Random 10 for January 29, 2009

1. The Beatles, “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number).” One of the more notorious Christmas fan club records the Beatles recorded, in which the greatest band in pop history wrote two lines of lyrics and put them through a classic Fab piano chord progression, then a Jamaican roots-rock treatment, then a lounge singer named Dennis Obell who sounds vaguely like Elvis, then a British music hall goofoff that echoes Eric Idle and Terry Jones in drag, and finally some gutteral noises. Classic.

2. Animal Collective, “Brother Sport.”

3. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, “Your Long Journey.”

4. Belle & Sebastian, “The Wrong Girl.”

5. Fountains of Wayne, “Someone To Love.” I was generally underwhelmed by FoW’s Traffic and Weather, “Strapped for Cash” notwithstanding, and particularly peeved that the first video from the disc featured Demetri Martin, who is about as enjoyable as as colonoscopy, and proving the Peter Principle right again, is getting his own Comedy Central show.  

6. Massive Attack, “Unfinished Sympathy.”

7. Someone Still Love You Boris Yeltsin, “House Fire.”

8. Ween, “She F—s Me.”

9. Von Iva, “Electricity.”

10. Santogold, “Lights Out.” Santogold’s debut solo disc wasn’t the masterwork many were expecting, but it was the album Gwen Stefani would have made if she hadn’t been trying to sell music to 14-year-olds.