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Fans of Loudon Wainwright III will receive a double-dose of the singer-songwriter this September, when Wainwright releases a new album and begins making regular appearances on a new television series.
On September 24th, Wainwright will release Last Man on Earth, his first album since 1999's topical collection Social Studies, which featured songs pulled from national news that Wainwright had penned for NPR. But his latest, which he spend a year creating, looks to be a change of direction.
"The record is quite a serious record for me -- that is to say that there are no novelty songs on it," Wainwright says. "No 'I Wish I Was a Lesbian' or anything like that. The record is driven by a lot of rather serious things that have happened to be in the last year, including the death of my mother. I think it's a good record, but what the hell do I know? I've only made nineteen of 'em. But I run it through the shit detector and make sure it's not gratuitous. If it's true and it feels right I'll put it out there -- that's my motto or something."
Wainwright doesn't yet know what to expect from fans who might prefer his lighter fare. "We'll see," he says. "I'm sure there'll be people there who are gonna go, 'Hey, lighten up, Loud! It's only your mother that died!' And then there are people that will like an unjokey record. My job with all of these records is to make the best thing that I can with the songs I've written. It just so happens that it's a group of serious songs."
As for the TV gig, Wainwright has joined the cast of the upcoming Fox show Undeclared, the latest brainchild of Freaks and Geeks creator Judd Apatow, which will premiere on September 18th. The show centers on a group of college freshmen just arriving at school, with Wainwright playing the father of the protagonist. "About an hour after sending him off, I show up at the dorm all cheerful, but when we get behind closed doors I tell him I've just been dumped by my wife," he says of his character, Hal Karp. "And on his first day of college I wind up staying with him and getting drunk, getting my face painted and passing out and sleeping in his bed. [Hal]'s a slightly dysfunctional fellow -- lost I'd say. In other words, he's just like I am . . . except worse, or better depending on Tuesday or Thursday."
Though Wainwright had done some acting previously, Apatow approached him unaware of his experience, which includes parts in such films as 28 Days, The Slugger's Wife and Jacknife. "Judd, as you probably know from watching Freaks and Geeks, casts a bit off-center," Wainwright says. He just called up out of the blue and said, 'I'm a fan and we're doing this show, and would you be interested in auditioning?'"
So for the time being, Wainwright will appear in seven of the thirteen episodes of the program, which, should it be successful, will go back for an additional nine episodes to round out a season. Then there's the album, and most likely touring. "It's going to be an onslaught," he says.
As for the difference between songcraft and the small screen, Wainwright doesn't perceive a high art, low art gap. "I can get pretty lowbrow when it comes to songwriting. After all, I'm the guy who wrote "Dead Skunk." So my brow is kind of around navel height. In fact, there's some hair growing down here."
ANDREW DANSBY
(July 26, 2001)