Following a MySpace-sponsored reunion show more than three years ago and last year’s Folds box set containing some unreleased material, Ben Folds Five is reuniting for its first album since 1999. You can check out Ben Folds’ Twitter for updates on the story.
This information is all that was contained in something like a press release that Sony Music circulated yesterday, save for one unfortunate screen shot—of an Internet Explorer window, with a Tweet, containing a picture of the band in the studio. (C’mon, intern, right click, “Save as…”) Folds, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee are set to record through March. Folds said via Twitter that he anticipates a spring release. Congrats, Five, on the laziest album announcement ever.
It’s been an uneven few years for Folds, who sounds more and more like just another guy playing a piano. He recorded an album with author Nick Hornby (weird, but sort of cool) and released an LP of college a cappella groups covering his songs (ha!). Perhaps surrounding himself with a real band is just what he needs.
In any case, ’90s band reunions couldn’t be hotter right now (read: not cool, if you want), so they stand to make some solid bank. The album will be the band’s fourth LP and their first since The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.