Ben Folds Five- C or D?

My conversion to the dark world of music obsessivism was the first time I ever saw the video to "Battle of Who Could Care Less" on the TV. As soon as it came on, I was hypnotised by these three geeky Yanks dropping pop culture references like it was going out of fashion.

A friend dedicated that track to me on his radio show recently, and I just remembered the occasion vividly.

Folds is an amazing pianist, a great lyricst, and his voice... even when he does sound a bit like Kermit the Frog, it's in a good way.

Jessee and Sledge were great musicians as well, it's a shame that they're gonna spend their days in minor US college bands.

All three albums own you, as does "Naked Baby Photos".

They split on my 18th birthday. That ruined the entire day for me.

And what do Cake sound like?

Ben Folds Five: Not quite "essential," but clever, self-deprecating songwriters. Aside from the piano, I don't quite catch the "Billy Joel wannabe" vibe here, either.

Musically, he's a good songwriter melody wise. For those to say "who needs another...", the answer is I do. Easy enough. The rough edges of BFF seemed genuine, although many expect rough edges to be done soley by ruffians. The lack of rough edges on his solo worked are mostly miss, although occasionally the production can work for him.

I really only enjoy their first two albums as wholes. The rest of his/their catalog is s/d for me.

A lot of teenage BFF fans circa Whatever are now in their mid-20s, and working as record company and press people. Their cult is not huge, but influential.

I only really love Whatever, the rest never quite connected with me, but what a record it is. "Selfless Cold and Composed", "Kate", "Battle Of Who Could Care Less" really evoke that mid-90s angsty period for me in a way that more lyrically obtuse rock from that time (Nirvana, Pavement) doesn't. (Hah, can you tell I just read the S/FJ New Yorker piece about The Mountain Goats?). "Rockin' The Suburbs" is the only song of his that I can think of that feels genuinely smug and insincere, though it did make me chuckle in spite of myself.

In Britain Ben Folds has tended to suffer from the after-effects of being labelled a "Chris Evans act."

Placebo may as well be an American Pop-Punk band for all I care.

No one loves Howard Cossell.

That being said, my favorite Folds album is still Reinhold Messner by a comfortable margin. My record collection is full of albums I can trace directly back to that one.

Bette Midler ain't nobody!

sometime on conan o'brien, or other late night talk show, singing "Not the same" off of the first solo album, and FREAKING OUT on the "you were not the same after that" part, when he did NOT deserve to do so.

Let me tell y'all what it's like
Watching idol on a friday night
In a house built safe and sound
On indian burial ground
Sham On

We drive our cars everyday
To and from work both ways
So we make just enough to pay
To drive our cars to work each day

We're rocking the suburbs
Around the block just one more time
We're rocking the suburbs
Cause I can't tell which house is mine
We're rocking the suburbs
We part the shades and face facts
They got better looking Fescue
Right across the cul de sac

Hotwheels take rising stars
Get rich quick seminars
Soap opera magazines
40,000 watt nativity scenes
Don't freak about the smoke alarm
Mom left the TV dinner on

Yet we're rocking the suburbs
From family feuds to chevy chase
We're rocking the suburbs
We muscles in our face
We're rocking the suburbs
Feed the dog and mow the lawn
Watching mommy balance the checks
While daddy juggles credit cards

[THIS IS THE SHATNER SPOKEN WORD PART]

We're rocking the suburbs
Everything we need is here
We're rocking the suburbs
But it wasn't here last year
We're rocking the suburbs
You'll never know when we are gone
Because the timer lights come on
And turn the cricket noises on each night
Yeah, yeah, we're rocking the suburbs
Yeah, yeah, we're rocking the suburbs

And "Alice Childress."

For their genre, yes. We are speaking of powerpop here, a genre that is supposed to have a slick and perfect Jellyfish-production.

'Thank God it's you, you know your timing is impeccable... Some dude just knocked me cold and left me on the sidewalk, took everything I had...'