Pitchfork: Ben Folds to Release Album in April

Having just stunned the music world by producing a William Shatner record that one can listen to twice without wanting to chew one's own ears off, Ben Folds is getting ready to release Songs For Silverman, his second full album since the dissolution of Ben Folds Five, on April 26. The record will be almost entirely different from the three Internet-released EPs that have acted as teasers for it, with only one song making a reappearance-- "Give Judy My Notice", re-recorded for Silverman.

Folds went into detail in an interview with Rolling Stone about one song: "Late", written in memory of Elliott Smith. "I was playing all the same shitholes he was," Folds said. "The lyrics of the song are about people who are sharing your experience too-- 'Oh, Elliott Smith did this club last night, and he sat in that same room and read all the shit about dicks and asses on the wall.' Poets like to talk about how they look up and see the same stars, and I think rock musicians all look up and see the same dicks on the walls. I played [basketball] with him and Beck one time, and Elliott was just fucking throwing elbows like there was no tomorrow." Wait, Ben, can you go back to the thing about the wall-mounted penises? We're not totally clear on that part.

Most of the record-- nine songs-- were initially recorded early last year, but for whatever reason, Folds scrapped the original tapes and recorded all of the final version of Silverman in Nashville during a single six-week Nashville stay last fall. The tracklist:

01 Bastard
02 You To Thank
03 Jesusland
04 Landed
05 Gracie
06 Trusted
07 Give Judy My Notice
08 Late
09 Sentimental Guy
10 Time
11 Prison Food

And just to make sure expectations for the album are nice and low, Folds brought Weird Al Yankovic in to sing backing vocals on "Time". A handful of American concert dates will precede the album's release, and two weeks in Europe will follow it:

01-27 Durham, NC - Duke University
01-28 Carlisle, PA - Dickinson College
01-29 Syracuse, NY - Syracuse University
02-10 Norman, OK - University Of Uklahoma
02-12 Crawfordsville, IN - Wabash College
02-17 Storrs, CT - University of Connecticut
04-24 Millersville, PA - Millersville University
05-31 London, England - Hammersmith Apollo
06-01 London, England - Barbican
06-02 Brighton, England - The Dome
06-04 Berlin, Germany - Columbia Halle
06-05 Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
06-07 Glasgow, Scotland - Royal Concert Hall
06-08 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street
06-10 Southampton, England - Guild Hall
06-11 Manchester, England - Lowry
06-13 Sheffield, England - Octagon
06-14 Leicester, England - De Montford Hall
06-16 Cambridge, England - Corn Exchange
06-17 Warwick, England - Arts Centre