Hotel Lights: Whatever happened to the rest of Ben Folds Five and whatever and amen

Ben Folds Five. Now there was a good band. Like Cold Play but with more sweat and vigor. Like Elton John without the funny clothes and cutesy ballads.

But ol' Folds married an Aussie and moved Down Under (they grow the best women down there, don'tcha know), leaving his band and country behind. He continued to pump out great material -- a couple of solo albums, a live album, various online-only EPs, singles, experiments, and weirdness (the Three Bens, anyone?) -- but seemingly avoids the nonstop full-on glare that the global media has to offer. No über-popstar status for Folds, not when he can stay indie, quirky, and relevant without totally giving up on the cash that a major label has to offer. Famous-but-not-too-famous seems right up his alley.

Which is fine by me, although I would like to see him do a follow up to his "Fear of Pop, Volume 1" brilliant space oddity album that featured your favorite actor and mine, William Shatner.

(Actually, Ben Folds produced and played on William Shatner's crowning musical achievement, Has Been in 2004, so let's not stress, eh? And while I'm on the subject, I should say, in all earnestness, that Has Been is staggering. Grand. Magnifico. Just listen to the first track -- a Shatner duet with pop-punk icon Joe Jackson, covering Pulp's "Common People" -- and try not to dance like a madman, even if you loath Star Trek. It's that damn good. Listen to it with headphones for pure stereophonic bliss. Even the Pitchfork snobs are in awe.)



Still, I sometimes wonder what happens to the less famous members of eponymous bands when their fearless front men go off on their own. What happened to the Stooges in those years without Iggy Pop? Where went the Attractions and the Revolution without Elvis Costello and Prince? And what happened to the two men who weren't Ben Folds that helped make up the Ben Folds Five trio?

That last question I can kinda answer: bassist Robert Sledge moved back to North Carolina where he's supposedly playing with a couple of different bands and helping produce local acts; at one point he belonged to Nut Magnet with ex-Squirrel Nut Zippers Tom Maxwell and Ken Mosher; later he joined International Orange as a bassist-songwriter (alongside musicians Snuzz, Django Haskins, and Jason Fagg), but that band broke up in 2004. Drummer Darren Jessee has formed a smooth new band of his own, the Hotel Lights: the band is obscure right now, but their songs are kinda catchy. If you like Ben Folds and mellow indie guitar pop, then you'll dig the Hotel Lights.


I've written the following Hotel Lights article with a friend of mine. We plan on posting it to Wikipedia later, and Wikipedia can claim all rights to it... but you, dear readers, get the first look:


Hotel Lights

Indie pop band Hotel Lights was founded by Darren Jessee in 2003 (approximately) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina -- the city where, not coincidentally, Ben Folds Five originally formed in 1994 as a trio consisting of Jessee, songwriter-pianist Ben Folds, and bassist Robert Sledge, along with various songwriting partners.

Jessee, the drummer and one of the principal songwriters for Ben Folds Five, initially pursued a solo career as a singer-songwriter in New York City after BFF broke up in 2000. However, seeking to flesh out the material that he'd been developing on his own, he then decided to create a full-fledged band, Remover, which was quickly renamed Hotel Lights.

On the band's website, Jessee obliquely describes the concept behind the band's name by saying, "...when you see hotel lights in the distance you feel like 'yeah, I'm almost there', but when you stand in the bathroom and turn on the hotel lights, they are fluorescent and you see every scar."

The band's original lineup consisted of Jessee on lead vocals and guitar, former Archers of Loaf drummer Mark Price on drums, Roger Gupton on bass and vocals, and Chris Badger playing keyboards and guitar. Sound engineer Alan Weatherhead (The Comas, Sparklehorse, Camper Van Beethoven, Mary Timony) recorded the band's first album and their follow-up EP; he also performs pedal steel and guitar with Hotel Lights on occasion. Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and others have also made sonic contributions.

As of 2005, the band had not been signed by a major label and was distributing their albums primarily through indie music retailer CD Baby, which files the band under the heading of "alt pop songs, acoustic guitar, lush keyboards." The official band website draws comparisons between Hotel Lights and Nick Drake, Court and Spark, and The Band.

Hotel Lights had its first full-length release in the autumn of 2004. The self-titled album -- recorded at Sound of Music studios in Richmond, VA -- contained the following tracks (all copyrighted by Hair Sucker Songs):

1. You Come and I Go
2. A.m. Slow Golden Hit
3. Miles Behind Me
4. I Am a Train
5. Small Town Shit
6. What You Meant
7. Follow Through
8. Stumblin' Home Winter Blues
9. Marvelous Truth
10. The Mumbling Years
11. Anatole
12. Motionless
13. Love to Try


Related Links:

Official Hotel Lights band page

CD Baby Hotel Lights band page

Chris Parker's Independent Weekly "Homebrew" album review

Jason Warburg's Daily Vault album review

Darren Jessee's home page

Kitchen Mastering studios discusses the mastering of the 2005 Hotel Lights EP

Darren Jessee info is revealed in "Joey's Guide to Ben Folds Five B-Sides and Rarities"

Done Waiting's Darren Jessee update, "What's Up, Darren Jessee, Former Drummer of Ben Folds Five?"

Info on the lost Ben Folds/Darren Jessee collaboration, "Wandering," now part of the Ben Folds Speed Graphic EP.

Writing the Hand That Feeds You

A list of resources for fiction writers, journalists, and other media mavens....

When I’m looking for work, I always visit these sites first:

Ed2010 (for magazine/newspaper advice, jobs, and gossip)
Mandy.com (for film and TV work)
MediaBistro (for an inside look at the publishing trenches. And lots of jobs.)

Now, to find the best media jobs, it’s handy if you’re:

(a) Married to a hotshot movie producer, media executive, magazine/book editor, or publisher.
(b) The offspring of someone rich or famous.
(c) The graduate of a high-profile school with a good alumni network. (Think: Harvard).
(d) The friend of someone in the industry.

If not, it’s time to put your nose to the grindstone and start setting up search agents at the major job banks, like Monster.com, CareerBuilder, and HotJobs, which will deliver career opportunities to your inbox on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

The problem: When you apply for a job through one of these sites, you need to submit your resume within milliseconds of it being posted or you’ll get lost in a deluge of 10,000 other resumes. Applying directly through a company’s own corporate job board is the best way to go, and diligently visiting the niche media job sites is another intelligent choice. Of course, without a recommendation from someone inside the company, your prospects won’t be amazing, and the competition is fierce even on the smallest of job boards. But if you’re smart and persistent about the way you find and apply for jobs, eventually you’ll land something of merit.

(Remember, most media companies prefer to hire people they already know, people they drink with, people their brother-in-law recommended to them, or their best interns. All businesses are like this to a certain degree, but in an industry where nonobjective taste applies—“Is this person a good writer, editor, or director?”—the whimsy of the bosses reigns.)

The following are my favorite media job spots online. The emphasis is on writing and editing, but many of these sites are handy for all sorts of film, TV, advertising, public relations, and Internet media work.

The California Journalism Job Bank has lots of jobs for journalists in California.

Craigslist always has writing and film jobs available in it’s various regions and categories, although most of these jobs tend to be of the no- or low-pay variety.

Editor & Publisher Magazine.

College-level students should visit the Institute for Humane Studies for internship, scholarship, and career building tips. The IHS is a very writer-friendly site, with a lot essay contests and the like.

I Want Media (jobs).

In addition to top-notch independent film reporting, indieWire.com has an extensive list of film work in its classifieds section, including screenwriting gigs (much of the work is volunteer-based, so don’t expect riches here).

The IRE Job Center (provided by the Investigative Reporters and Editors organization).

Job Bank USA.

JournalismJobs.com.

Listing the “Nifty Fifty”—the 50 top online job boards for journalists (including the job boards for Knight Ridder and the Associated Press)—as well as other resources for writers, the Detroit Free Press’ Jobs Page is a must visit.

Lit.org (see the Writer’s Wanted category).

The NAA (Newspaper Association of America) sponsors the Newspaper CareerBank.

The National Diversity Newspaper Job Bank (news & media jobs).

SunOasis features a few jobs and lots of tips, links, and resources for writers.

The Society for Professional Journalists (the Careers List requires paid membership).

The Time Warner job board includes the inside scoop on job offers at Time Inc., HBO, New Line Cinema, DC Comics, AOL, etc. (If anyone can get me a job writing and/or editing comic books, I'll give 'em a cookie. A really big cookie. And whiskey. And $20. Thanks.)

The Write Jobs, part of the Writer’s Write network, is a staple of every writer’s job hunt.

And there are a number of websites out there specifically oriented toward film/TV jobs (like the excellent Mandy.com, as well as Crew-Net.com and The Hollywood Creative Directory’s job board), acting jobs (BackStage.com, ActorsAccess.com), and media jobs in general (EntertainmentCareers.net, ShowbizData.com, VarietyCareers.com, and the NY-centric EITC newsletter). Some of the more specialized sites charge membership fees for full access to their classified job ads, but with so many free sites out there, joining a pay site isn’t usually necessary.

Also, try and get your hands on the UTA Job List email, a much-coveted inventory of entertainment jobs and celebrity assistant gigs (mostly in Los Angeles, with a smattering of jobs in NYC and elsewhere). This clandestine list’s origin is supposedly the United Talent Agency, but if you contact UTA directly they’ll say you’re crazy; you have to find a friend who gets the list and have them forward it to you every week (Jesse Albert is noted as the list administrator in the copyright notice at the bottom of the email). This list is the bread and butter of the jet-setting HollywoodMomentum.com professional ass-kisser crowd, and there’s no other way in, unless you’re sleeping with someone at UTA.

When all else fails, cold-call the company you love the most. Pursue your dream like a rabid dog (but don’t be scary or annoying). Find out the names of the people in charge. Track down every detail you can about their likes and dislikes and work habits. Then send in artful letters asking for advice. Submit your resume directly to the top dogs and the human resource department. It may not get you a job, but letters of inquiry and unsolicited resumes rarely hurt.

And forget thee not: The importance of writing a good cover letter should not be underestimated. Be engaging, make yourself sound interesting and intelligent but don’t be an egomaniac, summarize your skills and experiences and show how much you know about the company you’re applying to. And watch those typos. They can cost you the job.

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Related articles:

"Extra! Extra! Newspaper Jobs in NYC," by Ken Liebeskind for The New York Job Source.

"Industry Newsletter Web Sites Grow With Online Job Searches," by Megan Ballinger for The Wall Street Journal Online.

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Writers Wanted: Every un-agented fiction scribe should check out Maud Newton's excellent article regarding the process of submitting unsolicited fiction to magazines in this flailing, inbred world of modern literary publishing we readers and writers have to contend with these days. The primary interview is dated, considering editor Brigid Hughes has left the Paris Review, but it's still an insightful look into the belly of a beast I love. And Maud's other editor interviews are not to be missed.

Personal aside: I spotted Paris Review founder George Plimpton on the street once, and after briefly making eye contact I followed him into a bookstore where I was lucky enough to see him speak as part of a panel on the dour state of contemporary lit publishing. Every editor and publisher in attendance expressed concern that they received far more in the way of submissions than subscriptions; we're living in a world of a few hundred thousand aspiring writers but only a handful of readers.

In the midst of all the bad news, Plimpton's playful, sardonic wit and gallows humor, mixed with a lively dose of optimism and historical perspective, was mesmerizing, and his death a couple of years later struck me with a sharp pang. Would the much-heralded death of serious, inventive short fiction die with him? Plenty are trying to keep up the good fight, but are the readers out there... and has professional writing become strictly a well-connected Ivy League sport?

And now I hear Kurt Vonnegut Jr., another of my literary heroes, is wandering around the East Village, but I've yet to see him, despite both of us being in NYC for years. I must track him down. But stalking is not my strong point; I'm too lazy.