But generally speaking, that’s a really difficult combination to pull off. I know you’re a fan of Randy Newman, who is among the best songwriters at melding humor with music. I’m letting another part of my personality come out in a less veiled way, though it still ends up being confusing because people don’t know if this is part of the joke or not. I enjoy working with very talented musicians who also like that kind of music. With the music, it is about trying to make a record that I’m genuinely proud of, that I would want to listen to. Making fun of things and pointing out the hypocrisy or the grotesqueness of certain elements of media, that’s one part of how I have expressed myself. But it really is two completely different parts of my creative brain. I think even in the Tim and Eric stuff, there’s love - you got to love it and know it to make fun of it. “I think it would be stupid,” he added, “if I had a singer-songwriter persona that was named Dave Sexton or something.” “And maybe that’s ultimately more satisfying.”Įither way, it’s too late to change course now. When I spoke with Heidecker on the phone last month, he admitted that always using his own name no matter the project might have been a mistake, though “there’s part of me that thinks that’s interesting at the end of the day, that it is on you to figure out what’s going on here,” he said. After all, isn’t Tim Heidecker also the monstrous caricature of a hack stand-up who complains about taking his wife to the opera? On his upcoming tour in support of High School, he will further muddy the waters by performing both his satirical stand-up and his “serious” music, side by side, across two separate sets. While Heidecker has been moving in this direction for several years now, dating back to 2016’s In Glendale (which was inspired by becoming a parent, an extremely singer-songwriter subject for a singer-songwriter), an album like High School still might strike some Tim And Eric fans as strange or confusing. He’s come to salute his inspirations, not savage them. While his early output as a musician - in combos such as Heidecker & Wood and the Yellow River Boys - can be classified as either parodies or jokey, character-based musical bits, High School essentially is the work of a traditionalist proudly situating his songs in the continuum of iconic, confessional writers dating back to the ’60s and ’70s. Working with indie-rock ringers like Mac DeMarco and Kurt Vile, Heidecker evinces none of the chaotic irreverence toward show business that characterizes his comedy. A song cycle that looks back on his early ’90s adolescence with the sort of wistful sensitivity and wry specificity associated with ’70s soft rock titans like Paul Simon and Randy Newman - both of whom Heidecker has cited as personal favorites - High School evokes a pre-internet, Middle American, suburban world buoyed by references to Kurt Vonnegut, fiscal conservatism, Gulf War-era CNN reporter Peter Arnett, and Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” Depending on the age and background of the listener - Heidecker and I are around the same age and come from similar communities - it will feel eerily familiar and vivid 30 years after that world started to fade away forever. On the forthcoming album High School,due June 24, Heidecker the singer-songwriter has made his most straightforward and autobiographical album yet. And then there’s Tim Heidecker, character actor and surprisingly (even shockingly) earnest singer-songwriter. There is Tim Heidecker, the L.A.-based husband and father who oversees the amiable podcast Office Hours. There is Tim Heidecker, the inventive co-star of the pioneering Adult Swim program Tim And Eric Awesome Show, Good Job! There is Tim Heidecker, the egomaniacal co-host of the popular web series On Cinema. Tim Heidecker is an interesting bunch of guys. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year.
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