Over the weekend Ben Folds posted a giant message on his facebook detailing the new album (the first in 12 years) from Ben Folds Five and what exactly they are doing with it. This announcement also came with an unmastered new track from the album called “Do It Anyway”.
The song definitely has that classic Ben Folds Five feel to it. Fans of both the band and Ben Folds solo stuff have plenty to be happy about.
[mp3]: Ben Folds Five – Do It Anyway
The band is releasing the album on their own, and are rely on fans to help them promote the album. There’s a pledgemusic page and everything. Folds says if fans help him relay messages then he will reward them with credit on the actual LP art. That’s pretty awesome. Find the full facebook message from Ben after the jump.
OKAY! Let’s try once again.
Have an unmastered track from the new Ben Folds Five album. It’s called “Do It Anyway”. The intensity of the track is typical of the rest of the album, but each song is quite different. That always was the way with our records I suppose. We’re nearly done and I think it’s a cracker.
http://bit.ly/IR7qg1
Posting this track, preaching to our online choir along with a few select interviews – I’m thinking Nerdist – will be the extent of the album promotion for the run up to the September release.
I realize that it’s a luxury for us to promote only to fans. We’ve had the help of labels for years which gave us a leg up. The years of traditional promotion, soul draining as they might have been, affords us that luxury now. A start up band cannot easily do it this way. Our intention is not to ‘stick it to the man’. He’s quite stuck enough. We don’t care to create a new model. We’re just doing it the way it feels best this time around and quite honestly, making it up as we go along.
Please consider joining our label as Vice President of Promotion – There’s unlimited room for vices. We’ll credit you each in the LP vinyl album art somehow and if it won’t all fit then we’ll make poster art of names.
I recall being very excited to have had my name put on a knife in a glass case at a restaurant for being a frequent customer. I am one of many but I still beam with pride to point it out. Once had a star named after me too. I’m a sucker for that kind of stuff. I digress…
As Vice President of Promotion, all you have to do is put up with my tweeting and facebooking in the run up to the release, and recycle and retweet as much as you can deal with. I’ll run ideas past you all, feel free to chime in.
We’re not signed at the moment. We may sign a distribution deal or even a record deal if it all coincides with the way we want to work. Or not. We’re chewing over plans. In any event, we’ll go ahead and put the album on pre-sale soon ourselves and tweet like the wind.
We just need everyone to spread the word up to the release and put up with a few extra transmissions from me. I’ve got some more long winded blogging to do anyway.
Happy Friday, or maybe Saturday Morning.
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