Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Cream Ben Folds Executive-Produces A Capella Album of Ben Folds Songs
Posted by Steve Haruch on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 2:03 PM
It seems like just last week that Michaela Drapes over at Idolator asked the question: Just what is "college music" these days anyway? That post ends with a shrug, basically, with Drapes asking, "What is a college band in 2009? Or is the answer just: campus acapella groups?"
Well, maybe that was supposed to be a little joke by Ms. Drapes, but apparently Epic Records is "excited to announce" the release of Ben Folds Presents: University A Capella. (April 28.) From the press release that I still don't believe is real:
Amazed to discover the large amount of colleges that have very active a cappella groups on campus across the country (1,200 in the US alone), and, on top of this, how many of them love to cover his songs, Folds decided to A&R and produce a record gathering the best of these performances.
When word got out, the response was tremendous and resulted in 250 videos on YouTube. Folds would come off stage every night and spend hours pouring over these entries, ultimately choosing 15 groups to record. Ben, his wife Fleur, and his engineer Joe Costa packed up their equipment, and hopped on planes, trains and automobiles to record these groups. Over 2 months, they set up camp in dorm lounges, lecture halls and campus television studios.
Just how crazy did it get? "They even recorded in a Synagogue." Get. The. Fuck. Out. Read all about it over at the A.V. Club, where the best comment has got to be this one, by Hippo Potty Mouth: "Can't Ben Folds just jack off like the rest of us?"
Not that there's anything wrong with a capella records, mind you.
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