|
Enemies and ivory Ben Folds may be a puny piano man, but he's one angry dwarf by CHRIS YURKIW
"I think we escape novelty because we're just being such a rock band about things," says piano man Folds, multi-tasking with a half-full mouth, "playing shows and playing songs and being ourselves." Right, but these days we're starting to realize just who Ben Folds's self is (as supported by bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jesse). Behind the musical nods to Squeeze or Queen or Gershwin, Ben Folds is the 30-year-old guy who, in fine indie rock tradition, can still take inspiration from childhood playground hurts and write a revenge tune called "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" (or maybe the title refers to what a BFF gig is like). Ben Folds is the unabashedly incorrect North Carolinian who, upping the ante on Alanis, dismisses any memories of blowjobs and simply demands his money back from his ex in "Song for the Dumped." And Ben Folds is a voice of his generation (perhaps not the voice of his generation), who calls his new album Whatever and Ever Amen (550/Epic), taking the resigned battle cry of his peers and making it gospel. "It's the prevailing attitude where I come from," says Folds. "'Like, whatever.' Well, fuck you and your 'whatever'! Give a shit just for a second--and give me directions to the goddamn Ben and Jerry's up the street, bitch!" Alrighty, then. There may be a lot of "down songs" on what Folds calls a second album that's "more of a serious experience" than the self-titled debut, but Ben does try valiantly to make a break with the bleak. On the gorgeous cabaret waltz "Smoke," for example, where he sings: "All the sadness, all the rage/Throw this book away." This "seriousness" also translates into some richer arrangements on Whatever, including strings and some help from New York's Klezmatics on one tune. But still, Folds isn't about to throw away his history book of Top 40 hits. "People pass a certain age and then everything becomes a throwback to them," says Ben. "They go, 'No--I saw that! I saw that in the '70s!' But it's not like that for us, it's like, 'Well, I didn't see it, so fuck off!'" Ben Folds Five play Cabaret this Saturday, June 7 with September 67. 8:30pm, $10 + tax |
When the Ben Folds Five bounded into our consciousness a couple of years ago, all of the talk was pretty predictable. "Omigosh--a rock band with no guitars!" "Omigosh--a rock band with a piano!" "Omigosh--they sound like old Joe Jackson (or is that old Todd Rundgren?)!" But with album #2 now loaded and dropped, fans of the Ben Folds phenom can no longer get by on the simple novelty of three pure-pop, indie-rock, piano-poundin' juke jocks.