BEN FOLDS FIVE, the groundbreaking pop trio who changed the course of indie rock in the mid-1990s, is releasing THE SOUND OF THE LIFE OF THE MIND, the group's first album of new music in 13 years. The music's genesis took place via a successful grassroots direct-to-fans campaign on PledgeMusic, where artists and fans work together with charities to create albums and other projects.
A portion of the funds generated by album sales, and other BFF items ordered by fans through PledgeMusic, will be used to support Music Education and Music Therapy, a charity personally chosen by Ben Folds Five. PledgeMusic builds a charitable component into each of the campaigns running under its auspices.
Ben Folds Five -- Ben Folds (piano), Robert Sledge (bass) and Darren Jessee (drums)-- launched in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1994. The trio's high energy gigs garnering an intensely loyal fanbase, BFF signed first with an indie before a move to the majors wrought 1997's watershed WHATEVER AND EVER AMEN. A slice of pure pop perfection, the album introduced the ballad Brick, broke the band commercially and sold more than two million copies worldwide. BFF recorded its last album, 1999's THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF REINHOLD MESSNER, which included the single Army, before disbanding in 2000. (The trio reunited for a one-off live performance of THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF REINHOLD MESSNER on MySpace in 2008).
In 2011, the original three members of Ben Folds Five came together to record three new studio tracks for THE BEST IMITATION OF MYSELF: A RETROSPECTIVE, a career-spanning Ben Folds anthology. The magic rekindled in the new tracks, BFF gave its first concert in more than a decade to a spellbound audience at New York's Mountain Jam Festival on June 2, 2012. In the wake of the group's triumphal return at Mountain Jam, the group performed a short run of key US summer festival dates including Bonnaroo, Milwaukee Summerfest, and Old St. Patrick's Church Block Party in Chicago.