Tim Heidecker has made a living out of not being taken seriously. So it’s only natural when he announced that he was releasing an album of earnest – sometimes autobiographical – songs, that the first question people would ask him was: “Is this serious?” Scan mentions of his new project, In Glendale, on Google and you’ll get headlines like: “Tim Heidecker Would Like You To Take Him Seriously, Please (At Least For This Album),” “Tim Heidecker’s ‘In Glendale’ is Not a Joke, and Not Just for ‘Tim and Eric’ Fans,” “Tim Heidecker Is Quite Sincere About His Music,” and “Comic Tim Heidecker’s new soft-rock album is no joke.”
Those articles alone are almost begging you to fall for something, and for Heidecker to pull some Andy Kaufman-style stunt where everyone can laugh later at how dumb everyone was for buying into it. Heidecker isn’t abandoning comedy, and he is well aware that people will think what they want to think about the project.
What’s being lost in the lead-up to the May 20 release is the softly spoken “this time” that’s attached when anyone discusses In Glendale. It’s not a joke… this time. He’s serious… this time. That would lead you to believe any of the other things he’s written or composed was a lark, which is far from the truth.
“It’s not a joke that I’m making music, but that doesn’t mean that music can’t be funny or humorous,” Heidecker says. “If people think it’s a joke or whatever, it’s not really my problem anymore. People are responding well to this, so it’s a good sign. It’s not going to change the direction of my career or anything, but I’m proud of it.”
Even the Heidecker & Wood project was a professional endeavor (as was the Yellow River Boys), regardless of how playful or absurd it sounded at times. So it can be a bit undercutting to Heidecker, who puts so much thought into every move he makes and everything he works on, to suddenly call out this album as the sea change. Heidecker has been performing music on and off since he was in high school, and In Glendale gave him a chance to record demos on his own and see those demos brought to life with a full studio band.
Heidecker pulls from a variety of different influences with both writing style and composition, including Paul Simon, Jackson Browne, George Harrison, Randy Newman, Harry Nilsson and Warren Zevon. The songs are at times both reflective and biting, and most tracks clock in at 3:30 or under, showing Heidecker’s propensity and gravitation toward short songs.
“Unless it’s something really special or really expansive I like songs to be short,” Heidecker says. “I love Pink Floyd, and Animals, and I love that those songs are jammed out. But The Beatles records were so short, and I just think it’s good to get in and get out.”
The Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job! star tackles a variety of topics on the album with a mix of humor, matter-of-factness, irony and intentional banality. And it’s easy to see why Zevon and Newman have been mentioned ad nauseam to describe the record. The songs may have jokes in them, but they’re no joke. They’re catchy, and infectious, and the constant teetering between pensive and sardonic in Heidecker’s lyrics matches up to the music quite well, especially when he’s singing about cleaning up poop or murdering someone and burying their head under the Hollywood sign. Plus, there are the appropriate number of “la la la la” bridges, horn sections, and punchy pianos to keep you coming back.
Heidecker sings about relationships on “Good Looking Babies,” parenting on “Cleaning Up The Dog Shit” (“You should see her smile she’ll break your heart / Yeah she’s smiling right at you / And it could all, all fall apart / But for now, I’ll just take it as it comes /And keeps me feeding her / which keeps her alive”), loneliness on “Ocean’s Too Cold,” lethargy on “Work From Home” (“Call if you need me / I don’t think I’d be much use anyway / Yeah I’m gonna stay in bed / Stare at the ceiling / Wait for the sickness to just go away”), and home on “Central Air.”
It’s not hard to hear Los Angeles in most of the songs as well, although that’s not exactly a conscious choice. As he’s said in previous press interviews, the City of Angels naturally seeps into Heidecker’s songwriting, the same way other New York or Nashville would if he was living there.
Which is why the title track is such a good fit to open the 10-song set. “In Glendale” drops references to everywhere from Montana to Pennsylvania, but comes back to California again and again, which allows the entire album to stay grounded in its own nebulous Los Angeles reality. In Glendale sounds the way it does because it was recorded in Glendale, by Tim Heidecker, and that’s no coincidence.
The risk, of course, in pulling together a “real” album, rather than one rooted in seven layers of irony, is that it opens up Heidecker to the wrath of music critics. Fortunately for him, he’s continuing to maintain the mantra he carried into the 2012 film The Comedy: “The idea that everyone’s opinion is valuable is sometimes up for question.”
“People’s opinions aren’t very valuable,” Heidecker says. “There’s going to be people who think this sucks, or think I’m being funny, or are saying snide things in the comments. Everything’s so subjective, that I don’t think it’d be hard to write a good review of this record, or to write a bad review if you’re not on board with what I’m doing. That’s on the shoulders of the person writing what they’re writing. Obviously a good review is good for sales, and getting the sh*t out there, and good reviews have made careers. But I’ve never gotten good reviews.”
There isn’t much time to focus on comments and star ratings anyway. Heidecker is set to go on tour with his “Ten Piece Band” (including Foxygen member Jonathan Rado – who put out In Glendale on his Rado Records label), and he’s already started writing songs for his next album. And folks should have plenty to say about that project if it resembles anything like how Heidecker is expecting it to sound.
“I’ve been working on some songs about breakups and relationships,” Heidecker says. “It’s less personal and less autobiographical, but I love those heartbreakers. I might fill up a record with that. I’ve also been doing some spirituality-based songs. Not religious, but sort of tongue-in-cheek. So maybe I’ll do a country album called Love & God, or something like that.”
