This past monday I attended a Ben Folds concert in Mobile, AL. I stumbled upon a real gem at the merch table -Ben Folds: Stems and Seeds. I am a huge Ben Folds fan, but this is only one part of what makes this double disc set so awesome.
‘What is Ben Folds: Stems and Seeds‘ you ask? Well, Seeds is basically a disc that contains Way to Normal remastered and rearranged. I can’t say that I like the new track order that much…maybe I’m just used to the old sequence. He also includes new mixes of the ‘leaked’ songs.
The leaked songs are basically fake songs with the same name as some of the real songs on the album. He bundled these up and ‘leaked’ them on Bittorrent as a joke. He had to change some of their names for copyright purposes, but they are all included here. These songs are hilarious. They have become so popular with his fans that he even plays them at his shows. He played ‘Bitch Went Nutz,’ ‘Lovesick Diagnostician,’ and ‘frowne song (feeble anthem)’ at the Mobile show.
He also includes a ‘You Don’t Know Me’ cut that was a rehearsal for Conan O’Brien and the Japanese version of ‘Hiroshima.’ The only other song that I have heard him record in Japanese was ‘Song for the Dumped’ from Whatever and Ever Amen (in the Ben Folds Five days) and I love them both.
All this extra content is awesome, but it isn’t the main draw of this release. Stems is actually what drew me to this release. He has broken up all of the songs on Way to Normal into isolated tracks (think drums, bass, piano, vocals, etc) for complete remixing!!! I think this is an unprecedented move in the music industry. I know some artists have done this sort of thing before, but I am not aware of another that has released isolated tracks and packed them in with a CD release. I haven’t actually played with the tracks yet, but you’ll be the first to know when I do!
…to be continued…
