Friday, September 24, 2010 2:53PM - By Jeffrey Hyatt
A Nick Hornby-Ben Folds partnership is definitely intriguing, and we’ll have a chance to hear what the best-selling British author (“Fever Pitch,” “High Fidelity”) and talented, pop songwriter were able to come up with when their album Lonely Avenue is released September 28 on Nonesuch Records.
It’s already a BeatCrave Album of the Week, so you know it must be worth a listen.
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010 9:00AM - By Sasha Patpatia
If a book could sing, the result would be Ben Folds‘ upcoming release Lonely Avenue. Folds has teamed up with the best-selling british author Nick Hornby on the album, creating a collaborative and creative mixture of pop melodies mixed with insightful prose as lyrics. Hornby provides the lyrics for the music written by Folds, and the 12 tracks serve as short stories that range in theme and plot. The album has a feel to it like you’re listening to your favorite musical book on tape as it explores how music enhances literary structure.
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Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:28PM - By Krystal Clark
Ben Folds is joining forces with English novelist Nick Hornby for the upcoming album Lonely Avenue. It features music and vocals by Folds and lyrics by Hornby and the album itself was made specifically to be listened to on vinyl. That’s what I call old school! Find out more about Lonely Avenue and its release date below…
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Thursday, May 21, 2009 9:00AM - By Mali
On May 20th, Ben Folds rocked out the Palladium in Los Angeles. At the start of Ben’s act he held an a capella competition featuring groups from USC, UCLA, and students all the way from a school in Northern California. It was not only fun to see all the different people recreating Ben Fold’s songs, but it was great to see the fans incorporated into the show.
Overall, there was an amazing vibe to the concert, great energy, and of course, awesome music.
Check out photos of Ben Folds rocking it out below…
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Friday, April 17, 2009 1:00PM - By Seraphina L.
Ben Folds likes a cappella music! He enjoys it so much that he will be releasing an album titled Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella! on April 28th. According to Entertainment Weekly’s The Music Mix, the album will essentially be a greatest hits collection sung by university a cappella groups (with an exception of one high school group). After hours of watching applicants via YouTube, Folds had set out to see the winners themselves and even joined on in the fun for the songs, “Boxing” and “Effington.”
For those of you who have stereotyped a cappella singers as cheesy-finger snapping losers who only sing doo-wop – or don’t even know what instrumental-free singing is like (no – it’s not just pop songs sung choral or opera style), this album should give you a glimpse of what a cappella groups have been doing for a very long time. Not only does it take talent to arrange your favorite rock/pop song into 4 -8 part vocals and still have it sound exactly like the original, but wouldn’t it just be mind-blowing to have one of those songwriters hand pick you to sing on one of his albums?
Do you think this album is wacky or genius?
Friday, November 14, 2008 5:22AM - By Emily
Today is the last day to submit your schools a cappella group to be featured on the new Ben Folds album. Ben Folds is working on making an album of a capella versions of his music performed by University groups across the country.
The idea for the album came from all the performances of his songs by groups he came across on YouTube. Folds was so impressed by the recordings he decided to put together a 12-15 track album featuring some of the best a cepella versions. The album is to be released in Spring of next year.
If you think your group has what it takes all you have to do is get together and record a video of you rocking out and then upload it to YouTube as well as fill out a submission form here.
You can check out some of the competition after the jump.
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Wednesday, October 22, 2008 1:47PM - By Kevin
On Ben Folds’ latest album Way To Normal, there’s a lovely little track called “Effington.” The song was inspired by a trip to Normal, Ill. where Folds’ passed a road sign for Effingham. He misread the sign and “Effington” was born.
Fast forward to today. The LA Times got the brilliant idea to email the mayor of Effingham and ask him what he thinks of the song, specifically the line “Please bury me/in Effington.” Mayor James Lange responded “We do have a city cemetery, so we can bury him here.”
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