BEVERLY HILLS, California -- Along with sharing a first name, Ben Folds, Ben Lee and Ben Kweller share the same attitude about their short-lived joint project, the Bens.

"We all learned something from it, because this is a day and age where ... there's a marketing reason behind everything," Folds, the eldest Ben, explained recently. "But this was just completely spontaneous, naive and wasn't intended to be anything and it ended up being really powerful."

Recorded in just three days, The Bens EP was supposed to be a souvenir for a Folds/Lee/Kweller tour, but ended up becoming one of hottest indie releases of 2003 (see "When Kweller, Lee And Folds Team Up, It's All About The Benjamins"), earning the trio record-deal offers and tour opportunities all over the world.

"We felt that and then realized, 'Now it's business,' and thought, 'Why don't we take the feeling that we got from that, 'cause it was really refreshing after years of bullsh-- in the music business, and carry it into our next projects?' " Folds said. "It's worked out. It's tempting to do [a lot more of] it, but it has to be done when it's like, 'Hey, are you in town? Well come by the studio.' It has to be like that. If it's, 'We've released a budget of this, this and this, and here is your deadline,' I don't know. I'd rather just leave it."

So, as of now, the Bens have no plans to record together again, although an onstage reunion could be in the cards for this summer. Folds and Lee are touring North America together, along with Rufus Wainwright, on what's being called the Odd Men Out Tour.

For Folds, the outing will be his first with a band in three years. Drummer Lindsay Jamieson and bassist Jared Reynolds, who play on Folds' new Songs for Silverman (see [article id="1501228"]"Ben Folds Salutes Elliott Smith, Hosts Weird Al On New LP"[/article]), will be joining the piano man.

"Rocking 5,000 lame-asses with an acoustic piano is fun, but I decided it would be nice to have a band," Folds said. "We are happy to play a couple of Ben Folds Five songs, but the two guys I'm playing with, they own the new album and are playing all over it, so when we play that, it's hitting home."

Folds originally started Songs for Silverman without the band, but felt the songs needed them.

"I was playing piano, drums, bass and guitar and it was sounding a little uninspiring," Folds recalled. "I mean, the songs on the record, the production of the songs and the arrangements, are all about subtlety. If there's not chemistry there, there's not energy below the subtlety, and it's just going to suck. Me playing all the instruments, that's just too gray."

Before the Odd Men Out Tour kicks off August 3, Folds will wrap up a short Stateside trek with dates Tuesday in New York, Friday in Philadelphia and Saturday in Boston, and then head overseas for most of June and July.

The Odd Men Out Tour dates, according to Folds' Web site: