Frank Lenz Strictly Background [OST]

[Velvet Blue Music; 2009]

Styles: yacht rock, soft pop, funk
Others: Badly Drawn Boy, Jon Brion, E.L.O.

A few years ago I interviewed Frank Lenz for a magazine just as he was about to release his third or fourth (depending on whether you asked him or his friends) solo record, the cheekily titled Vilelenz and Thieves. The interview, a lot like that album (featuring the immortal line: "Here’s my dick/ Don’t like the taste/ Check the expiration date"), was a downer — a morbid, depressing rumination on being fired from the two bands he drummed for, the sorry state of session musician life, and the even sorrier state of the music business in general. But even as he talked shit about his own records, and about most things in general, Lenz was sly and darkly funny. He spoke of really wanting, more than anything, to do soundtrack work in the future.

Strictly Background finds Lenz — best known for drumming for Starflyer 59 and working with O.C. rockers The Lassie Foundation — doing exactly that, and seemingly in much better spirits than when I spoke with him those years ago. The producers of the film originally wrote it to an imagined soundtrack of E.L.O., Talking Heads, The Flaming Lips, and Eels. The rights to these songs were impossible to procure, so Lenz was brought in to soundtrack the film, using those acts as touchstones as he wrote the music.

Lenz’s back catalog suggests that he was a perfect choice, and the 29 tracks here offer plenty of evidence that these are areas well explored by Lenz. “Being an Extra” features a bouncy, funky strut, backed by rattling percussion. “Where the Extras Came From” and “Being on Set” are pensive, miniature twee sketches, deviating from Badly Drawn Boy's work for the About a Boy soundtrack only due to the inventive bass work of Eli Thompson (one of the few collaborators present) and Lenz’s wizardly electric piano touches. “Cattle Calls” is a hilarious, manic banjo romp suited well to the car chases I desperately hope it accompanies on celluloid, having yet to see the film. “Louis’s Mother” marries tapped bell percussion to dramatic, fuzzy organ. The take on Georges Bizet’s “Habanera de Carmen” is dramatic, playful, and downright silly, and works surprisingly well, skirting just shy of cliché. “Wardrobe” is one of the record’s finest moments, with “ba-ba-da”s floating over outrageously dramatic synths and strings.

But while the snippets and morsels presented undoubtedly work well in the context of the film, a collection of jingles is hardly worth hearing as an album. Thus it’s Lenz’s full-fledged pop songs that make up the muscle of the record. “Growing Older Makes You Bolder” surges with gently overdriven guitars and charging drums, as Lenz sings "Making fun of number one is easy when you’re young/ But now you’re older/ Time is shorter/ And you wish you’d just begun." “Childhood Dreams” finds Lenz singing in a hushed whisper over a plucked banjo, almost bringing to mind a stonier Sufjan Stevens, indebted more to Neil Young than Steve Reich. “God I Need a Map” mines bluesy Velvet Underground territory, with Lenz’s reedy vocals imploring a higher power for just a little guidance. “There’s Nothing Left of Me” is pure slacker folk, charming even as it states, "There’s nothing left of me/ For you to call an enemy."

“You Can’t Help Yourself” is the record's finest moment, an ode to "Venus in a white spread/ On a feather bed/ Who can’t touch herself" and "Kissing catastrophe/ X’s and ecstasy." It’s a the kind of effortlessly funny, cotton-candy pop that Lenz excels at, clenching soft-rock trappings and melding them with sly, tongue-in-cheek melodies. Strictly Background is a fun record, filled with quirks and grins, and if the film manages any of the same graces, it’s certainly worth watching. But more than anything, Strictly Background has reinforced the need for Frank Lenz to get to work on his next proper LP.

1. Intro
2. Getting Older Makes You Bolder
3. Being an Extra
4. Where the Extras Came From
5. Childhood Dreams
6. Being on Set
7. Holding
8. Cattle Calls
9. Tafan's Scam Story
10. God I Need a Map
11. Union Vs Non Union
12. Acting
13. Habanera De Carmen
14. Celebrities
15. Wardrobe
16. Working One
17. Working Two
18. Getting Booked
19. Frustrations
20. Louis' Mother
21. There's Nothing Left of Me
22. Tafan's Confessional
23. Proud to Be an Extra
24. The Stars Are Right Before Your Eyes
25. You Can't Help Yourself
26. Ode to the Extras
27. Homes
28. Favorite Films
29. What's the Name of This Film

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