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Cheeky piano-heavy trio Ben Folds Five have announced that they’re reuniting for a show where they play their 1999 album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner in its entirety. The concert–which takes place in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Sept. 18–is the first installment in the “let’s have bands play the albums you love so they can keep raking in the nostalgia cash” series Front To Back, which is sponsored in part by nowwhat.com. (As Al Shipley put it, the site’s “named after the phrase bands utter after they stop making good albums and have to just play the old ones.” Ha ha! OK, it’s actually an ethics-lite site sponsored by the insurance giants at State Farm. Same diff?) Anyway, as with so many music-publicity claims these days, there’s something a little strange about the video announcement of the show, which I’ve embedded after the jump.
See that “For the first time in 10 years” claim? It’s a bit odd, given that Messner came out in 1999–you know, nine years ago. And the band broke up in 2000. And if anyone thinks that said “first time” clause is in reference to a band reforming just to play its “most critically acclaimed album,” well, you might want to get the organizers of All Tomorrow’s Parties’ Don’t Look Back series on the horn. Come to think of it, I wonder what they think of all this, what with the concepts being so similar and the names rhyming and even having the same cadence, if your accented syllables fall a certain way…
Front To Back [MySpace]
[HT: Grayson Currin, Al Shipley]
Will Folds replace the horn part of ARMY with the band singing “da-da-da…da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da” out of key as they did in 1999?
Please do so…
I saw Alkaline Trio do this a few years ago and it was abig disappointment. They lazed their way through their first album and let an adoring crowd sing the whole thing for them. At least they followed it up with an hour of quality b-sides.
Didnt Wilco do something similar recently? THat would have been very interesting…
At least they have the integrity to play the album that nobody liked and nobody owns. Rock n roll!
As I said to Maura this morning, this is doubly weird because Reinhold Messner was generally considered a big commercial disappointment, and really wasn’t more “critically acclaimed” than the first 2 albums either. I saw them live a few times and they were always pretty good, but the shows in support of it were kind of a drag by comparison, and at 40 minutes running time it really won’t make for much of a show, unless they do a long encore full of songs from the other albums.
@Royfromage: Haha, or, what you said.
@Al Shipley: Agreed. Messner might be their favorite overall album, but I think there were more popular songs off of the first two. And they had some killer b-sides as well.
@Royfromage: That should be a concert series. Bands doing those albums that no one liked and nobody owns
Metallica performs St. Anger in its entirety
R.E.M. does Around The Sun
Smashing Pumpkins do Machina
etc…
@2ironic4u: Smashing Pumpkins do Machina
Yeah but I’d want to see that one. (It’s a great album!)
@Ned Raggett: seconded. i love Adore too
Like The Killer’s doing Sam’s Town.
I saw Cheap Trick do this with the “Budokan” concert in the 1990s, but they played the entire set in order, not just the original release.
I also saw REO Speedwagon play one side of “Hi Infidelity” straight through. :)
@dog door: Not so much on Machina, but I too love Adore — it’s the Cure album Corgan always wanted to record.
Agreed with Al on Messner, and this is clearly Folds himself exorcising some demons (artistic and commercial). He really wanted that one to be his Van Dyke Parks-style song cycle, and a decade later I don’t think he can accept that it wasn’t just a flop with the “Brick”-addled public but with many of his fans, too (of which I count myself one). It’s not a bad album, just a classic over-reacher.
Whatever and Ever, Amen, which is perceived as a goofier album (”Song for the Dumped,” “One Angry Dwarf…” etc.), actually has tender moments that are much more relatable and emotional than anything on Messner. And the BFF debut remains Folds’s masterpiece.
@Ned Raggett: I guess I’d be find with a Machina show seeing as they are one of my very favorite bands (just so long as they dropped “Heavy Metal Machine” from the set).
Adore is a classic.
i always liked whatever & ever amen, despite the fact that it was REALLY overplayed on the radio. but even the alternative station here–which constantly kept telling us that it was the first station in the country to play bff*–didn’t really get into army.
(*by which i mean ben folds five)
I approve of all this Adore love. It is the dark jewel of them all.
Wow, not a single defender of poor Reinhold? It was their only real, cohesive album, lovable for its overreaching (oh, his Dad on the answering machine…), and with a cleaned-up middle section it might have been a true classic (I agree that it’s not)–Narcolepsy, Don’t Change Your Plans, Mess, Magic and Lullabye are a step and a half above anything else they ever did.
Woo hoo! I’m gonna grow a mustache and a mullet. Maybe get a job at Chick-fil-a.
@Bob Loblaw: Wow, not a single defender of poor Reinhold?
Oh, I’d be happy to stand up for it. I think the songwriting is just as good as on Ben Folds Five and Whatever…, only faltering in a few places (the aimless “Mess” and the regrettable Darren Jessee contribution “Magic”). I like the fact that it’s not a retread of Whatever…, which surely would have been easy to make. On R.M. they expand the arrangements to include more instruments besides piano, bass and drums, but it’s always in service of the song, not just to fill space. Bonus points also need to be given to whoever sequenced this album, because the “Hospital Song” / “Army” / “Your Redneck Past” section is just brilliant.
@Bob Loblaw: I’ll also stand up for it. It’s a good album.
This idea still ain’t as good as “Don’t Look Back” (Slint!) but hey, I liked Ben Folds Five, nice to see that they don’t hate each other like some bands that broke up (Huskers, anyone?)
@Jerkwheat: Citing “artistic differences,” your band will break up in May. Then, in June, re-form without you.
There has to be a group of people in the audience yelling “Brick” for the duration of this performance!
And they’ll get another name. So nuke another Grandma’s apple pie and hang your head in shame.
At a solo college gig about five years ago, Ben Folds performed “Army” with the local college marching band. It was actually really awesome.