Discography

Look Ma, No Drums!
- $10 - [01/02] Studio rat and beat poet Ben Bean has thrown his considerable talents behind this musical project, which takes its listeners on a journey they are not likely to forget. Images and sounds (some unfamiliar) arrive at top speed from all sides, defying easy explanation. The atmospheric songs trailblaze new instrumental combinations - how about kazoo, washboard and feet? As Bean himself said, "Knowledge in the hands of carefree and irresponsible musicians often produces strange consequences." Does it ever!
Spontaneous writing takes center stage here, but profound nuggets are often dropped unexpectedly into the listener's lap. His lyrics are clearly the work of a fertile imagination, a mind steeped in vivid imagery overflowing with brilliant couplets and cheeky rhymes. What does it all mean? Bean again: "Though I appreciate the interest of my explicators, I relish the knowledge that my ambiguous metaphors leave me open to a diversity of interpretations." Besides being an accomplished wordsmith, he is also blessed with an engaging and mature singing voice, making this album a real pleasure. And did we mention he plays a rainstick? Yes, he plays a rainstick. [S.S.]
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"Unrequited Solipsism" was, at first, the result of a Creative Writing assignment during bean's Wheaton College days. He wrote the lyrics the night before handing in the poem, and later decided to read them aloud at one of Wheaton's famous off-campus Chai House events. Warmly received after the first reading, bean was accompanied by Mark Williams on guitar and Jeff Iudicello on a drum (which obviously does not appear on 'Look Ma, No Drums') for his next reading. Add a rainstick and more of the Moog, and you have a dry, hypnotic portrait of the desert in bean's spiritual wanderings. |
CD: Look Ma, No Drums!
Label: Ground Vinyl Records
Credits: (bean) |
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A song about a carefree anarchist who knows what the results of his actions may be, but is not staunted by his inhibitions. The words he sings aloud may refer to explosives and crime, but could he really be singing about meeting a new woman - the one potential threat to a man's blissful state of consciousness? bean obviously has a lot of baggage, and the anarchist in this piece represents his struggle for freedom from the oppressive society around him, a society in which values have been orphaned by dead idols, and Money is now god. |
CD: Look Ma, No Drums!
Label: Ground Vinyl Records
Credits: (bean) |
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...a little ditty from the city of Chester, during bean's gig as a worker tearing down the walls of an old mall to convert it into a coffee-roasting room. Working with his cousin Jordan and a couple of shady characters from the city, bean was inspired by co-laborer Mel to write a song about someone who puts the "blue" in "blue collar"... Melvin is currently in prison for crimes we cannot mention. |
CD: Look Ma, No Drums!
Label: Ground Vinyl Records
Credits: (bean) |
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