Random 10 for Dec. 4, 2007

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1. Ben Folds Five, “Your Redneck Past.” “Choose from any number of magazines/ Who do you want to be, Billy Idol or Kool Moe Dee?” Folds sings on one of the few and best songs about growing up in a rural area but blessed/cursed with city sensibilities. Folds and I were born just a few days apart, so I specifically relate to what he’s talking about here. Granted, in the mid-’80s in Jenks, Oklahoma, it wasn’t exactly a choice between going pro rodeo or writing an atonal kraut rock-influenced opera based on the life of the Dalai Lama, but it was not easy. My editor at the Trojan Torch used to complain about me writing too many reviews of bands no one knew.

Q: “Why don’t you write about Journey?”

A: “Well, (a) Frontiers is a year old, and (2) Everyone knows what Journey sounds like.” Lather, rinse, repeat.

2. Kanye West, “Touch the Sky.”

3. A Girl Called Eddy, “Did You See the Moon Tonight?”

4. Ween, “Object.”

5. Sondre Lerche, “After All.” This year, Lerche attracted a lot more attention for writing the songs in “Dan in Real Life,” and his return to rock structures, Phantom Punch, was virtually ignored. Punch did not deserve it: this man is a Costello in the making.