[2008-09-30] Ben Folds "Way To Normal" (guest: Regina Spektor)

Linda · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:19 pm

http://www.nme.com/news/ben-folds/38331

Ben Folds unveils third solo album tracklisting

Jul 21, 2008

Details of the new Ben Folds album ‘Way To Normal’ have been revealed, with the disc slated to be released on September 30.

The album, which is the third from Folds as a solo artist, was recorded at his own studio in Nashville, TN and produced by Dennis Herring, who’s previously worked with the likes of Elvis Costello, The Hives and Modest Mouse.

Joining Folds on the record are bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Sam Smith, and the first single from the album ‘You Don’t Know Me’ features vocals from Regina Spektor.

A portion of the record was written at the end of last year as Folds was finalising his divorce, and the album was almost titled ‘Blood On The Keyboard’, but Folds says the material was not inspired by the divorce:

"The songs are not topical. I was not interested in making a record about the D-word. I got all that stuff out of my system on the last record, which was deliberately stoic,” he says.

“This new album is really about me being free, which is why it feels cathartic and expressive. It's about me coming back to being myself. I came out of the courthouse, kissed the ground, and walked straight into the studio. I felt like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken for 18 months and popped open in the studio. That's why this record has so much energy."

[bigred]Standard Edition (CD Only)[/bigred]

‘Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hits His Head)’
‘Dr. Yang’
‘The Frown’
‘You Don’t Know Me’ (featuring Regina Spektor)
‘Before Cologne’
‘Cologne’
‘Errant Dog’
‘Free Coffee’
‘Bitch Went Nuts’
‘Brainwascht’
‘Effington’
‘Kylie from Connecticut’

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001E1DJ9S/?tag=imwan-20

[bigred]Deluxe Edition (CD+DVD)[/bigred]

The limited edition Deluxe Set includes the full CD album, 24-page booklet, and Bonus DVD.

(Tracklisting not available yet.)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001EBEBSG/?tag=imwan-20

Tricky Kid · **Joined:** 23 Sep 2007 **Posts:** 8297

How can a song called "Bitch Went Nuts" not be about his ex-wife? :twisted:

RoyalScam · 04 Oct 2006

Can't wait to hear him rock out again. His first two albums and the EP's are among some of my favorite albums ever.

Hank · 01 Dec 2004

Has he ever done an album that WASN'T in the wake of a divorce? Crimony, he puts Johnny Carson to shame. At least most of his marriages were more than 10 years each.

Linda · **Posted:** Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:51 pm

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/art ... 1003794549

Ben Folds Eyeing September For New Album

April 25, 2008 , 10:50 AM ET
Gary Graff, Detroit

Ben Folds is hoping to have his next album out in September, but he plans to keep previewing new songs at shows before then, including appearances at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee and festivals in Berlin and Britain.

"We've played most of the album here -- there's not a lot to unveil," Folds told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters to promote Bonnaroo. "We've got two or three songs that we were sort of holding onto, just so that someone would buy the record. But it's not a bad idea to play one of those new ones at Bonnaroo; that's kind of a special show, so we may do that."

Folds added that even with their massive crowds, festivals such as Bonnaroo provide a sympathetic environment to try out new material. "It's a music audience, and that's pretty impressive for the size of the audience," he explains. "The last time (at Bonnaroo in 2006) we played in front of a really large crowd and we were playing mostly stuff off an album that'd just been released and it all felt pretty good [and] pretty musical."

At shows already this year Folds has played a variety of songs from the new album, his first since "Supersunnyspeedygraphic" in 2006. Among the titles have been "Hiroshima," "Errant Dog," "Effington," "The Bitch Went Nuts," "Free Coffee" and "Kylie From Connecticut." The album has no title yet, however.

"That's going to be one of the last things, I think, that's going to fall together here," he said. "I'm not really sure. I may have a couple of ideas, but we've got some really good stuff going for the artwork that I'm excited about. So I kind of want to get that in order and see if that helps me make up my mind."
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Know for the wry sense of humor he infuses in his lyrics, Folds told the Bonnaroo call that he's also looking forward to checking out some of the comedians who are part of the festival bill.

"I can relate to that because I'm a little bit of a clown," he said, "but I don't think I'm like 'Keystone Cops' kind of clown. The last time I met Louis Black, and he was really cool. We had a really good talk and it was fun. I get along with comedians well pretty well."

stevef · 05 Aug 2006

from the press release--

LONG AWAITED FOLLOW UP TO SONGS FOR SILVERMAN FEATURES RAUCOUS TRACKS, TRADEMARK HUMOR

New York, NY -- Epic Records is proud to announce the release of the much-anticipated new album from Ben Folds, WAY TO NORMAL, on September 30, 2008. The album, Folds' third as a solo artist since the break up of the Ben Folds Five in 2000, was mostly recorded at his studio in Nashville and produced by Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, The Hives). Featuring Folds on vocals and piano, Way to Normal also features long-time bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Sam Smith as well as a guest vocal from indie pop heroine Regina Spektor on the album's first single, "You Don't Know Me."

Way to Normal is an exuberant, raucous, and sometimes profane mix of sure-fire crowd-pleasers ("Hiroshima," "Bitch Went Nuts," and the frenetically fuzzed-out "Dr. Yang"), cheerful snark-fests ("The Frown Song," "Brainwascht"), and thoughtful, moving ballads ("Cologne," "Kylie From Connecticut") that Folds wrote at the end of 2007 following the finalization of a two-year divorce.

But it should not be assumed that Way to Normal is Folds' version of Marvin Gaye's Here My Dear or Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks (though Folds says that in the early stages of recording he came close to calling the album "Blood on the Keyboard").

"The songs are not topical," Folds says. "I was not interested in making a record about the D-word. I got all that stuff out of my system on the last record [2005's pensive Songs for Silverman], which was deliberately stoic. This new album is really about me being free, which is why it feels cathartic and expressive. It's about me coming back to being myself." (Hence the title.) "I came out of the courthouse, kissed the ground, and walked straight into the studio. I felt like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken for 18 months and popped open in the studio. That's why this record has so much energy."

Folds has been going pretty much non-stop since the 2001 release of his debut solo album Rockin' the Suburbs. In short order, Folds has released a live album (2002's aptly titled Ben Folds Live) and a pioneering series of three Internet-only digital EPs: Speed Graphic, Sunny 16, and Super D in 2003-2004; co-wrote and produced William Shatner's 2004 solo album Has Been; released Songs for Silverman (which featured the Adult Top 40 hit "Landed"); contributed three original songs to the soundtrack for the 2006 film Over the Hedge; and produced a forthcoming solo album by Dresden Dolls frontwoman Amanda Palmer.

In 2006, Folds released Supersunnyspeedgraphic, The LP - a compilation of tracks from the Internet-only EP's and B-sides, including an inspired cover of Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't ****." Along the way, there have been numerous tours, including a few with The Bens, a "supergroup" Folds formed with fellow singer-songwriters Ben Kweller and Ben Lee in 2003, as well tours with Rufus Wainwright and Guster in 2004, The Fray in 2005, and John Mayer in 2007. A classically trained percussionist whose musical chops could not be denied, Ben Folds also performs with orchestas, including a stint with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Perth, which led to his dvd "Ben Folds and WASO: Live at Perth" as well as Baltimore, Boston Pops for their season opener in 2007 and a stint of residencies with all five major Australian symphonies in 2006: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide which set a number of ticket sales records for the esteemed Australian orchestras. In 2008, Folds will perform with the Nashville Symphony, opening their 2008-2009 season (September 7, 2008) and will also perform with the local symphonies in Philadelphia, Ft. Wayne, IN and Louisville, KY.

Ben Folds has been performing at many summer festivals this year, and will continue to tour worldwide in support of Way To Normal throughout the fall and into 2009.

......................................................................

from PasteMagazine.com--

BEN FOLDS TALKS NEW ALBUM AND RELEASE DATE
By Jason Killingsworth on July 8, 2008 7:00 AM

Everybody’s favorite piano-rocking, Shatner-collaborating, sailor-mouthed goofball Ben Folds has a new album hitting shelves on Sept. 16. Way To Normal, the singer’s first new studio LP since 2005’s Songs For Silverman, is produced by Dennis Herring (Counting Crows, Modest Mouse, Elvis Costello) and will be released on Epic Records.
Even though Folds has played some high-profile shows over the past couple years backed by a full symphony orchestra (he’s scheduled to perform with the Nashville Symphony on Sept. 7 to open its 2008-09 Pops season) the new record is still unabashedly rock.

“It’s a fairly un-orchestral record,” Folds tells Paste. “It’s a fairly lyric-driven rock record. We’ve looked at taking a few of the songs on the new record and scoring them for orchestra and, uh, it was kind of slim pickins.”

Notable tracks include a quirky duet with Regina Spektor called “You Don’t Know Me” and a glitchy sonic experiment called “Free Coffee” on which Folds gets a crackling faux-electronic effect by taping Altoids cans to the strings of his acoustic grand piano and running that sound through a distortion pedal.

The cheeky irreverence that’s become Folds’ trademark is still on full display in tunes like “Bitch Went Nuts,” which tells the fictional story of a relationship that went south after the narrator’s lover goes psycho and stabs his basketball. According to Folds, the song is a comment on the male perspective. “If you ask loads of women what went wrong in a relationship, they’re going to give you a variety of answers. But you ask men, especially at a bar somewhere, and they’re gonna go, ‘Uh, bitch went nuts!’”

Considering Folds’ penchant for fun-loving shenanigans, have any fellow artists or friends urged him to grow up?

“No, luckily I have a loyal team of yes men. And whatever I say is just the fucking shit. No, that’s not true at all. What I do have is a few good friends and people that I work with who are really happy when I’m having a good time with something.”

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2 ... -date.html

Hank · 01 Dec 2004

Album art added!

I got an email saying that if I pre-ordered it frim iTunes, I'd get a code for a concert ticket pre-sale. No Seattle dates yet, so I'm going to wait for the CD release.

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Aug 14, 2008 3:06 pm

http://www.nme.com/news/ben-folds-five/38910

Ben Folds leaked 'fake' album

Aug 14, 2008

Ben Folds has revealed he released fake versions of six songs online in order to avoid the leak of his new album

Folds said he recorded the six tracks over eight hours in Dublin, Ireland, and had his friends release the material in a spoof online leak.

However, Folds tells Rolling Stone that he reckons the ‘fake’ material was good enough to have made it onto the actual record, entitled ‘Way To Normal’.

“I may be on crack, but I think if that was half the real record, it’d be good. I think some people hate it because they were told it was a joke. In the end people got free songs and we had something to do on July 11.”

Linda · **Posted:** Thu Sep 11, 2008 10:53 am

Bump ~ added Limited Deluxe Edition pre-order details to the first post.

[2008-09-30] Ben Folds "Way To Normal" (guest: Regina Spektor)

Who is WANline