Maron: “White Truck”
(Episode 02.11)

In a renowned clip from Almost Famous that made the internet rounds after his tragic passing, Philip Seymour Hoffman—playing canonical music journalist Lester Bangs—consoles a young music journalist disappointed by the realities of adulthood he’s learning the hard way. “Great art is about conflict and pain and guilt and longing,” Hoffman says. “And love disguised as sex and sex disguised as love.”
I’m not sure which disguise Marc Maron is adopting on “White Truck,” tonight’s episode of Maron on IFC, but throughout the series’ almost two seasons, Maron has remained as concerned as Depeche Mode is with questions of lust. Sometimes, he lusts after women; sometimes they lust after him. Sometimes he lusts after fame; sometimes others’ lust for it makes him hate them.
And sometimes Marc—an addict in recovery, mind you—seizes onto an idea or a person or a thing and goes whole-hog, diving into a new preoccupation headfirst. On the surface, “White Truck” is about Marc’s new hobby—vinyl records. It’s got all the standard elements of the Maron playbook—a snobby hipster looking down his nose at the old man trying desperately to stay hip, Marc overcompensating for his awkwardness by trying to belong so hard it hurts, ruminations on his age (based on everything we know about Marc, a vinyl midlife crisis is certainly feasible), semi-obscure cultural references, and the like.
Maron and his team want this episode to be about vinyl’s superiority—music is always a solid analogue for “hearing the pain better.” But instead, we get a static that distracts us. It’s white noise. The problem with “White Truck” is just that. What the heck is the white truck doing here?
There have been plenty of failed romances that play out with the perfect soundtrack—it’s better to burn out than fade away, right? But “White Truck’s” A and B sides are arrhythmic and dissonant. As he’s leaving the record store after another round of one-upsmanship with the clerk, Marc meets an alleged divorcée realtor who lies about her marital status and compliments Marc’s interior decorating skills. They have sex, making not-so-sweet music during an open house. Then it turns out she’s not actually divorced and Marc invents a worst-case scenario—a “murderous” angry husband. It winds up being accurate.