Ben Lee to serenade festive campus

Mike Newmark Columnist

If you fail to recognize Ben Lee’s name at first blush, you may still know his music. Perhaps you purchased the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack (cherry-picked by Alexandra Patsavas, who knows about postmodern cool) and sang along to his unabashedly insouciant single, “Catch My Disease.” Or you—like Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore—once fawned over cult favorite Noise Addict, the Australian indie rock group led by Lee at the unfathomably tender age of 13.

My own introduction to Lee came courtesy of the tabloids, when I read that he was dating my biggest childhood crush, Claire Danes, and again when they broke up in 2003. Instead of crying to his mama, Lee hunkered down to compose 2005’s Brad Wood-produced Awake is the New Sleep—arguably his strongest record—thus cementing his status as one of the most assiduous and delightful singer/songwriters in the world of indie pop.

Lee is scheduled to play at Vassar on Sept. 7, the night of Serenading, which marks the first concert helmed by Vassar College Entertainment (ViCE) this year.

ViCE Chairman Evan Altshuler ’09 seemingly couldn’t be more excited about their choice. “One of my goals with ViCE is to bring more accessible music to campus,” he said. “[Lee] is just poppy rock-and-roll music, a lot of fun. And I wanted to bring people to campus who are fun, who people want to come see.”

Lee is nothing if not fun, pursuing it from his Noise Addict days in the early ’90s to his more introspective yet lighthearted solo career. But that pursuit implies a workman-like approach to music-making that belies his 28 years and boyish charm. A small part of his success came from being in the right place at the right time; he met Thurston Moore and Mike D of the Beastie Boys through the Noise Addict’s first producer, Steve Pavlovic, and the two were so taken by Lee’s music that they felt the urge to broadcast it to a U.S. audience.

From there, Lee brought in versatile indie superproducer Brad Wood to engineer his first two albums—Grandpaw Would and Something to Remember Me By—and by 1999 he had three respected records in America and a Top 40 hit under his belt. Not bad for a young Aussie who only wants to sing and play you a little guitar.

With new albums come tours, and this tour is accompanied by the release of Lee’s latest LP, Ripe, due Sept. 18. Ripe will feature the dulcet croons of Mandy Moore and the slightly-less-than-dulcet backup singing of Good Charlotte vocalist Joel Madden, as well as Benmont Tench (keyboardist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Sara Watkins (fiddler for Nickel Creek), and the whole of the pop-punk band Rooney.

Asked how ViCE managed to lasso Ben Lee for Serenading, Altshuler explained, “ViCE has been doing something with Serenading on and off for the last 10 years. We weren’t sure if it was too early in the year for [ViCE] to book something, but then Ben’s booking agent approached us, trying to set something up. Everything just fell into place.” Altshuler also assured that the substantiality of Lee’s name and reputation will in no way compromise the size or the quality of future ViCE performances.

Ben Lee will perform on Ballantine Field immediately following the Serenading fireworks show at 9 p.m. Altshuler advises concert-goers to be as close to the stage as possible before the fireworks end, in order to snag the best spot for Lee. “It would be great if Ben were to play this giant riff just as the last firework went off,” Altshuler said, smiling. “Think of the fireworks like they’re the opening act.”