Heidecker & Wood: Starting From Nowhere

Tim Heidecker and Davin Wood’s soft-rock excursion Starting From Nowhere is hardly a full album of “Poke On” or “I Wear My Dad’s Dirty Socks.” (Though there is a song about dads.) Rather, these songs are humorous in the same way unintentionally funny Velveeta-caliber pop tunes are funny. In fact, it isn’t always clear that the emotional bluster of Starting From Nowhere is supposed to be giggle-inducing. The best moments come when Heidecker is willing to fall on his face for love, like when he sings, “I hope there’s a preacher, ’cause I know there’s a groom” on “Wedding Song.” (“Christmas Suite” is pretty priceless in the same way.) Musically, Wood has an absurdly keen ear for the magic of fretless bass (“Grandest Canyon”), too-white-to-be-funky funk guitar (“Desert Island,” “Right To The Minute”), and every sappy keyboard sound known to man. Because Heidecker is working in a format where his outsized comic eccentricity isn’t a defining characteristic, Starting From Nowhere understandably starts feeling strained right around the burnout ballad “Weatherman.” But at least this duo shows real commitment to its bizarrely reverent soft-rock tribute, which goes just a hair beyond being straight-faced.