Format Details: White Vinyl / White Vinyl
Release Date: 29 March 2019
Label: Real Gone Music
Packaging Type: Gate Fold Vinyl
No of Units: 2
Barcode: 848064008729
Genres: Rock
Description
Remember Myspace? It was the precursor to Facebook, and, for its time, almost as ubiquitous online. By August 2006, Myspace had over a hundred million member accounts, and, in October of that year, it decided to launch
its first-ever webcast. The artist chosen for this epochal event?
Ben Folds. The hour-long program featured Folds in front of a small audience housed in a custom set built right in Folds' home studio in Tennessee, performing songs from his third and latest solo album, Supersunnyspeedgraphic, as well as a couple of tunes from his previous
group, Ben Folds Five. As the first concert offered in real-time by the social
networking site, Folds and his band (bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer
Lindsay Jamieson) were arguably positioning themselves on the leading
edge of entertainment-meets-technology.
"Well, it felt like someone was," Folds says today with a chuckle, "But I
didn't think it was me. My fans and people around me were always really
computer savvy, and there was a lot of hyping of [the event]."
Now—just like it did with its release of Ben Folds Five: The Complete
Sessions at West 54th—Real Gone Music is bringing this superlative show to
CD and LP for the first time with its release of Ben Folds: Live at Myspace, a
single CD/double vinyl package featuring all 12 songs from Folds' Myspace
performance along with five bonus tracks from the digital-only iTunes
Originals series. Featuring pictures from the Myspace gig and liner notes
by Bill Kopp offering Ben Folds' reminiscences about the concert, this is
as close as you can get to being there, and the studio-quality sound may
just convince you that you are there if you just shut your eyes. We've also
created custom gatefold jacket art for the vinyl release, which is being
pressed in white vinyl limited to 1000 copies.
Though Folds was focused on showcasing his newer material, he happily
performed fan favorites in the all-requests Live at Myspace set. The highlight
among these is the audience singalong on "Army," a song originally released
on 1999's The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. Long-time
Folds fans know that the crowd stepping in for the studio album version's
brass section is a concert staple, and the Myspace audience does not
disappoint with its call-and-response verve. Another highlight of Live at
Myspace is a cover of hip-hop giant Dr. Dre's "Bitches Ain't Shit." Possibly
taking advantage of the fact that webcasts aren't subject to the same rules
imposed upon American radio stations by the FCC, Folds and his band
mates sink their collective teeth into the rap classic from Dre's 1992 debut
album, The Chronic, radically transforming the track—just as Folds had done
with the Flaming Lips' "She Don't Use Jelly"—into something wholly unlike
its original version. And, the bonus iTunes Originals performances from
2005 are practically a greatest hits encore, featuring the much loved song
"Brick." Another long-awaited addition to the Ben Folds canon!
Tracklisting
Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
Johnny Mathis
Joe Simon
Joe Bataan
Jimmy Webb
Jefferson Airplane
James Horner
Ben Folds
