BEN KWELLER

'Ben Kweller' (born 16 June 1981, San Francisco, California) is an American rock musician.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Radish

Solo career

Trivia

Discography

Self-released EPs

Albums

EPs

Singles

Other releases

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Ben Kweller was raised in Greenville, Texas,[1] and was exposed to music at a very young age by his father Howie. He began playing drums at age seven (so Howie had a drummer to play guitar with), and then took up guitar and piano. At age nine, he entered a songwriting contest sponsored by Billboard magazine and won honorable mention.[2] In 1993 Kweller became friends with another young local musician, drummer John Kent, and the two formed a band, which they named Radish. Radish played locally in and around Greenville and recorded two independent releases, ''Dizzy'' and ''Hello'' with Martin Baird at Verge Music Works recording studio in Dallas, Texas.

Radish

Guitarist Nils Lofgren, an old friend of Howie Kweller's, was impressed with Radish and recommended them to Roger Greenawalt, who had produced Lofgren's most recent album at the time, ''Damaged Goods''. Greenawalt, who had also suggested the addition of bassist Bryan Blur to the lineup, took Radish into a studio where they recorded a demo tape which was subsequently shopped around to record labels nationwide, who were looking for ''"the next Nirvana"''. After an unexpected bidding war, Ben Kweller, at the age of 15, and Radish were signed to Mercury Records. Regardless of a much-hyped beginning, which included appearances on ''The Weird Al Show'', ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' and ''Late Show with David Letterman'', Radish failed to strike big success with its first major-label record ''Restraining Bolt'', despite a cult following in England, where the band toured several times (including opening a day of the Main Stage at the 1997 Reading Festival), and released two singles. In 1998 Radish went to Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama to record the follow-up to ''Restraining Bolt'', provisionally titled ''Discount Fireworks'' and then retitled ''Sha Sha'' after the song of the same name. Recorded with producer Bryce Goggin, the album was never released, and Mercury dropped Radish from its roster.

Solo career

At age 19, Ben Kweller moved to New York with his girlfriend Liz Smith, where he began his solo career. He played acoustic shows and self-released four EPs, comprising some of the unreleased Radish ''Discount Fireworks'' recordings and other songs recorded in his apartment on a laptop computer. It was one of these EPs, ''Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller'', that caught the attention of Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, and Dando invited Kweller out on tour with him, playing across America and Europe.
In 2001 Ben Kweller signed to ATO Records, and released a 5-track EP entitled ''EP Phone Home''. In March 2002, ''Sha Sha'', Kweller's first solo studio LP was released. ''Sha Sha'' included the very radio-friendly and popular single "Wasted & Ready". The title track "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)" reconciles his past career efforts with Radish and the difficulty of finding an identity as a 20-year-old artist beginning a musical career for the second time. The record kept many of the familiar sounds of Nirvana, but also worked in other pop music influences such as Weezer [3] and Ben Folds. The album grew in popularity with a grassroots effort based on his website and a promotion group called TeamBK, which promoted via word-of-mouth advertising. To support the release of the album and EP, he put together a live band, initially comprising Josh Lattanzi on bass, Fred Eltringham on drums, and Mike Stroud on guitar and keyboards.

In 2003, Kweller toured Australia with Ben Folds and Ben Lee as The Bens. [4] The trio produced an eponymous four-song EP, with each member taking lead vocals on one song, and a final song in which they all contributed vocals. In an interview on October 14 2006 Ben hinted that The Bens may do another album.
''On My Way'' (2004), Kweller's second LP, went in a new direction. The album, produced by Ethan Johns, was recorded 'live' - there were limited overdubs and no use of headphones. [5] After the release of On My Way, Kweller embarked on more touring, playing to his largest audiences ever, including a US tour co-headlining with Death Cab for Cutie [6]. By this point, the lineup of his live band had changed to include John Kent on drums and Jason Roberts on guitar and keyboards, after Mike Stroud left to concentrate on his own band Ratatat and Fred Eltringham left to play drums in The Wallflowers.
In 2006 he recorded his third LP, ''Ben Kweller'' with producer Gil Norton [7]. Unlike the previous studio albums, Kweller played all the instruments on this record himself.[8] Kweller continued to tour to support his self-titled album, and expanded his band into a five piece, which grew to include Dan Horne on bass, Mark Stepro on drums, Jay Barclay on guitar and organ, and Jason Roberts on lead guitar. Kweller continued to play guitar and piano on this tour, but it also gave him the opportunity to just sing on certain songs. The Canadian group, the Sam Roberts Band, and New York based HYMNS, opened for Kweller. Roberts did double duty on this tour, playing guitar for his band HYMNS, and playing keyboards, guitar and glockenspiel with Kweller.
His tie-in "Trio on the Train Track Tour" included a new live band comprising Chris Morrissey on bass, vocals & keyboard and Mark Stepro on drums, vocals, glockenspiel, percussion & "whatever else he feels like" during appearances in the United States. During the Australian leg of the tour, the band was comprised of Jay Barclay on guitar, keyboard & vocals, Dan Horne on bass & vocals, and Mark Stepro continuing his previous roles. [9]

Trivia

★ New Jersey pop-punk band The Ergs! released ''Ben Kweller EP'' (2002). It includes a song called "Ben Kweller".

★ Guster's album Keep it Together features Kweller on lead vocals in the song, "I Hope Tomorrow is Like Today".

★ Rapper Talib Kweli sampled Kweller's "In Other Words," without permission, for his song "Ms. Hill". In part 7 of Kweller's video podcast series "One Minute Pop Song," Kweller said he found Kweli's use of the song "a little fucked up." Link to episode

★ At the 2006 Austin City Limits Music Festival, Kweller was plagued by a bloody nose for the entirety of his set. After covering his guitar in blood, he attempted to stop the flow by inserting a tampon, which expanded painfully during a performance of "This Is War". He then played "Falling" at the piano also covering it in blood and was forced to end the set early. ^{[1] [2]}

★ Is left handed, but plays the guitar right handed.

★ Kweller will be touring with Guster during the summer of 2007.

Discography

Self-released EPs

★ ''Melange'', 1999

★ ''Sha Sha'', 2000

★ ''Bromeo'', 2000

★ ''Freak Out, It's Ben Kweller'', 2000

Albums

★ ''Sha Sha'', 2002

★ ''On My Way'', 2004

★ ''Ben Kweller'', 2006

EPs

★ ''EP Phone Home'', 2001

★ ''Sundress'', 2006

Singles

★ "Wasted & Ready", 2002

★ "Commerce, TX", 2003

★ "Falling", 2003

★ "The Rules", 2004

★ "Sundress", 2006

★ "Penny On The Train Track", 2006

Other releases

★ '' : Compilation track, 2001

★ ''This Bird Has Flown - A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul'' : Wait

★ ''Stubbs The Zombie'' : A cover compilation of hits from the 1950s : Lollipop

★ "The Bens with Ben Folds and Ben Lee

References

1. Incident photo at Blogcritics.org
2. Rolling Stone review ACL performance

External links

★ Official website

★ Official Ben Kweller Street Team on Fancorps.com

★ Live Performances and Interview on Maniatv.com

★ Daily Ben - Livejournal Community

★ At YouTube

★ Ben Kweller live on WOXY.com, October 13, 2006

★ Comprehensive Radish and Ben Kweller discographies at ''Xanthein Archive'' fan site