Before the days of
Ben Folds Five (and
way before he was
Rockin' the Suburbs),
circa 1988,
Ben Folds was in a band called Majosha (pronounced
muh-JAH-sha, not
muh-JOE-sha). Their first gig was at
Duke University's
Battle of the Bands, which they won. At that time, the band consisted of Ben on bass, Millard Powers on guitar, some guy named Dave on drums, and a fourth guy who
was never heard from again.
Majosha played bars and frat parties for a while before finally putting out a self-produced EP, "Party Night: Five Songs about Jesus," which had four songs on it, none of which were about Jesus. The songs were (I believe): Get That Bug (Outta Your System), Kalamazoo, Where's Bohemia, and Cool Whip.
In 1989, Dave was kicked out of the band and replaced with Chris Hound, and Evan Olsen (who was in Ben's brother Chuck's band) was assimilated. About the same time, the group recorded "Shut Up and Listen to Majosha," a full-length tape, the contents of which are:
- Where's Bohemia
- Clueless
- Emaline
- Guilty
- Video
- Deal With It
- Get That Bug (Outta Your System)
- Everyone Else
- Kalamazoo
- We Know
- Cool Whip
All songs by Ben Folds except Emaline (by Ben Folds and Evan Olsen).
Songs in bold are also Ben Folds Five songs
Also about that time they did a dance mix of "Get That Bug" which was somehow released in Japan. Chris Hound was later replaced with Eddie Walker (who was still later honored by having a song written about him, which can be found on Ben Folds Five's "Naked Baby Photos").
Majosha broke up in early 1990, and Ben formed a band called Pots and Pans with someone named Snuzz, then seemed to fall off the face of the musical world until Ben Folds Five formed in 1994.
Useful info came from http://www.ols.net/~gtaylor/majosha.htm