''Rockin' the Suburbs'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter

Ben Folds Benjamin Scott Folds (born September 12, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After playing in several small independent bands throughout the late 80s and into the early 90s, Folds came to prominence as the f ...

released on September 11, 2001, after Folds disbanded his group

Ben Folds Five Ben Folds Five was an American alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprised Ben Folds (lead vocals, piano), Robert Sledge (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Darren Jessee (drums, backing vocals). Th ...

. ''Rockin' the Suburbs'' was recorded in

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, Australia, where Folds was living at the time. He performed most of the instruments and vocals. Two singles from the album were released, " Rockin' the Suburbs", and " Still Fighting It". "Rockin' the Suburbs" is Folds' only single to make ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks between 1988 and 2009, and Alternative Songs between 2009 and 2020) is a music chart published in the American magazine ''Billboard'' since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-playe ...

chart, peaking there at number 28 in September 2001. The album peaked at number 42 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart, and at number 11 on the Top Internet Albums chart. A remake of the title track featuring

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1966 debut as the captain of the starship USS Enterpri ...

appeared in the

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

for the 2006 film ''

Over the Hedge ''Over the Hedge'' is a 2006 American animated heist comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG. Based on the comic strip of the same name, the film was directed by Tim Johnson and Karey Kirkpatrick from a screenplay by Len Blum, ...

'', which stars Shatner as an opossum named Ozzie.

Track listing

Track notes

According to Folds, "Not the Same" is based on a true story of a person he knew who, under the influence of

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

, climbed a tree at a party hosted by

Darren Jessee Darren Michael Jessee (born April 8, 1971) is an American drummer and singer-songwriter who was the drummer in the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five. He has also worked as an instrumentalist for Sharon Van Etten and Hiss Golden Messenger a ...

(not

Robert Sledge Robert Ewell Sledge (born March 9, 1968) is an American musician. He played bass guitar in the alternative rock trio Ben Folds Five. Biography Robert Sledge began playing bass guitar at the age of eleven. His brother was playing guitar at his ...

, as the song states), stayed in the tree overnight, and when he came down the next morning was a

born-again Christian To be born again, or to experience the new birth, is a phrase, particularly in evangelical Christianity, that refers to a "spiritual rebirth", or a regeneration of the human spirit. In contrast to one's physical birth, being "born again" is d ...

. Folds used Sledge's name instead of Jessee's in the lyrics because he thought "it sounded better". Folds performed "Gone" with Street Corner Symphony on the finale of Season 2 of ''

The Sing-Off ''The Sing-Off'' is an American television singing competition featuring a cappella groups. It debuted on NBC on December 14, 2009, and was produced by Sony Pictures Television and Outlaw Productions, with Mark Burnett's One Three Media (for a t ...

'' and performed "Not the Same" with the Dartmouth Aires on the finale of Season 3. " Still Fighting It" is a bittersweet ode to the pain of adolescence dedicated to his son Louis. He later wrote an accompanying song for his daughter Gracie, which he named after her and included on his 2005 album '' Songs for Silverman''. During live performances, he frequently plays the two songs together. " Rockin' the Suburbs" parodies the

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...

style of

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, originally formed in 1993 by James Shaffer, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald Arvizu, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu and David Silveria, who were members of the band ...

and

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to Rage) was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1991. It consisted of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim ...

. Folds stated of the song "I am taking the piss out of the whole scene, especially the followers." Ben Folds stated that "Hiro's Song" was actually one of his favorites from the album, stating "I also did not use a song called "Hiro" about a Japanese guy. That is actually one of my favorite songs of the album. But it didn’t sequence. I like songs about names and characters. Because people are interesting." Of "Zak and Sara," Folds said, "I was thinking of these kids growing up in the Midwest. A 16 year old boy plays guitar and his girlfriend has to sit and watch him play all day. She just buzzes there and listens like she had nothing better to do. Maybe the girl is also writing songs and she has this idea in her of music that will happen in 20 years time. She really has some good ideas. But she is not saying anything, cause she is supposed to listen to her boyfriend. And he is playing music that was written 20 years ago."

Personnel

Credits adapted from album’s liner notes. *

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, keyboards,

guitars The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Richard Fortus – additional guitar (tracks 3, 10) * Larry Corbett –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

(track 5) * DJ Swamp – additional beats (track 10) * Frally Hynes – additional vocals (track 4) * John McCrea – additional vocals (track 5) * John Mark Painter – strings conductor and arranger

Production

* Producers: Ben Folds,

Ben Grosse Ben Grosse is an American record producer and mixer. Grosse has mixed and produce albums for numerous music industry acts, primary in the heavy metal and hard rock genres. His credits include Dream Theater, Marilyn Manson, Sevendust, Disturbe ...

* Recording: Ben Grosse, Andrew R. Wallace * Mixing: Ben Grosse * Additional Engineers: Blumpy, Cameron Webb * Assistant Engineers: Rick Behrens, Aaron Lepley, Chuck Bailey, Justin Pynes, Uly Noriega, Dale Lawtone * Programming: Ben Grosse, Andrew R. Wallace, Blumpy, Cameron Webb, John Vitale * Programming Engineer: Andrew R. Wallace * Mastering:

Ted Jensen Ted Jensen (born September 19, 1954) is an American mastering engineer, known for having mastered many recordings, including the Eagles' '' Hotel California'', Green Day's '' American Idiot'' and Norah Jones' ''Come Away with Me''. Early life ...

Charts

Album

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rockin' The Suburbs Ben Folds albums 2001 debut albums Epic Records albums Albums produced by Ben Folds