Heidecker & Wood, Starting From Nowhere

By Matt Keeley

Anyone familiar with Pusswhip Banggang—the band which started as a sketch on Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and later became a real band in Tim & Eric live shows—should not be surprised by the ’70s vibe of Starting From Nowhere, the debut album from Tim Heidecker and Davin Wood (who is also a member of Pusswhip).

Whereas Pusswhip has a ’70s swamp-rock, bar-band sort of vein, Starting From Nowhere is much more in the tradition of singer-songwriter soft rock; it’s more Neil Young than John Fogerty. It’s also not a put-on like Pusswhip; if it is, it’s much more subtle. (But I’m pretty sure it’s not.) The lyrics are a little on the intentionally silly side, but if you’re not paying attention to the words, it’s easy to mistake this for a lost Seals & Crofts record.

Tim’s always been the more musical of the Tim & Eric duo; on the Season One commentaries to Awesome Show, it’s revealed that the Casey sketches were originally intended as a Tim solo project that Eric overheard. The David Liebe Hart songs from Awesome Show were often co-written by Tim. And of course, there’s the pre-Tim & Eric album Theatre of Magic by the Tim Heidecker Masterpiece, an often-hilarious prog-metal-rock-opera-parody type of thing. The recurring thread of all these projects however, is comedy, so in this way Starting From Nowhere is a departure, but a pretty good one.

Perhaps the strangest thing about Starting From Nowhere is that Tim Heidecker’s vocals seem a little self-conscious, odd for a comedian whose repertoire includes wearing costumes with gigantic felt testicles. It makes sense, though. With sketches of the type he’s known for, it’s clear that Heidecker’s playing a character—even if that character is named “Tim Heidecker.” With Heidecker & Wood, it feels like he’s actually presenting himself without a facade or veneer. He seems a bit more reserved here. On Theatre of Magic, he can belt out all sorts of silliness; here he almost seems a little shy.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing; most of these songs wouldn’t really work belted out. And Tim’s got a good voice, sometimes reminiscent of David Byrne (particularly on “Desert Island”). I’ve been a fan of Davin Wood’s music from watching Tom Goes to the Mayor and Awesome Show and his talents also make this album enjoyable.

I don’t know if Starting From Nowhere will be in high rotation for me, but if you’re expecting the cheesy, tinny sounds of Casey & His Brother or the Casio demo track that makes up most of David Liebe Hart’s backing tracks, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. If Heidecker and Wood are spoofing this type of music, it’s done very gently, and clearly out of love for the genre.

Starting From Nowhere was released on March 15 via Little Record Company. Visit the duo’s website to order a copy.