work to be listened to in the LP format (two-sided, approximately 25 minute sets) and will be released in a variety of formats including audiophile vinyl LP (mastered at Abbey Road Studios and pressed in Germany at Pallas Manufacturing) and CD in addition to the now customary digital downloads, plus there will be a special edition including four short stories written by Hornby. And, Ben confirms that there will be a tour. Read the press release and more at the Nonesuch Records site.
Flood piano to relief efforts
Ben reports that they are working on disassembling and cleaning the Baldwin piano that was destroyed in the Nashville flood (see separate item below). The piano was used in the recording of most of the tracks on Rocking the Suburbs and Songs for Silverman. Once disassembled, the parts will be sold on eBay to raise money for flood relief efforts.
