500 Club

Ben Keeler and the 500 Club is a band from Chicago. Never heard of them? Well that’s possible if you don’t live in the Bay Area (San fransisco). If you live there, you might have heard about this band, because they quickly created a buzz with his cool music. So let’s do the same thing, but this time “worldwilde”, okay? You can expect some cool guitar songs with a horn and some choir like vocals. The song we share with you, is called “Water Water” and is featered on his newest album “Water Water”. This tracks rhythm reminds me in a way of the Roxanne version for Moulin Rouge. Very nice track, check it out. - Rusty Blog

Ben Keeler and the 500 Club is a band from Chicago. Never heard of them? Well that’s possible if you don’t live in the Bay Area (San fransisco). If you live there, you might have heard about this band, because they quickly created a buzz with his cool music. So let’s do the same thing, but this time “worldwilde”, okay? You can expect some cool guitar songs with a horn and some choir like vocals. The song we share with you, is called “Water Water” and is featered on his newest album “Water Water”. This tracks rhythm reminds me in a way of the Roxanne version for Moulin Rouge. Very nice track, check it out. - Rusty Blog

Hailing from Chicago, Ben Keeler and the 500 Club began in Premier Windy City venues. They also toured the Midwest with their album, Water Water. Keeler is currently working on a new album (to be announced this summer) in his new hometown of San Francisco, California.

Water Water incorporates an array of orchestral instruments, prominent piano segments, and a backing choir component. I find myself enjoying the piano-driven contributions with guitar and horn involvement. Please have a listen to “Slide” and “Warm Warm Water” below. - MusicArtiste.net

Ben Keeler and the 500 Club‘s latest offering, ‘Water Water’ is Smokin’ Charlie Brown’s ‘Recommendation Of The Week’! Keeler’s new album brings lush string, horn, and choir textures to a diverse collection of catchy melodies and arrangements. The bands energetic live show has landed Ben Keeler and the 500 Club in some of Chicago’s premier venues and allowed them a consistent Midwest tour schedule. - Smokin' Charlie Brown Blog

Ben Keeler and the 500 Club‘s latest offering, ‘Water Water’ is Smokin’ Charlie Brown’s ‘Recommendation Of The Week’! Keeler’s new album brings lush string, horn, and choir textures to a diverse collection of catchy melodies and arrangements. The bands energetic live show has landed Ben Keeler and the 500 Club in some of Chicago’s premier venues and allowed them a consistent Midwest tour schedule. - Smokin' Charlie Brown Blog

Ben Keeler released his first record in 2007, after he graduate from Columbia College with a degree in music composition. For sometime now, Keeler has given way to a new project which he likes to call Ben Keeler and the 500 Club. Last year, his project released their first record “Water Water.” Said record is an array of melodies, with influenced from Tom Waits and The Decemberists. Their music doesn’t stay in a box, they stretch out and bring in different genres by adding horns and pianos, and other orchestral instruments. We admire anyone who’s willing to push boundaries and go outside of the mainstream. Check them out in our BeatCrave Fav series below… - Beat Crave

Ben Keeler released his first record in 2007, after he graduate from Columbia College with a degree in music composition. For sometime now, Keeler has given way to a new project which he likes to call Ben Keeler and the 500 Club. Last year, his project released their first record “Water Water.” Said record is an array of melodies, with influenced from Tom Waits and The Decemberists. Their music doesn’t stay in a box, they stretch out and bring in different genres by adding horns and pianos, and other orchestral instruments. We admire anyone who’s willing to push boundaries and go outside of the mainstream. Check them out in our BeatCrave Fav series below… - Beat Crave

Damien Girling: Blind Melon were one of the most criminally underrated bands to emerge from American alternative rock in the early 90’s. They had the gloriously catchy distorted chords and melancholic melodies of their peers, but what made them unique was their willingness to combine these elements with mournful soul hooks. The myspace of Ben Keeler and the 500 Club accurately describes the band’s music as a combination of ’60’s soul and 90’s alternative rock’. In doing so they are perhaps the first band to adopt the musical formula that was lost with the death of singer Shannon Hoon. Ben Keeler and the 500 Club are however very much their own band. There’s a grittier edge to their music, like a rugged Texan who’s spent his entire adult life on the edge of a barstool, beer in one hand Marlboro between the fore and index fingers of his other hand, Tom Waits is an apt influence for the band to reference. There are also some unexpected musical references paid. The horns on Water, Water could have been borrowed from Beirut and ‘Neighbor’ sounds like a jauntier version of Elliott Smith’s Cupid’s Trick. The more I listen to their music the more I’m drawn into it and I sense that they are a group with the imagination to continue evolving their sound. Ben Keeler and the 500 Club are a braver band than the majority of their peers in the alternative rock scene. Let’s just hope they don’t go the way of Blind Melon and expire just at the point when eternity awaits.

Louis Gilbert: American group Ben Keeler and The 500 club have a big sound and I mean in a theatrical dynamic way, reminiscent of Army-era Ben Folds Five. There are a variety of influences, some bluegrass touches, as well as similarity to gospel-era Sam Cooke. That early 50’s Sun studio sound is also shown in the recordings. The songs are immediate and full of pop hooks with punchy big choruses.

Check out Ben Keeler & The 500 Club for yourselves here. The self-released album Water, Water is out now. - For Folks Sake

Ben Keeler is looking forward to a hometown greeting with a CD release party at Mac's Bar. While Keeler now makes his home in Chicago, he grew up in Holt and graduated from Holt High School and Lansing Community College.

"I have a lot of roots in Lansing," he said. "We've played there a lot and have a lot of music connections there. I still have a lot of friends there. It is our main hometown crowd."

A multi-instrumentalist, Keeler is putting the finishing touches on his band's first album, Water, Water. He said the album was recorded in two parts with an "A" side and a "B" side. His major music influences include Tom Waits and Sam Cooke.

"The first four songs have more of a live, rock and roll sound," he said. "Side B, we approached a little differently with overdubbing, a choir and strings."

The "choir" was actually Keeler and three other musicians singing a four-part harmony.
Ben Keeler and the 500 Club CD Release party
wsg Burton's Garden and Shaun Hughes
Mac's Bar, East Lansing
March 27, 9:30 p.m.
$8 in advance, $10 the day of the show
macsbar.com, (517) 484-6795

"We recorded each layer of the choir and we would all sing it," he said. "Four people singing each part, it sounds pretty epic at times."

The album reflects a nautical theme that Keeler drew from working on sailboats in Chicago last summer.

"That kind of helped me get into that zone," he said. "I wrote the rest of the album last summer while I was working on the boats and being out in the lake which is a beautiful place to be in Chicago."

With a line-up that changes depending on schedules and locations, Keeler will be coming to Michigan with Tony Hays, who is a member of the band. The two others playing with him at the Mac's Bar show will be Michigan-based bass player John Garland, and Keeler's childhood friend and former band mate, drummer David Dionise.

He coordinates the activities by e-mailing song lineups to each of the musicians.

"It has been quite a rotating cast of different players," Keeler said. "Whoever can play the shows is the one who ends up getting hired to play the show. That has kind of been the name of the game. It is fun and it is cool. You get different people's takes on the songs."

Keeler said he and Hays were inspired to call the band Ben Keeler and the 500 Club to reflect their love of baseball.

"The 500 clubs are those players that have more than 500 career homeruns," he said. "We liked that it represents the heavy hitters in baseball, the best of the best homerun hitters. It kind of stuck."

http://revuemm.com/sounds/local-music/item/182-ben-keeler-and-the-500-club-look-for-a-hometown-welcome - REVUE - Written by Cyndi Lieske

Ben Keeler’s music has been described by several critics as—as simple as his disposition—calm, cool, collected and always laid-back. With influences spanning the gamut of rock ‘n’ roll past and present and splashes of Motown here and there, Keeler’s new album The Cold, released in July, was made almost entirely himself.


His lyrics tell a story of a normal college student with songs about break-ups, loneliness and attempts to figure out what all of it really means. In song and on-stage, Keeler approaches the microphone timidly—leading the audience to doubt his ability to deliver. Yet after the first three bars of a song, all doubt is set aside by the monstrous voice that seems to jump from Keeler’s small frame.
The Chronicle recently sat down with Ben, a Michigan native, at Panera Bread Co. to discuss his musical influences and new album.

The Chronicle: When did you start playing music?
Ben Keeler: When I was 13, so basically like seventh grade.

How did you start playing music?
I was in a band for 10 years back home in Lansing, Mich., called the Van Ermans, and we made four records, toured and made a pretty good name for ourselves in Lansing and throughout Michigan.

Who are your influences?
Tom Waits, Sam Cooke, Motown and Roots—the Green Day/punk stuff I was into when I was in high school.

Did you make the album by yourself?
Mostly, I had some friends help on the drums.

What has been your favorite experience playing live?
My favorite show so far has been my senior recital at Columbia last spring. It was the final class I had before graduation and I had to write songs and arrange them for strings and horns—I was like the composer. I did everything and led all of the rehearsals and wrote all of the parts and hired all the musicians. It was cool. We had a huge ensemble of strings and horns.

How do you write your songs?
It varies. The idea for the melody comes first and the lyrics come later. It changes; different ideas come and I just record them on my computer and work them out.

Do you prefer playing with a band or playing solo?
I’ve been playing solo since I moved to Chicago, for the most part. It’s fun but I’ve been getting back into playing with a band again, and I love it. Right now I’m working on getting shows with a full band.

Are you working on anything new right now?
Yes—we have no date set yet, but I have some new stuff recorded.

How long do you plan on playing music?
For the rest of my life.

Do you have a back up plan in case your music doesn’t take off?
I just had an internship over the summer and I work at a post production audio studio. I’ve done a lot of the sound kind of stuff for movies and television and so that’s another thing. I’ve taught and always enjoyed teaching. I don’t want to be touring for the rest of my life. I feel I have enough experience arching the gamut of audio experience that it won’t be hard to find a good plan. - Columbia College

Ben Keeler has come a long way since his punk-rock days in Lansing.

As a teen, he played in the catchy punk band The Van Ermans. The band would stay together for 10 years and release four albums before parting ways.

In 2008, after graduating from Columbia College in Chicago with a music composition degree, Keeler’s sound began to morph into a polished blend of Sam Cooke-style soul and Tom Waits, while still staying true to his ‘90s alternative roots — which shows in his debut solo album “The Cold” (2008).

Today, at 25, Keeler remains in Chicago where he fronts Ben Keeler & the 500 Club, along with bandmates David Dionise (drums) and Tony Hays (piano/vocals).

The band is set to release “Water Water” at Mac’s Bar on Saturday, March 27. The album features epic production, clever storytelling and brilliant song structures.

The Holt native first began taking music lessons at age 12, but it was a three-chord pop-punk band that really inspired him.

“Green Day was the biggest early influence,” Keeler said. “They were the reason I wanted to start a band and play electric guitar. In high school I listened to a lot of punk rock. Besides that, I listened to a lot of classic rock with my dad and folk with my mom.”

Lansing Community College was Keeler’s next step in his musical progression. The college’s music program exposed him to a broader range of artists.

“I still listened to punk rock, but I began branching out,” he said.

With Keeler’s latest releases, his proper training has been shining through.

“Music school greatly changed my approach to songwriting. During my studies, I was exposed to so much music that changed the way I listen to and write music. I've also become more methodical with my writing. I began to look further ahead. For ‘Water Water,’ they all start guitar and vocals, but I already had ideas of strings, horns and choir from pretty early on in the process of each song.”

The new album also tells a story of adventure, large bodies of water and everyday life.

“As the title states, ‘Water Water’ has a nautical/water theme,” he said. “The theme of water sort of just happened. I had seen the line, ‘Water water everywhere, but there’s not a drop to drink’ written on a wall at school. I thought it had a nice ring to it. Later found out it was a line from an old poem ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.’ That became the basis for the rest of the album."

For more information on Ben Keeler & the 500 Club, visit www.benkeeler.com

“Water Water” Release Show, Saturday, March 27 @ Mac’s Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave, Lansing Doors 9:30 p.m., $8 adv, $10 at door. 18 .

http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-4128-turn-it-down.html - City Pulse- Rich Tupica

Spotlight: Ben Keeler Band at Mac's Bar
Christian Czerwinski
NOISE


Ben Keeler knows the Lansing scene well. He once played in a local outfit known as the Van Ermans. Since then, he's graduated from Columbia College in Chicago and he's formed a band that plays a mix of soul, folk and pop. The trio has that smoky bar feel to it and the music is a little funky and filled with lots of swagger. It's not what you normally hear in Lansing, but that's not a bad thing.

• 9:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5

• Mac's Bar, 2700 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing - Lansing State Journal NOISE

Ben Keeler fronted Lansing pop-punk band The Van Ermans for years and has since moved to Chicago, where he continues to pursue his love for all things music: pop, funk, rock - you name it. On Saturday, Keeler and his band, the 500 Club, play a special hometown show at Mac's Bar.
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The guys have been holed up in the studio for months working on their new release, "Water Water." And it's finally done. Woo hoo! Saturday's show will celebrate that accomplishment.

"I'm very excited for my hometown of Lansing to hear this record," Keeler said. "Be prepared for horns, strings and choir...We can't wait to share the stage with our old pals and play for all our hometown friends."

• Ben Keeler and the 500 Club, Burton's Garden, Shaun Hughes

• 9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27

http://lansingnoise.com/article/20100325/NOISE02/3250315/Lansing-rocker-Keeler-plays-Mac-s-Bar--releases-new-album - NOISE - Anne Erickson

Ben Keeler fronted Lansing pop-punk band The Van Ermans for years and has since moved to Chicago, where he continues to pursue his love for all things music: pop, funk, rock - you name it. On Saturday, Keeler and his band, the 500 Club, play a special hometown show at Mac's Bar.
Advertisement
Quantcast

The guys have been holed up in the studio for months working on their new release, "Water Water." And it's finally done. Woo hoo! Saturday's show will celebrate that accomplishment.

"I'm very excited for my hometown of Lansing to hear this record," Keeler said. "Be prepared for horns, strings and choir...We can't wait to share the stage with our old pals and play for all our hometown friends."

• Ben Keeler and the 500 Club, Burton's Garden, Shaun Hughes

• 9:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27

http://lansingnoise.com/article/20100325/NOISE02/3250315/Lansing-rocker-Keeler-plays-Mac-s-Bar--releases-new-album - NOISE - Anne Erickson