I remember a spring afternoon in 1997. I was standing in Strictly Discs, as fine of a record store as can be found in Madison, Wisconsin, as a learned music fan was browsing the new releases and chatting with the guy behind the counter, as learned music fans are wont to do. And the shopper’s stack grew larger, he was talking about the upcoming releases that he’d already had a chance to somehow hear, declaring that Something to Remember Me By, the sophomore full-length from Ben Lee was a masterpiece. I was filled with envy. I’d happened upon Lee while … Continue reading One for Friday: Ben Lee, “End of the World”

Ben Folds unwittingly threw me a lifeline at precisely the moment I most deeply lamented what was happening in music. Ben Folds Five, the debut album from the trio that bore his name, arrived in the summer of 1995, just as “alternative rock” was peaking as a commercial radio format and simultaneously destroying itself with a thuddingly monotonous approach to playlists. As I listened from a bunker of a radio study, drowning in dispiriting, lifeless grunge knockoffs, I longed for something that just sounded different. One of the things I most valued about college radio was the sense that it … Continue reading One for Friday: Ben Folds, “Landed (alternate mix)”

It only made sense. A trio of Bens — with the last names of Folds, Kweller, and Lee — emerged on the alternative music scene at about the same time, in the mid-nineteen-nineties. (It’s not quite accurate to term them peers since two of the three were literally kids and the third could accurate reference multiple ex-wives in his lyrics.) Besides a forename, all three songwriters had a propensity for clever, genially comic lyrics. Around ten years later, the music business landscape around them had changed dramatically: album sales started their precipitous plummet, the once hot alternative radio format was … Continue reading One for Friday: The Bens, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”

I’ve already written about music so much this week, that I feel like maybe I should let the One for Friday song speak for itself for once. There can’t be all that much doubt as to my motivation for making this selection, right? Listen or download –> The Billionaires, “The End of Summer Song” (Disclaimer: Can I keep the disclaimer as short? Probably not! Though I’ve given it only the most cursory research, I believe the one and only full-length album from the Billionaires, which contains the shared song, to be out of print as a physical item that can … Continue reading One for Friday: The Billionaires, “The End of Summer Song”