Ben Folds sits in a round interior room in a River North office, fingers gliding across a borrowed, early 1970s Wurlitzer electric piano.
He is singing “Say Yes,” one of the finest songs written by the late Elliott Smith, a singer-songwriter revered by his peers and many music aficionados but little known to the general public.
Two video cameras track Folds’ face and hands. A sound guy is outside, monitoring the proceedings in an adjacent cubicle. And it seems that most of the Chicago staff of the satirical newspaper The Onion has gathered by the unusual room’s door to listen. Folds, perhaps best known for the song “Brick” and his Ben Folds Five trio, is the most famous performer yet to record a tune for the Onion A.V. Club’s “Undercover” video series.
Folds finishes his first take of the song, a lilting, wistful examination of a relationship and its “morning after,” and it sounds great. Except to the musician.
“Can I hit it one more time?” he asks. “Sometimes you hit keys on this thing that just don’t play. Not that that’s why I (messed) up.”
“Undercover” is the latest, and one of the more creative, entries in the burgeoning world of casual, online music video series. Prominent among them are NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the Black Cab Sessions out of London (“one song, one take, one cab”) and the Take-Away Shows, from Paris.
In Chicago, editors for A.V. Club, the Onion’s fact-based arts and entertainment section, present visiting artists with a list of 25 songs they’ve decided they want to see covered, then record each performance in the room and post it on avclub.com, one video per week, through August.
First Starbucks and now Budweiser sponsor the series, which unfolds almost like a mystery: “Who will cover Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’?” asks the site. It’s a question that will be answered in the offices two days later — when a hot indie band out of Brooklyn comes in to play it — but won’t be answered for the public until probably a month from now, when that video goes up.
The series spotlights a developing promotional ecosystem that sees musicians not only doing interviews with radio stations and the like, but also leaving behind a bit of exclusive content that the hosts can feature on their Web sites.
Sites are asking themselves: “How can we not just re-post content? How can we be a destination?” says James Bailey, national publicity manager for North Carolina-based Yep Roc Records. “The biggest, most obvious answer to that is to have exclusive content.”
At the same time, artists and labels are fighting to get their material heard amid the multitude of choices people now have.
Bailey cites an example: He just had Yep Roc artist Josh Rouse cover The Cult’s “Wildflower” for Billboard as part of a series of cover songs the New York-based music-industry magazine is featuring on its Web site.
“It’s a give and take,” Bailey says. Billboard gets fresh material for its branded, sponsored feature. Rouse gets a well-done bit of video (and audio) Yep Roc can add to its promotional materials or embed on its own site.
“Everybody scratches the other side’s back,” Bailey says.
Another Yep Roc artist is veteran LA punker John Doe (of X). Doe, who will play Friday at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn with X’s long-running neo-country offshoot The Knitters, says he has seen an evolution in what is asked of artists in promoting their work.
“Twenty years ago you would come for an interview,” he says. “Ten years ago people would ask if you’d (also) sing a song, and you could either agree or decline. Now you’re expected to.”
“I’m fine with that,” he adds. “In general, I think more is better, but you still have to be careful not to put out crap. It’s kind of a challenge to keep yourself in people’s mind, but not just be annoying.”
And, he cautions, the new, digital tools of self-promotion can get in the way of what’s important. “Too many bands have their Facebook page before they have any good songs,” Doe says.
To “bump up” attention for its recently released first full record, “Born and Thrown on a Hook,” the up-and-coming Philadelphia band Drink Up Buttercup recorded a “purposely home-video-looking” version of each of the 12 songs and released them on their Web site, countdown-style, one song per week, until the record came out in late March.
“A magazine used to sit on a table for a month,” says frontman Jim Harvey. “When you’re posted on a blog, you’re up on top for half an hour, then it falls out. You want to have as much content as you can out there. The more times you do that, the more visibility your band is going to get.”
If there is a downside to the on-site recordings, it’s that Drink Up Buttercup is a high-energy live act, and “it’s kind of hard to capture that energy when you’re in, like, a sterile room without any audience or booze or anything,” Harvey says.
Back at the offices the Onion’s business operations share with A.V. Club’s editorial workers, Folds records a take of “Say Yes” that he likes. “All right,” he says. “Cool.”
The acoustics? “Very round,” he says. “Slightly bright. The piano is kind of a hunk of (junk), but we bonded.”
After signing his name on the room’s wall, along with the song he performed and a line drawing of a piano, he notes that he’s actually gotten “pickier” lately about which on-site recordings he’ll do.
“In my career, I’ve done gazillions,” Folds says. “That’s not really a number, as you know, but that’s as accurate as I can get.”
He’s frequently impressed by them, despite their “throwaway nature.” “I’m often presented with recordings I’ve done in someone’s office to approve for some kind of charity record or something. And sometimes I’m amazed how real and good those recordings are.
“They’re done quickly; they’re not thought about. That’s the way great music of the era of the 78s and old blues and wire recordings were done. And I don’t see any difference, so I’m really happy.”
He agreed to be a part of “Undercover” because he liked the concept (and actually used to play that Smith song in concert) and because he feels an affinity for the publication.
A.V. Club was hoping that might be the case when it thought up the “Undercover” idea but wasn’t completely sure.
“I like to say this is five totally unoriginal ideas mashed into one semi-original idea,” says Josh Modell, A.V. Club’s editor-in-chief.
“Just having a band come in and play, lots of people do that. Having a band come in and do a cover, lots of people do that. The thing that made me excited was coming up with the game concept.”
Bands have to choose from the songs on the list — selected for quality, interest and a certain lack of obviousness — and can only pick ones that have not yet been spoken for. Modell figured Starship’s “We Built This City” might be the last to go, but it was actually snapped up early, by the band Cursive.
“They tore it up,” Modell says. “Our (Web site) commenters hated it. I loved it.”
The videos are another way the site tries to bond with readers, he says: “It’s not like all of a sudden we have a million viewers, but people are really digging it.”
Other highlights have included Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve, doing Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City” and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists playing Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
The Folds video went up Tuesday and, within a day, had drawn 130 comments.
“Good job, Ben Folds, you (expletive) hipster, you,” one commenter said.
“It’s my favorite Elliott Smith song, covered by one of my least favorite artists,” said another. “And he did pretty OK with it. I approve.”
Ben%20Folds%20covers%20Elliott%20Smith
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