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Mad Props, Against Me!
2008-04-10 09:52:00 Last year, my boy Ben Lee discovered and loved Against Me!'s new album, New Wave, so much that he covered the entire record from beginning to end and made the MP3s available for free on his website. His folksy take on Against Me!'s punk rage was rather charming, and it was a unique if unusual way for one artist to pay homage to another. I mean, I've admired artists so much that I've wanted to be them, but this seemed like wish fulfillment taken to its illogical extreme.Ben's terrific cover versions eventually led me to Against Me!'s original CD, of course, and, after I bought it, I too could not stop listening to it. New Wave has all the street cred of punk, the sweet melodies of pop, and lyrics that soar in their anger, heart, and cleverness. I mean, the album begins with these sharp lines about the very industry that wooed them onto a major label:We can control the mediumWe can control the context of presentationIs there anybody on the receiving endReaching out for some kind...
By: Bamboo Nation
What Would Ben Lee Do?
2007-12-13 09:45:00 I skipped into my apartment tonight after attending the Ben Lee concert at the El Rey in Los Angeles. I proudly showed Loren the photograph you see here, to which he muttered, "Who's that?" Which pretty much killed the moment. But like I care?notice how Ben's arm is draped casually over my shoulder, a part of my body that I am seriously considering never washing ever again.I suppose I can understand the "Who's that?" reaction, which I'm sure is mumbled by many of this blog's readers whenever I continue to write obsessively about musicians I love. The reason I promote these artists so much is because I hope that I can convert perhaps one L.A.-based reader so that I would have someone, anyone, to go to these concerts with. That way, they too could experience terrific musicians such as Ben Lee, who refuses to give in to the encore tradition by just turning his back to the audience at the end of his set and then turning around again to do his encore; who is simultaneously wry and s...
By: Bamboo Nation
"I Refuse to Go Numb"
2007-12-11 19:37:00 Tomorrow I'm going to see Ben Lee at the El Rey in Los Angeles! I'm so excited I just pissed my pants. You, however, will have to settle for listening to his latest album, Ripe (which just took the top slot on one KCRW DJ's Top Ten Albums of 2007 list), or amuse yourself with the new punchy music video for "Numb":
By: Bamboo Nation
Have You Gone Numb From All These Ben Lee Entries Yet?
2007-10-04 19:46:00 Last month while visiting New West Records, Ben Lee performed a live version of "Numb," off his new album Ripe, with Nic Johns. Great song, people! Behold:
By: Bamboo Nation
Ben Lee Cures Cancer
2007-10-04 09:34:00 Children with terminal illnesses actually write to Ben Lee to tell him that his music boosts their immune system. By that logic, if Ben Lee keeps making albums, he will cure cancer.It's no surprise, then, that I've always wanted to meet him. I mean, not only am I a huge fan and geek out enough to actually post messages on his fan discussion board, I want to be exposed to his healing properties. I don't have any diseases or anything, but I drink green tea for the same reasons that everybody else does?not because it's tasty, but because it reduces your chances of getting cancer.Through a magical set of circumstances, Joanne was able to get me into a Ripe CD release party, where Ben played a seven-song set with gusto, despite the fact that it was one of those stuffy industry gatherings where everybody's there to either get drunk or network for a new a job. He was greeted to a smattering of applause and general indifference when he took to the stage (as if he were interrupting the ...
By: Bamboo Nation
Ben Lee- Love me like the world is ending VIDEO
2007-10-01 15:42:00 Qué ganas tengo de escuchar este disco. Aunque estoy segura de que me gustaría más su sonido en directo,como me pasara con su anterior trabajo.Ya que pusimos el primer intento frustrado de este video, ahora vamos a dejar el que es el video final para el primer sencillo de Ripe,2007.Éste ya no es un video grabado en una sola toma.
By: a silent room
Sometimes Mainstream Is Experimental; Or, A Few Words About Ben Lee, Woody
2007-09-23 18:49:00 Ben Lee's new album, Ripe, was just released this week, and all you common people can finally buy it. As you know, I've been championing this album for a while now, ever since I got to wrap my ears around an advanced copy.Attempting to go beyond the I-loved-it/I-hated-it discussion on the Ben Lee Board, I posed a heady question that few fans are willing to pursue.First, some background. Ben's last album, Awake Is the New Sleep, is considered his most thematically and stylistically complex and emotionally resonant work, and many fansnow hold it as the gold standard when it comes to the music of Ben Lee. Ripe is strikingly different in that it's a straightforward pop-rock album with mainstream sensibilities and aspirations. Produced by John Alagia (who's helmed projects by Dave Matthews and John Mayer, among others) and featuring guest appearances by Mandy Moore, Good Charlotte's Benji Madden, and Rooney, Ripe is certainly Ben's happiest and poppiest album.When I noticed that s...
By: Bamboo Nation
Ben Harper Is Not Ben Lee
2007-08-23 03:02:00 Robert, do not call me up in the morning to tell me that Ben Lee is going to be on KCRW because I will get very excited and shower just so that I will be fresh and clean for the broadcast and my entire day will be ruined when I turn on the radio and it is actually Ben Harper and my heart sinks and my day is ruined. Ben Harper is not Ben Lee....is not...
By: Bamboo Nation
Ben Lee Wants to Party
2007-08-16 10:13:00 You don't want to know the humiliating details of what I had to do to get my hands on an advanced copy of Ben Lee's new album, Ripe, a month before its release date. Just know that I am willing to risk venereal disease and jail time to keep you properly informed and to keep me a self-professed fanboy. I had a CD listening party in my apartment tonight, and, since I was the only person in attendance, I was able to dance around in my Paul Frank underwear.Ripe is stunning. If Lee's Awake Is the New Sleep (one of my favorite albums of all time, released in 2005) is an introspective and emotionally layered musical journey filled with spiritually literate indie pop songs, then Ripe is an effervescent, unabashedly fun, and genuinely rocking collection of music that is Lee's most accessible album to date and also his most shamelessly joyful. Clearly, Ben Lee wants to party, and you'd be a sucker not to accept the invitation.While the songs on Awake show musical range and explore diffe...
By: Bamboo Nation
What Have I Done in the Name of Ben Lee?
2007-08-16 04:10:00 Holy crap! Through an amazing set of circumstances and because I blew all the right people, I am now in possession of an advanced copy of the new Ben Lee album, Ripe, a month before it's supposed to be released. My jaw hurts and my throat is sore, but all will be well when I play the music.If only you could be so lucky. Instead, you have to settle for the first music video off the new album, "Love Me Like the World Is Ending", which features one hell of a water balloon fight but is curiously absent naked skateboarders.
By: Bamboo Nation
Naked Skateboarders Get Ben Lee Busted
2007-08-03 22:08:00 Leave it to naked skateboarders to get Ben Lee busted. I wish I were there.
By: Bamboo Nation
Into the dark... de Ben Lee
2007-04-24 22:58:00 Uff, a punto de enfrentarme a una de esas noches largas, con planteamientos de ¿por qué demonios seguiré estudiando? Eso de pegarse con algoritmos de planificación cuando sabes que no te has planificado bien, es chungo. En fin, qué me quiten lo bailado. Y como necesito una dosis de buen rollo os dejo con Ben Lee, su guitarra, su alegría contagiosa y su piano de juguete. "No worries"Enlace a este video en YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SNH-BR_lGDYI'm feelin' betterSince I surrenderedYou can't climb'Till you're ready to fallYou're not a land mineYou're not a gold mineNo you're not mine at allSo tell me babyCan you hear me?I sent a message out into the darkIt's a mysteryWhen you're near meI've gotta find my way to your heartI learned my lessonFirst impressionsMore often right than wrongIt's not a slow danceThis modern romanceFeels like we've already waited too longDon't worry baby'bout how it should beI sent a message out into the darkI'd rather talk to youAbou...
Ben Lee lines up celeb guests on new album
(Yahoo! Music)
2007-04-20 02:36:00 Yahoo! Music - Aussie singer-songwriter Ben Lee has enlisted the help of several famous friends for his new album, currently being recorded in Los Angeles. Discuss in forum (0)
Ben Lee Tyler - Would You Wake Up The Sun Music Video
2007-04-05 19:08:00 Over the years, Ben Lee Tyler has written extraordinary songs that never fail to capture the undivided attention of his audience. Through powerful rock instrumentals guided by sweeping vocal melodies he expresses emotion brilliantly and you..
Catch my disease... de Ben Lee
2007-03-27 22:36:00 Last.tv funciona!!!! Después de un dÃa duro, aparece en la pantalla de mi ordenador la canción que justo me iba animar. Y es que este "Catch my disease" de Ben Lee parece escrita en uno de esos dÃas en los que piensas que una sonrisa podrÃa cambiar el mundo. Hasta en los arreglos suena un piano de juguete como aquel que tenÃa de pequeña. Enlace a este video en YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m9Eq4oClFiA my head is a box filled with nothing and thats the way i like it my garden's a secret compartment and thats the way i like it and thats the way i like it your body's a dream that turns violent and thats the way i like it and thats the way i like it the winter is long in the city and thats the way i like it so please baby please open your heart and catch my disease i was backstage in pomona and thats the way i like it she drank beer with coca-cola and thats the way i like it and thats the way i like it she to... |
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