Top Ten Lists of 2007

By Less Lee Moore

Klaus Nomi & Iggy Pop
on The Venture Bros.

1. Adult Swim on The Cartoon Network: Last year I mused that cartoons and animated series are the new alternative music, a place where you can discover kindred spirits through bizarre ideas, sharp social commentary, or biting wit. It’s still true. With Season Two of the brilliant Venture Bros. out on DVD and new fare like Metalocalypse and Frisky Dingo, I essentially don’t need to watch new live-action shows ever again. Take that, Heroes!
2. “Dear Sister,” Saturday Night Live digital short: Alternately known as “The Shooting,” this video is the kind of funny that almost doesn’t deserve to exist. Who do these people think they are, making me watch this thing more than ten times in two days, forcing me to develop a constant stomachache from laughing so hard? Even if you haven’t seen the second season finale of The O.C., which “Dear Sister” spoofs so beautifully, this video is still hilarious. In fact, the only negative thing I have to say about it isn’t really about the video at all. It’s the fact that it originally aired in April and I didn’t see it until October. That’s six more months I could have been laughing about it!
3. It’s All Gone Pete Tong, directed by Michael Dowse: I rented this on the recommendation of a friend but actually knew nothing of the plot. It’s an engaging fake documentary about a world-famous DJ whose life is destroyed by drugs, booze, and hearing loss. Unfortunately, that makes it sound simultaneously trite and depressing, but it isn’t. The direction and cinematography are fresh and almost whimsical, with a dark sardonic current running throughout. Paul Kaye (who may be better known as fictional interviewer Dennis Pennis) portrays the title character with a blend of authenticity and idiocy (and bad teeth) that is rarely seen in the work of most Hollywood actors.
4. The Jarvis Cocker Album: Pulp released their last album in 2002 and then announced their retirement. Lead singer Jarvis Cocker moved to France with his wife. Soon photos of him toting his son in a Baby Bjorn surfaced on the Internet, leading some to speculate that he was sorted for nappies and pins. For the next few years he was busy collaborating with others under various monikers, until finally, he re-emerged as just Jarvis with this remarkable album. It sounds much more like Pulp than his Relaxed Muscle project, but on the other hand, it doesn’t sound like Pulp at all. It’s probably the most Scott Walker-esque thing he’s ever done, which he’d probably consider high praise. If you think age has mellowed the man who interrupted Jacko’s Jesus posturing at the 1996 BRIT Awards, you’d be wrong. “Running the World” is Cocker at his unpretentious finest, stabbing at the empty chests of the materialistic, selfish creeps who seem determined to ruin things for the rest of us.
5. Veronica Mars, Seasons One and Two: I never watched this show when it was on although I heard nothing but praise from those who did. When reruns started airing Saturday mornings, I did watch, and after three episodes I was hooked. On weekends I’d stay up all night watching borrowed DVDs and glued to the screen. Veronica Mars was everything that The O.C. wanted to be but couldn’t because it was too busy patting itself on the back, letting Adam Brody portray himself, and desperately pandering to a demographic. The story lines in Veronica Mars were consistently intriguing and believable; the dialogue was whip-smart. The characters continually evolved from good to bad and back again, just like real people. And rather than posit Miss Mars as perfect, the writers let us see the tarnish on her halo.
6. Joel Plaskett Emergency, Ashtray Rock: If you cringe when you hear the term “concept album,” I don’t blame you. While the iPod Angel on your right shoulder plays Sergeant Pepper, the Devil on your left has The Wall on repeat. Ashtray Rock reminds me of a time when albums told compelling stories and made me analyze lyrics to death in an attempt to figure out what they really meant. This is the album I wish I’d had around when I was a teenager and it’s what today’s teens should be listening to, but probably aren’t.
7. The Descent, directed by Neil Marshall: Although I officially consider The Exorcist to be the most frightening movie I’ve ever seen, technically that spot belongs to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which disturbed me so much that I could only get through 20 minutes before I had a panic attack. Normally I prefer atmosphere to straight-up gore (except for zombie flicks), but The Descent is the perfect combination of both. It scared me so much that not only did I cry, I found myself thinking of it late at night and checking that the closet door was closed and that my feet didn’t dangle over the edge of the bed.
8. The Soup on E!: I watched Talk Soup for about ten years: from Greg Kinnear, to John Henson, to Hal Sparks. When tabloid talk shows started dying like alcohol-poisoned college freshmen, the show lost its edge and guest hosts like Suzanne Somers didn’t keep me entertained. E!’s new version, with host Joel McHale, is leaner (at 30 minutes) and meaner, as it not only mocks reality shows, but also conservative targets like Fox and Friends (no doubt influenced by The Daily Show, but who’s complaining?). The Soup, unlike its talk-show-promoting predecessor, isn’t afraid to hit below the belt, especially when exposing bad behavior. Witness their recent clip of Matt Lauer reporting for The Today Show from the North Pole: after being visibly annoyed that a native man was interrupting his broadcast, Lauer spoke to him as if he were a mentally deficient four-year-old. Besides the great writing and McHale’s charismatic ad-libbing, the best part of The Soup is that you don’t actually have to watch the shows they mock to get the jokes.
9. John Lennon, Walls and Bridges: As a kid, I loved the interactive aspect of this album’s gatefold cover, where Lennon provides movable flaps for you to customize his goofy faces. It still reminds me of my stepfather who idolized Lennon, so much so that on December 8, 1980, he woke me up to tell me the news of his murder. As an adult, I now see that Lennon’s shenanigans were his way of dealing with a cargo-hold’s worth of emotional baggage. For many, the 27 years since his death have distorted his image into that of a mild-mannered peacenik, as some conveniently forget that he was also a flawed and angry human being, bitter about Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles success and spending years abusing alcohol and drugs. Yes, Lennon was often an intolerable, maxi-pad-on-the-forehead prick, but perhaps no one knew that better than Lennon himself. Walls and Bridges carries the listener to the heights of Lennon’s beautiful fancy (“#9 Dream”) to the nadir of his misery (“Scared”). My favorite is “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out),” with its A Star Is Born, Norma Desmond sheen of Broadway sadness, and the chillingly prophetic line “Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.”
10. J. G. Thirlwell: Other than stalwarts like The Beatles, Bowie, and Queen, this is the musician with whom I’ve been enamored longer than anyone else. Old skoolers know him as Foetus, Clint Ruin, or perhaps Steroid Maximus. If you are into the avant-garde scene, you may know of his work through Manorexia, Baby Zizanie, or LEMUR, but to most newcomers he’s probably best known as “the guy who does the music for The Venture Bros.” Rehashing his resume tends to impress, but does nothing to convey the incredible depth and breadth of madness, despair, terror, and wit which suffuse everything he touches, including his graphic design. Similarly, there is no way to describe what his music sounds like; however, when you hear a Thirlwell composition, you immediately recognize his trademark genius.

    
    J. G. Thirlwell:
    Photo © Sebastian Mlynarski

    With his newest Foetus releases, Love, Damp, and Vein, he has eclipsed even his own best accomplishments, exposing more of his inner self than ever before, while still retaining the Foetus mystique. I recently read a review of a band that stated “it’s humbling to think that one man could imagine the majority of these sounds before creating them.” Amazingly, this was not a Foetus review. But it definitely should have been. J. G. Thirlwell has forged his own mold and continues to crush it over and over again.

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