Acting and music are in Jason Schwartzman's genes. He's the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and the cousin of Nicolas Cage. His brother, Robert, fronts the indie-rock band Rooney.
So it's no surprise that Schwartzman started Coconut Records the same year (2007) that he starred in the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Limited.
Coconut Records is Schwartzman's solo moniker. He wrote the songs and performs almost all of the instrumentation on Davy.
The album is easygoing, mid-tempo piano rock high on Weezer-like charm. The melodic tracks are honest and sweetly vulnerable and still manage to be ultra-cool.
"Drummer" is an autobiographical romp through Schwartzman's own teen and young adult years. "Any Fun" mixes wistful piano with rising vocal harmonies that build to a crescendo.
"Microphone" is Davy's first single. It's a bittersweet saga of forbidden love punctuated at its most earnest moments by a melodica - that odd and dreamy keyboard wind instrument that's a lot like the quirky charm of this entire album.