New music video from Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - "From Above"

After releasing the album Lonely Avenue on Tuesday (check out our review here), Ben Folds and Nick Hornby have released their first music for the song "From Above."

The animated clip, created by Julius Preite who has worked on The Simpsons, brings the story of soul mates never crossing paths from the song's lyrics to life. Watch it below.

Folds is hitting the road to support the album this fall. He'll play the Fillmore in Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 20. Tickets for the show are on sale now for $41.50 (that includes fees) here.

Album Review: Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue

The collaboration between piano pop guru Ben Folds and acclaimed author Nick Hornby, Lonely Avenue, has been a long time coming and the result was worth the wait.

The album flows much like a standard Folds album, balancing cheeky pop songs with moving ballads with great skill. Hornby's masterful wordplay and and sense of humor make he and Folds seem like musical soul mates.

"Levi Johnston's Blues" has been the much talked about track from the album which tells the sad but true story of Sarah Palin's almost son-in-law. Folds whimsical tendencies makes the story feel like any of his other characters while Hornby takes a tough yet sympathetic position on Johnston's life, using his own words from his defunct MySpace page against him in the chorus.

Stream Ben Folds & Nick Hornby's album 'Lonely Avenue'

The long awaited collaboration between Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, an album titled Lonely Avenue, is almost here (it will be released on Sept. 28 via Nonesuch Records). You don't have to wait to hear it though. The album is streaming now on Ben Folds' MySpace page.

Folds is hitting the road in support of the album in November, but unfortunately, he has no plans to play the Triangle, though he will play The Fillmore in Charlotte on Saturday, Nov. 20. Tickets for the show will go on sale on Friday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. here for $41.50 (that includes fees).

Check out Folds' full tour schedule below.

New video from Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - "Things You Think"

In the process of promoting their highly anticipated album Lonely Avenue, Ben Folds and Nick Hornby took a little time to record and film a brand new song not featured on the album with the duo Pomplamoose who has become famous for the concept of VideoSong.

The process involves filming every part of the recording process and shining a little light on the multi-tracking which goes into making music. At the end, they're left with a very sharp, cool looking video.

The song they recorded is titled "Things You Think," which, like the album, features lyrics written by Nick Hornby. The album only features Folds singing, but Hornby contributed a spoken word part on this song, which is excellent. Check out the video below and the song has also been made available on iTunes.

New music from Ben Folds & Nick Hornby - "Levi Johnston's Blues"

We've mentioned the highly anticipated new album Lonely Avenue featuring the music of Ben Folds and the words of Nick Hornby a number of times before. As the release date slowly approaches, Sept. 28, we now have a track from the album to share with you.

Stream "Levi Johnston's Blues" from the album below and yes it's exactly what you think it is. It is Nick Hornby's take on the saga of Levi Johnston's life during the time when Sarah Palin was chosen as John McCain's running mate in the 2008 election. The lyrics of the chorus include actual passages from Levi Johnston's MySpace page which was deleted long ago. Enjoy.

Check out more details of Lonely Avenue here.

Nick Hornby, Ben Folds collaboration to be released by Nonesuch

The long awaited collaboration between acclaimed writer Nick Horby and piano-pop geek Ben Folds finally has a release date. We first brought you info about the collaboration almost two years ago, and now the album album will be released via Nonesuch Records on September 28.

The album is titled Lonely Avenue and that is the album art to the right there. The lyrics are by Nick Hornby, the music is by Ben Folds and the songs feature string arrangements by acclaimed pop composer Paul Buckmaster.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornby team up for album

There have been some phenomenal songwriting partnerships over the years -- Paul McCartney and John Lennon, Elton John and Bernie Taupin, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein... (What?? I like a good musical!) Why am I bringing this up? We may be about to see the next great team with Ben Folds and Nick Hornby.

The two will get together this December to record an album's worth of material over just three days in Dublin. Folds says the idea spurred from the fake album he recorded over the summer to confuse the internet prior to the release of Way to Normal later this month (which I've heard and is fantastic, but more on that another time.)

While this might seem like an odd pairing at first glance, anyone who's ever read Hornby's material knows he's serious about music. Forget High Fidelity -- Kirk Cobain was practically a character in About A Boy. Either way, I'm definitely looking forward to hearing this collaboration.