Heidecker & Wood
Starting from Nowhere
Release Date: Mar 15, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock
Record label: Little Record Company
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Album Review: Starting from Nowhere by Heidecker & Wood
Satisfactory, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 3.5/5
It’s not often easy to know how to take Tim Heidecker. Aside from his Adult Swim series Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, he also has a short stand-up set, which is mostly a Kaufman-esque anti-joke performance. He touches on clichés of the genre (“Don’t you hate it when…”), but more prominently demonstrates a shockingly incompetent stage presence.
Based on rating 7/10
Comedy’s fascination with soft rock continues with Heidecker & Wood's Starting from Nowhere. The collaboration between Adult Swim series Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!’s Tim Heidecker and the show’s composer Davin Wood, the duo has inspirations that span from Bread, Seals & Crofts, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to Billy Joel, Gerry Rafferty, Steely Dan, and Mike Post. Indeed, their devotion to Yacht Rock-worthy silky acoustic guitars, supple electric pianos, squiggly analog synths, and breathily crooned vocals often exceeds their comedy pedigree.
Based on rating 4.5/10
In five seasons on Adult Swim and a handful of specials and live concert tours, "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!" has established itself as one of the most aggressively strange programs in the history of television as well as one of the finest sources for oddball novelty music. Among the show's musical highlights include the cheeseball rock tunes of Pusswhip Banggang, the alarmingly cheerful "All the Food Is Poison", Frank Stallone singing "we're turning your bedroom back into the computer room" to a befuddled little girl, and the entire ouvre of the hapless duo Casey and His Brother. In all of these songs, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim, and their composer Davin Wood display a jingle writer's knack for melody, packing absurd humor into compact, ruthlessly effective hooks.
Based on rating C-
Tim Heidecker is one half of the creative mind behind Tim & Eric: Awesome Show, Great Job, a show that has been making me laugh and feel uncomfortable for a few years now. Heidecker and show partner Eric Wareheim are two of the most creative people on television currently, but their creativity is definitely an acquired taste. The silly segments, quick and cheap video editing, and at times gross-out humor are staples of the show and can easily turn off a normal television viewer.
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