Ben Kweller

One Liner: Piano heavy indie rock in the Ben Folds vein

Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, indie folk, country rock
Home: Greenville, Texas

Poster Position: n/a - added at the last minute
Day: Friday at 12:45
Both Weekends

Thoughts: I mean, its not like this show isn't stinking tomorrow.  But whatever, pretty cool of the Fest to replace a late no show so quickly.  Lewis Capaldi bails, and ol' Ben Kweller jumps into his slot.

I like Kweller.  I forget how we happened upon him, but my wife and I found his album Sha Sha many years ago and liked it a lot.  Kind of a Ben Folds meets Weezer kind of sound.  Here is his top song, "Wasted & Ready," with 1.2 million streams.

Oooh, is that a french horn in there at the start?  I love when this one kicks in, that is where the Weezer comparison comes from.  Chug-a-lug, baby.  Although, the sound on that video is freaking terrible.  Recorded in an old can of beans!  Weird that is shared from his official YouTube account when it looks and sounds like turd.  The version from the studio is much better.  If that song wasn't on the soundtrack to the ninth American Pie movie, then they missed an opportunity.

That album is from 2002, and its very good.  "How It Should B," that tune, "Family Tree," and "Falling" are all very good tunes.  Wait, did I see this guy play an ACL taping?  I can't come up with how I originally listened to him. Maybe we say a taping on KLRU?  Whatever.  I've seen this guy play music before and he sounds good.

Oh, his Wikipedia says that he and his family (wife and two sons) moved to Austin.  I wonder if he really just got the call, like Thursday morning, to come and jam out on Friday afternoon.  Would be pretty wild.  He was in a band called Radish for several years before going out on his solo deal.  I like that band name.

His 2004 album rings zero bells for me.  One tune has more than 400k streams, but I don't recognize "On My Way" at all.  But, its a nice little strummed tune with good lyrics that are pretty odd.  I don't remember buying it, but I've heard the songs on 2006's Ben Kweller a number of times.  The top track on there is "Sundress," with 1.6 million streams.

Why do his videos all look like they were shot with the camera from Back to the Future after the terrorists shot it?  Seriously.  He was signed to a real label, do they not have an iPhone he can use to make better videos?

Then he's got a 2009 album called Changing Horses that I had never heard until just now.  Its a very country sound, and it actually matches his voice and style really well.  I dig it.  He apparently has another album called Go Fly a Kite, but it isn't on Spotify, so as far as I'm concerned it doesn't exist.  Fake news.

In a weird detour from the norm, his Wikipedia entry actually has an entire section called "Austin City Limits Performances," which is odd.

• Kweller played the 2003 Austin City Limits Music Festival at the conclusion of his tour, where he played Sha Sha in its entirety.
• He returned to the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2004 when he performed on the Bank of America stage.
• As part of his 2006 tour, Kweller played the Austin City Limits Music Festival, where he was plagued by a severe nosebleed for the entirety of his set. After covering his guitar in blood, he attempted to stop the flow by inserting a travel-size tampon thrown onto the stage by a fan, which expanded painfully during a performance of "This Is War". After attempting to play "Falling" at a piano which he also covered in blood, Kweller was forced to end the set early.
• In spring of 2007, Kweller co-headlined with his label-mates Gomez. He continued through the summer with his own string of headlining dates which eventually ended at ACL fest. This time, he did not get a bloody nose; however, commemorative T-shirts were sold at the merchandise booth with fake blood stains that said "ACL 2007: The return of Ben Kweller".

So, I gotta hunt for that video, right?

Welp, there you go.  Shoved a damn tampon up his nose and just kept jamming.  What a weird thing.  Hopefully no big cocaine binges for him this year!  Or else we'll get an announcement tomorrow at noon that Ben Kweller has been replaced by Nakia!