Video: Jess Williamson – “Topanga Two Step”

Directed by Samuel Walker. From Time Ain’t Accidental, out now on Mexican Summer.

I can never remember the difference between Topanga Canyon and Laurel Canyon. I know one is more rural and one is basically in the middle of Hollywood, but I can never remember which is which. I think Neil Young lived in both.

I’m with some friends you don’t know in the studio
And you’re on the beach.

Is that a Neil Young reference? Probably not but maybe.

Williams says, “Lyrically, the song comes from a moment in my life when I was trying too hard to impress someone who was really different from me, but the rejection and weirdness I felt ended up guiding me into a deeper understanding of myself.”

Got my best boots on for ya babe
And I’m falling cross your dance floor
I’m a sparkling thing you ain’t never seen before.

She told Stereogum, “But let’s just say there’s a certain type of man that is dating in LA, that has money. I just realized like, ‘What do you think of me?’ I don’t come from where you come from. I’m not familiar with some of these things that are normal to you. That’s where ‘Topanga Two Step’ really came from. Noticing my own otherness, my own Texan-ness, in contrast to some of these other people that I was running around with for a second. I was so different in a way I had never thought about before. I was feeling a little judged but also having fun with it too and not taking it too seriously.”

Good for her for having fun with it–and getting a good song out of it–but to hell with all those assholes in Los Angeles. They have no idea what’s actually cool.