Jenny Lewis abides

(Credit: Autumn de Wilde)

To be a pin-up girl in the indie rock world is to walk a very, very fine line between “approachably sexy girl-next-door” and “serious musician.” Among the few who've been able to pull it off is Jenny Lewis, frontwoman for artsy rockers Rilo Kiley and now a vital solo artist, as well. She's recently followed up her country-laced solo debut “Rabbit Fur Coat” with “Acid Tongue,” a far more rocking record featuring unlikely guest Elvis Costello (Lewis also contributed to his “Momofuku” album, and reveals a little-known fact about him: “He loves the Grateful Dead”).

Lewis’ upcoming solo tour will include an acoustic segment with both her own songs and older Rilo Kiley material. We caught up with her on the road, and spoke about indie-rock etiquette, Mario Batali food tours, and how she almost was cast in one of the biggest cult classics of all time.

You're just back from Australia, where you played the V Festival. It was your first trip there, right? How was it?
We actually got into an altercation with one of the other bands. This creep from this band came up to me in my dressing room, and just started muttering the most vile things in my ear. There was nearly a scuffle—it ended up a crazy evening. Things were yelled. Initially he was trying to pick me up, but then it resulted in the guys in my band protecting my honor—and I stood up for myself too: “Hey man, get out of my dressing room!”

There's a perception of the indie rock world that it's full of these sensitive guys who would never do something like that...
It's kind of invigorating, actually, just to have something go down that isn't totally polite.

Last night I was at a fancy new restaurant called Street in Los Angeles, and I heard [Rilo Kiley's] “Silver Lining” on the PA. Do you remember the first time you heard yourself randomly somewhere like that?
The first time it happened in a relatively established place was in TopShop in the U.K., and “Portions for Foxes” came on. It was very exciting. I was hoping someone would recognize me, but they didn't. I was singing along with myself. It was embarrassing. That restaurant [Street is] in extremely close proximity to my favorite restaurant, [Mario Batali's] Pizzeria Mozza. Love those Brussel sprouts.

It's interesting that a lot of chefs now are becoming rock stars themselves.
I actually met Mario Batali a couple years ago, and I was just about to go on a press tour for “Rabbit Fur Coat,” where I was in a different city each day. He gave me a list of restaurants in Paris, Dublin, London, Barcelona—so I followed Batali's recommendations, which was really, really exciting. The range of restaurants he sent me to: fine dining in Dublin, street vendors in the Bocaria market in Barcelona. I also worship Anthony Bordain. He's my favorite guy on television.

A lot of people know you as a child actress [from “Troop Beverly Hills” and “The Wizard”], but you recently made a not-so-public return to the screen, as a voice in “Bolt.”
It wasn't really an acting gig—they invited me to come down to the Disney studios, and I stood in a giant room with sketches from floor to ceiling. I met a bunch of the animators, and the directors; they asked me to write a song for a montage traveling sequence in the middle of the film. After I wrote the song and recorded it, with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, then they asked me to come in and do one line. I say something like: “We've got a boom mic!”

Maybe it's the first of many one-lines in animated movies.
I actually did one line on “American Dad,” too. I think I've found my niche after all these years!

You'll be the go-to girl for one random line in an animated series.
[Overly enunciating] “These pretzels are making me thirsty!” When I moved out of my parents’ house in [San Fernando] Valley when I was really young, I moved in with two animators; one guy worked on “Ren and Stimpy,” so I became friends with a whole crew of animators in Los Angeles. I've always been a fan of the process, and the animator mentality. I also did one line, when I was maybe four years old, in a Charlie Brown Christmas special; I'm definitely connected to that world.

Do you ever feel an itch to go back into to the live acting world?
I haven't been an actor for a very long time—I auditioned for the last Coen Brothers movie, and I read for one of the parts, and that's as close as I've gotten. I tanked on the audition. I was awful. But before I stopped acting, I auditioned for “The Big Lebowski”—the Tara Reid part…

Bunny Lebowski!
Yeah, Bunny! At the time, I remember reading the script and crying with laughter. I still have the script—I saved it. I've seen it more than any other movie. I was so sad when they tore down the bowling alley on Santa Monica Blvd., where they filmed “The Big Lebowski.” What a bummer that they built a school there!