r/benfolds • u/Chudson_Band • 4h ago
My band is playing the full over the hedge soundtrack on Halloween!
We will probably post a full video after if you can’t make it out.
r/benfolds • u/thesilverpoets96 • Dec 03 '25
Yes, it’s that time of the year again. And no I’m not talking about wrapping presents, eating dry turkey and visiting family members you only hope to see once a year. I’m talking about the inevitable Spotify Wrapped and Apple Replay posts. As I’m sure everyone here is a huge fan of Ben, it should be no surprise he’s topped your lists this year. Let’s please try to use this thread to post your end of year streaming lists. Cheers and happy holidays to everyone!
r/benfolds • u/thesilverpoets96 • Sep 08 '25
https://youtu.be/1VtAAy4cGWc?si=unrU1-c1rL21neQs
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/benfoldsfive/yourmostvaluablepossession.html
Hello everyone, I hope all is well. I apologize for the lack of posts over the last couple of days. I got a new job and life has been fairly busy. But today we are back and we are going to be chatting about “Your Most Valuable Possession” which is the 8th track from the band’s third album The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.
This is maybe one of the weirdest songs in the band’s discography and it makes sense because it comes off the band’s most experimental album. The song begins with a phone answering machine letting us know it’s 6:49am, Friday, November 20th. We then hear Ben’s dad Dean wishing his son a good morning as he starts talking about how he was thinking about him while he was half awake/half asleep in bed.
This is then proceeded by the band fading into this laid back jazzy vibe. Which includes a steady drum beat with some simple but slick fills, a vibey electric piano, some bass, and later on some clavichord I believe. The music is a perfect blend of the type of music the band was crafting for this album and it’s a cool setting for Dean’s ramblings.
Speaking of Dean, he does go on to ask Ben if he’s looking after his “most valuable possession” which of course is his mind. There’s a humorous sigh after this section which sounds like was added in by Ben after the fact. This could have been his actual response to getting this voice mail from his dad at almost seven in the morning.
Dean goes on to explain his thought process behind how the mind is extremely valuable with him bringing up astronaut John Glenn. At the time of this voice recording John had just returned from his second trip to space at the young age of 77 which makes him the oldest person to space travel. John had mentioned before that in space you lose muscle mass and this fascinated Dean. Dean continues this train of thoughts and wonders how long it would take until you’re just a floating head and mind. Because sometimes all we have is our mind.
Ben’s dad then realizes he only has 30 seconds of his voice mail message left so he asks his son what he thinks about all of this and hopes that he’s been doing well. And also admits that when he fully wakes up later on he might have forgotten about this whole conversation. Which turns out to be true as Ben wrote about his father was on a lot of cough medicine that night in his autobiography.
Is this an essential Ben Folds Five song? Not really. It’s not even a two minute song that is mostly a spoken word song with some tasty playing. It’s unique and rad, but it’s not like a “song” song. And it was only played live once which was during the band’s reunion concert for MySpace in 2008 where they played this entire album from front to back. And for this song they actually had Dean come out to perform his own dialogue. It’s a sweet moment and I’m glad it does exist because it does have an intriguing idea of your mind being the most important thing you can have.
But what do you think of this track? Is the background music and message in Dean’s conversation worthy of spot on this album? What do you think the song is about? Favorite lyrical or musical moments? And were you lucky enough to catch it that one time live?
r/benfolds • u/Chudson_Band • 4h ago
We will probably post a full video after if you can’t make it out.
r/benfolds • u/theirlcosmokramer • 3d ago
figured i'd go right to the source and post this here. I just put down a $300 deposit on a new apartment and need to recoup the cost. more than willing to negotiate :) u.s. only. dm for further details/if you're interested!
r/benfolds • u/aahelpaa • 4d ago
Couldn’t find any videos. I’d love a video of heist live tbh.
r/benfolds • u/SoupBoy20 • 5d ago
been listening to this cover a lot recently, it's so awesome. just got into ben folds/the five earlier this year so still discovering a lot of shit. shame it's not on spotify/apple music
r/benfolds • u/Big-Property7157 • 6d ago
r/benfolds • u/PureZenKen • 10d ago
Hey folks,
I wanted to share my deep dive into Ben Folds Five - a band whose original run of records has been amongst my favourites for the best part of 30 years. I've written an entirely unreasonable number of words about them, but here we are. As Foldsian fans of the Five variety, some of you may wish to indulge... I hope you enjoy it if you do.
Thanks for reading.
r/benfolds • u/CertainlyLaz • 11d ago
It's one of my favourite Ben Folds Five releases and so I was shocked to see it was just. Gone?
I can't even find a reupload anywhere - I understand it being a little low quality and as a result not being something they'd keep out there...? But it's a shame! It's a shame to see it disappear seemingly out of nowhere. If anyone has any info or potentially a reupload of it, I'd really appreciate it
r/benfolds • u/voiceboxned • 11d ago
This went live on Rough Trade today: https://www.roughtrade.com/en-us/product/ben-folds/rockin-the-suburbs-record-store-day-black-friday-2026-rb
r/benfolds • u/aahelpaa • 14d ago
Came across the donation performance where the last song (one angry dwarf) is played at like 2.5 times speed. I loooove that shit. Any other come to mind? I’d love to see more like it.
r/benfolds • u/Redbeard_Rum • 15d ago
r/benfolds • u/SilverStreetYT • 20d ago
A big thanks to StonePac for this, it's leagues better than the VHS rips we had previously.
r/benfolds • u/Hatben • 20d ago
r/benfolds • u/Vondis • 21d ago
Its now been pushed from 9/4 to 9/25 to now mid October. Why can't Capital Records get their shit together?
r/benfolds • u/NFSF1McLaren • 26d ago
r/benfolds • u/rus5ticles • 26d ago
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Any Ben Folds/Five fans local to the area? Worth checking out!
r/benfolds • u/not_tfb • 28d ago
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hi party people. i'm resurrecting the reddit account i haven't used since high school cos i figured this should go somewhere semi-private and tucked away but still appreciated. the version i put up publicly on youtube was clean because i feared i was being watched by some corporations.
i saw ben with my mother last year & in a twist, she had her phone out more than i did, but she started recording moments before ben broke the pedal tower and she knew to keep it rolling. have at it. fun part starts @ 1:03
r/benfolds • u/TheRedia • 28d ago
Has anyone picked up the 30th anniversary of BF5 s/t vinyl? I just received mine and the record plays slightly fast. I have calibrated my turntable and checked the flutter and wow. Anyone else?
r/benfolds • u/NFSF1McLaren • 29d ago
Hope you guys enjoy despite it's faults.
r/benfolds • u/Heavy_Internet3112 • 29d ago
r/benfolds • u/Evan64m • 29d ago
My local record store got a used copy in but I just bought Way to Normal the other day. I’d only buy it now if I could confirm those files might still work cause they’re easily the most interesting part about the package to me.
r/benfolds • u/Neg_Crepe • 29d ago
Hello everyone,
I thought I’d ask this community if they know why it’s so hard to get it in Canada?
I preordered it from a local shop here, and they still haven’t received their stock. They told me they’ve ordered it but don’t know when it will arrive.
I’ve looked online, and other shops seem to be in a similar situation. One is saying they’ll receive it on September 25th.
Any ideas about what’s happening?
Thanks
r/benfolds • u/KaneKaese • Sep 16 '26
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ben Folds Five and the Japanese release of their 30th anniversary album on September 18, Tokyo FM aired a special 25-minute program. If you’re in Japan or have a Japanese VPN, you can listen to the program on Radiko until September 23 via this link: https://radiko.jp/share/?sid=FMT&t=20260916151007
The program hosts discuss just how popular the band was in Japan 30 years ago, so it might be fun to listen to with an AI translator.
Note: Tokyo FM is not Inter FM, for which Ben produced the radio jingle. Inter FM changed its frequency from 76.1 to 89.7 and became part of the Tokyo FM group.
The Japanese Edition of Ben Folds Five (30th Anniversary) includes a Japanese translation of the liner notes written by Ben, the lyrics, and a Japanese translation of the lyrics. As a first-print bonus, it also includes a random selection of two sticker sheets featuring artworks from the “BACK TO 90s ROCK” album covers.
https://store.universal-music.co.jp/collections/ben-folds-five/products/uicy16505