Stones Throw Releases Kyle Mooney Music Project & Mini-Documentary

In late January, we attended a concert by Tim Heidecker And The Very Good Band in Seattle. Heidecker is best known for his acting career and as the comedic genius behind such projects as Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, On Cinema, and Office Hours Live. Meanwhile, he’s been proving himself in the music industry for well over a decade. Tim‘s concerts are light-hearted affairs with plenty of banter and humor finds its way into the concepts and lyrics of many of his tunes, but the music career itself is not a joke. The comedian/actor/producer is actually a pretty great songwriter and has surrounded himself with high-caliber musicians. What added some confusion to the show was the inclusion of SNL alum, Kyle Mooney as the “opener.” I was excited to see him on the bill, but I know him primarily from videos and sketch comedy. I wondered how a live set from him would work into the evening and was eager to find out.

The night of the show, a member of the venue security told me that he believed Kyle would be playing music, too. He thought that he might even have a band of his own. That seemed odd and it turned out that he was 100% wrong. The comedian came out for a half-hour intermission to break up the show. He largely improvised a routine portraying his character “Todd,” from the recurring SNL sketch, Inside SoCal which depicts members of Southern California skate culture running a low-budget, low-energy program on local news and culture. He was great and it fell much more in line with what I was expecting, but I’d already created this whole image of the Y2K director on stage playing guitar. Does Kyle actually make music? What would that sound like if he does? Today we get an answer to both of those questions.

Stones Throw Records has just announced Mooney‘s musical debut under the moniker of Kyle M. Titled The Real Me, the new album consists entirely of self-recorded original material. Promotional photos feature Kyle holding an acoustic guitar and all materials related to the project emphasize how this venture into music is absolutely SERIOUS and NOT A JOKE. I’d love to give him the benefit of the doubt — I just wrote and published a lengthy review all about Heidecker deserving more credit as a serious musician — but certain aspects of this release come across as tongue-in-cheek, at best. One example is how the subject of the announcement emailed to us from the publicist claims that Mooney “quit acting to focus on [his] music career.” The press release goes on to assert that he is “ready to shed his comedic skin and introduce the real him: Kyle M, multidisciplinary artist and proud visionary.” It continues by stating that “the record reflects on Kyle’s career shift and peeks behind the curtain into a singular artistic vision unbound by genre – you’ll find rock, country, dance, R&B, and more.“

Accompanying the announcement is an approximately 3-minute “mini-documentary” in which Kyle reminisces about his roots and how he, supposedly, dreamed about being involved in music prior to entering comedy and the acting world. In it, he states that he “Sang every song. Played every instrument” on the new LP and promises that, “there’s nothing comedic about the Kyle M. project.” 

The press release adds the following:

“Take a deeply personal trip back to Kyle’s childhood home where his musical journey began in The Real Me mini-documentary – before the fame, before millions of views on YouTube as a member of the iconic online sketch group Good Neighbor, and before his successful turn as a director in A24’s Y2K. The Real Me wants you to forget all of that – “I know I come off as a clown,” Kyle M sings. “But… there’s a real me deep down.””

You can watch the mini-doc for yourself, below.

One cool thing about this project is that we don’t need to wait to see what it’s all about. Stones Throw isn’t simply announcing its existence today, or even doing a gradual rollout of singles over time. Instead, they’ve opted to drop the entire thing on streaming services all at once. With 11 tracks coming in at a modest 20-minute run-time, I’ve already managed to listen to the full album more than once, while typing this. My initial reaction is that I’m into it. That said, The Real Me is at least partially a comedy record, but it’s one with some really enjoyable musical elements to it.

The first track is a 38-second intro where Kyle is having a conversation with himself about how he’s about to go on a journey inside of himself. His awkward delivery mirrors the feigned lack of confidence in much of his comedy. This involves casual stutters, mumbles, and/or correcting himself mid-sentence. The vocals continue this way throughout the album with Mooney rarely attempting much in the way of traditional singing. Whenever his voice does start to get off the ground, it’s common for him to suddenly revert to his talk-singing approach mid-verse. The first real song, “Kid On The Range” is an acoustic guitar and piano number about a lonely cowboy reflecting on how he isn’t living up to the aspirations of his Pa. It’s through this song that we’re introduced to the rough vocal mix wrought with breathing and pops in the mic. “Digital Society” is a bouncy keyboard jam with programmed claps and commentary on society’s overreliance on technology in a manner reminiscent of a toned-down Kraftwerk or DEVO. This is followed by a swinging surf rock number about his “Blue Car” and “Gwendolyn Bartley,” Kyle‘s attempt at a more dramatic “Eleonor Rigby“-style tale addressing the way elderly people are viewed and treated in our society. Other topics include “California Summer,” living in a haunted house where a ghost attacks his self-esteem, the need to get on the dancefloor after working a square job all week, and the discomfort of being forced to shower after Junior High P.E. class. It’s generally a lo-fi effort, but the musical styles are all over the place, ranging from indie and synth-pop to folk rock. There’s even a sensual love ballad. The album finishes with the title track which involves Kyle M. expressing how he’s tired of being reduced to a dancing clown, before thanking everyone for listening to him bare his soul on this record.

Overall, The Real Me is referential by intention and Mooney‘s voice isn’t going to blow anyone away, unless their headphones are cranked up too loud during one of the mic pops. The absurdist lyrics and masterfully clumsy vocal delivery undermine any chance of fully buying into his sincerity, yet the music remains an enjoyable listen with replayability. Inversely, the instrumentation and song structures are too successful to dismiss the music as nothing more than a vessel for comedy. The strength of The Real Me is its ability to ride that careful balance between two conflicting aspects that somehow complement and strengthen one another by refusing to allow either to dominate.

It’s easy to feel that there is truth in the title track, even with its blatant attempt to gaslight the listener for questioning the earnestness of a song with a fumbled guitar solo where he laments an apparition calling him a loser, or another about wearing spurs and fearing he will never mature into a “cow man.” The paradox of Kyle M‘s debut is that it is heartfelt, even if it may not be in the way or places that we are informed we should be finding it. There is emotion and energy to the project not unlike what I’d encounter in a lot of underground indie releases in the 90s. The simple production lands for me in that respect and feels like something that would make even more sense on a label like Kill Rock Stars or Drag City than Stones Throw. There is still power in many of the core ideas presented here, if not in particular concepts or references they’re adjacent to. When it’s all said and done, the “real” Kyle M. is someone who puts his heart into his work and cares about the overall product that he’s crafting. There’s skill to it and the result is reflective of his unique multidisciplinary art, after all. Stones Throw has announced that they are “proud to usher in this new era of Kyle M’s artistry, hoping that the world will find this album incredibly creative and poetic.” We genuinely, sincerely, and earnestly do. I don’t expect it to be for everyone, but we’re definitely enjoying it. 

Vinyl is available to purchase exclusively from the Stones Throw shop with the first 100 orders including a signed 8×10. The product is ready to ship. A wider release is slated for late April.

Use the embedded Bandcamp player below to hear The Real Me in its entirety.