Latest news with #Hartzman
Scoop
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Wednesday Announce New Album 'Bleeds'
Wednesday announce their anticipated new album, Bleeds, due 19th September via Dead Oceans. With Bleeds Wednesday present an intoxicating collection of narrative-heavy Southern rock that—like many of the most arresting passages from the North Carolina band's discography—thoughtfully explores the vivid link between curiosity and confession. Bleeds i s a patchwork-style triumph of literary allusions and outlaw grit, of place-based poetry and hair-raising noise. Karly Hartzman —founder, frontwoman, and primary lyricist—credits Wednesday's tightened grasp on their own identity to time spent collaborating on previous albums, plus a tour schedule that's been both rewarding and relentless. 'Bleeds is the spiritual successor to Rat Saw God, and I think the quintessential 'Wednesday Creek Rock' album,' Hartzman said, articulating satisfaction with the ways her band has sharpened its trademark sound, how they've refined the formula that makes them one of the most interesting rock bands of their generation. 'This is what Wednesday songs are supposed to sound like,' she said. 'We've devoted a lot of our lives to figuring this out—and I feel like we did.' 'Wound Up Here (By Holdin On),' released today alongside a video by Joriel Cura, is a perfect example of this alchemy. "This song is inspired by a story my friend told me, from when he had to pull a body out of a creek in West Virginia. Someone had drowned but they took a few days to resurface because of the current,' Hartzman explains. ''I wound up here by holdin on' is a line from my friend Evan Gray's poetry book: Thickets Swamped in a Fence-Coated Briars. He gave me and Jake a copy of it to read on tour once and that line stuck out to me as pure genius so I stole it and wrote the rest of the song in my own words around it." Last month the band shared 'Elderberry Wine,' a twangy and timeless new single, to wide critical praise that included being named 'Best New Track' by Pitchfork, one of 'The Best Songs of 2025 So Far' by TIME Magazine and praised by The Guardian in their playlist as a 'pedal-steel-sweetened heartwarmer'. The band performed the track and made their television debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert upon its release. Just like Rat Saw God, one of the defining rock & roll records of the 2020s so far, Bleeds came together at Drop of Sun in Asheville and was produced by Alex Farrar, who's been recording the band since Twin Plagues. Hartzman again brought demos to the studio, where she and her bandmates— Xandy Chelmis (lap steel, pedal steel), Alan Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (bass, piano), and Jake 'MJ' Lenderman (guitar)—worked as a team to bulk-up the compositions with the exact right amounts of country truth-telling, indie-pop hooks, and noisy sludge. More than ever, the precise proportions were steered by the lyricism—not only its tone or subject matter, but also the actual sound of the words, as well as Hartzman's masterfully subjective approach to detail selection. BLEEDS TRACKLISTING: 1. Reality TV Argument Bleeds 2. Townies 3. Wound Up Here (By Holdin On) 4. Elderberry Wine 5. Phish Pepsi 6. Candy Breath 7. The Way Love Goes 8. Pick Up That Knife 9. Wasp 10. Bitter Everyday 11. Carolina Murder Suicide 12. Gary's II
Hamilton Spectator
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Hamilton Spectator
The world according to Wednesday, your new favorite alt-country indie rock band
NEW YORK (AP) — A pit bull puppy peeing off a balcony. Mounted antlers in the kitchen on a crooked nail. Pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine. For its dedicated audience, the North Carolina alt-country-meets-indie rock band Wednesday is an exemplar in evocative songwriting, where whole worlds are found in short lyrical lines. And that says nothing of what they sound like. The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock is informed by Drive-By Truckers and Pavement in equal measure , a distinctive sonic fabric of lap steel, guitar fuzz, folksy and jagged vocals. On Sept. 19, they will release their sixth and most ambitious full-length, 'Bleeds.' 'My songwriting is just better on this album,' Wednesday's singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman explains. 'Things are said more succinctly ... the immediacy of these songs was the main growth.' Wednesday began as Hartzman's solo project, evidenced in 2018's sweet-sounding 'yep definitely.' They became a full band on 2020's 'I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone,' a dive into guitar distortions, and 2021's 'Twin Plagues,' a further refinement of their 'creek rock' sound. The lineup consists of Hartzman, bassist Ethan Baechtold, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, guitarist Jake Lenderman and drummer Alan Miller. Some also tour with Lenderman's solo project, MJ Lenderman. (Hartzman and Lenderman previously dated.) Wednesday's last album, the narrative 'Rat Saw God,' was named one of the best albums of 2023 by The Associated Press partially for its uncanny ability to dive into the particularities and complications of Southern identity . 'Bleeds' sharpens those tools. On 'Bleeds,' a band evolves 'Originally, I was going to call it 'Carolina Girl' but my bandmates did not like that,'' Hartzman jokes. 'Bleeds' comes from the explosive opening track, 'Reality TV Argument Bleeds.' She likes how the band name and album title sound together — ''Wednesday Bleeds,' which I feel like I do, when I play music ... I'm almost, in a way, bloodletting and exorcising a demon.' Lyrically, 'Bleeds' features some of Wednesday's best work — even in the revisiting of an older song, 'Phish Pepsi,' that hilariously references both the jam band and the most disturbing movie released in 2010 — a kind of specificity born from Hartzman's writing practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lenderman 'wrote 20 lines of writing each day,' a practice adopted from Silver Jews' David Berman . She's also a documentarian of memory: She takes notes of things her friends say and images that are affecting, to later collage them together in songs. 'The well never runs dry,' Hartzman says. 'Because I've admitted not everything can come from inside. I need to look outward outside of myself for inspiration.' Remembering, she says, 'is the goal for most of the (expletive) I do. ... I care. I want stories to persist.' Storytelling through song 'Bleeds' manages cohesion across a variance of sound. 'Wasp' is hard-core catharsis; lead single 'Elderberry Wine' drops guitar noise for shimmery, fermented country. 'Wound Up Here (By Holding On),' which references the Appalachian poet Evan Gray, is a pretty indie rock track about a hometown hero who drowns. The quietest moment on the album, the plucked 'The Way Love Goes,' was written as 'a love song for Jake when we were still together. 'Elderberry Wine' as well.'' Hartzman explains. ''Elderberry Wine' is kind of talking about me noticing slight changes in a relationship.' These are not breakup songs; they exist right before the point of dissolution. 'Sweet song is a long con / I drove ya to the airport with the E-brake on,' she sings on the latter. Later: 'Sometimes in my head I give up and / Flip the board completely.' 'I'm understanding how sound creates emotion. That's what I'm learning over time,' Hartzman says of her musical growth. 'I'm also listening to more music with every year that passes. So, my understanding of what's possible, or what I can be inspired by, shifts.' A number of the songs pull from childhood memory, as they always have across Wednesday's discography. 'I think about growing up a lot,' she says. 'When I think of trying to tell ... a story that's vivid and intense, that's just the easiest time in my life, where everything felt vivid and intense.' Longtime fans of the band will find recurring themes and characters from past songs. For example, 'Gary's' from their 2021 album returns as the 'Bleeds' closer in 'Gary's II,' where he gets into a bar fight. 'In a way, I'm writing the same songs over and over, but I'm just trying to make them better,' she says. There is always more humanity to excavate. And often, those emotions, 'they aren't done with you,' she adds. 'They're not letting you go.' So, let the bloodletting begin. ___ A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Margo Schulz as Wednesday's bassist. Ethan Baechtold is the current bassist. Schulz parted ways with the group before the release of the 2023 album 'Rat Saw God.'
San Francisco Chronicle
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
The world according to Wednesday, your new favorite alt-country indie rock band
NEW YORK (AP) — A pit bull puppy peeing off a balcony. Mounted antlers in the kitchen on a crooked nail. Pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine. For its dedicated audience, the North Carolina alt-country-meets-indie rock band Wednesday is an exemplar in evocative songwriting, where whole worlds are found in short lyrical lines. And that says nothing of what they sound like. The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock is informed by Drive-By Truckers and Pavement in equal measure, a distinctive sonic fabric of lap steel, guitar fuzz, folksy and jagged vocals. On Sept. 19, they will release their sixth and most ambitious full-length, 'Bleeds.' 'My songwriting is just better on this album,' Wednesday's singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman explains. 'Things are said more succinctly ... the immediacy of these songs was the main growth.' Wednesday began as Hartzman's solo project, evidenced in 2018's sweet-sounding 'yep definitely.' They became a full band on 2020's 'I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone,' a dive into guitar distortions, and 2021's 'Twin Plagues,' a further refinement of their 'creek rock' sound. The lineup consists of Hartzman, bassist Ethan Baechtold, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, guitarist Jake Lenderman and drummer Alan Miller. Some also tour with Lenderman's solo project, MJ Lenderman. (Hartzman and Lenderman previously dated.) Wednesday's last album, the narrative 'Rat Saw God,' was named one of the best albums of 2023 by The Associated Press partially for its uncanny ability to dive into the particularities and complications of Southern identity. 'Bleeds' sharpens those tools. On 'Bleeds,' a band evolves 'Originally, I was going to call it 'Carolina Girl' but my bandmates did not like that,'' Hartzman jokes. 'Bleeds' comes from the explosive opening track, 'Reality TV Argument Bleeds.' She likes how the band name and album title sound together — ''Wednesday Bleeds,' which I feel like I do, when I play music ... I'm almost, in a way, bloodletting and exorcising a demon.' Lyrically, 'Bleeds' features some of Wednesday's best work — even in the revisiting of an older song, 'Phish Pepsi,' that hilariously references both the jam band and the most disturbing movie released in 2010 — a kind of specificity born from Hartzman's writing practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lenderman 'wrote 20 lines of writing each day,' a practice adopted from Silver Jews' David Berman. She's also a documentarian of memory: She takes notes of things her friends say and images that are affecting, to later collage them together in songs. 'The well never runs dry,' Hartzman says. 'Because I've admitted not everything can come from inside. I need to look outward outside of myself for inspiration.' Remembering, she says, 'is the goal for most of the (expletive) I do. ... I care. I want stories to persist.' Storytelling through song 'Bleeds' manages cohesion across a variance of sound. 'Wasp' is hard-core catharsis; lead single 'Elderberry Wine' drops guitar noise for shimmery, fermented country. 'Wound Up Here (By Holding On),' which references the Appalachian poet Evan Gray, is a pretty indie rock track about a hometown hero who drowns. The quietest moment on the album, the plucked 'The Way Love Goes,' was written as 'a love song for Jake when we were still together. 'Elderberry Wine' as well.'' Hartzman explains. ''Elderberry Wine' is kind of talking about me noticing slight changes in a relationship.' These are not breakup songs; they exist right before the point of dissolution. 'Sweet song is a long con / I drove ya to the airport with the E-brake on,' she sings on the latter. Later: 'Sometimes in my head I give up and / Flip the board completely.' 'I'm understanding how sound creates emotion. That's what I'm learning over time,' Hartzman says of her musical growth. 'I'm also listening to more music with every year that passes. So, my understanding of what's possible, or what I can be inspired by, shifts.' A number of the songs pull from childhood memory, as they always have across Wednesday's discography. 'I think about growing up a lot,' she says. 'When I think of trying to tell ... a story that's vivid and intense, that's just the easiest time in my life, where everything felt vivid and intense.' Longtime fans of the band will find recurring themes and characters from past songs. For example, 'Gary's' from their 2021 album returns as the 'Bleeds' closer in 'Gary's II,' where he gets into a bar fight. 'In a way, I'm writing the same songs over and over, but I'm just trying to make them better,' she says. There is always more humanity to excavate. And often, those emotions, 'they aren't done with you,' she adds. 'They're not letting you go.' ___ A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Margo Schulz as Wednesday's bassist. Ethan Baechtold is the current bassist. Schulz parted ways with the group before the release of the 2023 album 'Rat Saw God.'
Winnipeg Free Press
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
The world according to Wednesday, your new favorite alt-country indie rock band
NEW YORK (AP) — A pit bull puppy peeing off a balcony. Mounted antlers in the kitchen on a crooked nail. Pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine. For its dedicated audience, the North Carolina alt-country-meets-indie rock band Wednesday is an exemplar in evocative songwriting, where whole worlds are found in short lyrical lines. And that says nothing of what they sound like. The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock is informed by Drive-By Truckers and Pavement in equal measure, a distinctive sonic fabric of lap steel, guitar fuzz, folksy and jagged vocals. On Sept. 19, they will release their sixth and most ambitious full-length, 'Bleeds.' 'My songwriting is just better on this album,' Wednesday's singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman explains. 'Things are said more succinctly … the immediacy of these songs was the main growth.' Wednesday began as Hartzman's solo project, evidenced in 2018's sweet-sounding 'yep definitely.' They became a full band on 2020's 'I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone,' a dive into guitar distortions, and 2021's 'Twin Plagues,' a further refinement of their 'creek rock' sound. The lineup consists of Hartzman, bassist Ethan Baechtold, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, guitarist Jake Lenderman and drummer Alan Miller. Some also tour with Lenderman's solo project, MJ Lenderman. (Hartzman and Lenderman previously dated.) Wednesday's last album, the narrative 'Rat Saw God,' was named one of the best albums of 2023 by The Associated Press partially for its uncanny ability to dive into the particularities and complications of Southern identity. 'Bleeds' sharpens those tools. On 'Bleeds,' a band evolves 'Originally, I was going to call it 'Carolina Girl' but my bandmates did not like that,'' Hartzman jokes. 'Bleeds' comes from the explosive opening track, 'Reality TV Argument Bleeds.' She likes how the band name and album title sound together — ''Wednesday Bleeds,' which I feel like I do, when I play music … I'm almost, in a way, bloodletting and exorcising a demon.' Lyrically, 'Bleeds' features some of Wednesday's best work — even in the revisiting of an older song, 'Phish Pepsi,' that hilariously references both the jam band and the most disturbing movie released in 2010 — a kind of specificity born from Hartzman's writing practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lenderman 'wrote 20 lines of writing each day,' a practice adopted from Silver Jews' David Berman. She's also a documentarian of memory: She takes notes of things her friends say and images that are affecting, to later collage them together in songs. 'The well never runs dry,' Hartzman says. 'Because I've admitted not everything can come from inside. I need to look outward outside of myself for inspiration.' Remembering, she says, 'is the goal for most of the (expletive) I do. … I care. I want stories to persist.' Storytelling through song 'Bleeds' manages cohesion across a variance of sound. 'Wasp' is hard-core catharsis; lead single 'Elderberry Wine' drops guitar noise for shimmery, fermented country. 'Wound Up Here (By Holding On),' which references the Appalachian poet Evan Gray, is a pretty indie rock track about a hometown hero who drowns. The quietest moment on the album, the plucked 'The Way Love Goes,' was written as 'a love song for Jake when we were still together. 'Elderberry Wine' as well.'' Hartzman explains. ''Elderberry Wine' is kind of talking about me noticing slight changes in a relationship.' These are not breakup songs; they exist right before the point of dissolution. 'Sweet song is a long con / I drove ya to the airport with the E-brake on,' she sings on the latter. Later: 'Sometimes in my head I give up and / Flip the board completely.' 'I'm understanding how sound creates emotion. That's what I'm learning over time,' Hartzman says of her musical growth. 'I'm also listening to more music with every year that passes. So, my understanding of what's possible, or what I can be inspired by, shifts.' A number of the songs pull from childhood memory, as they always have across Wednesday's discography. 'I think about growing up a lot,' she says. 'When I think of trying to tell … a story that's vivid and intense, that's just the easiest time in my life, where everything felt vivid and intense.' Longtime fans of the band will find recurring themes and characters from past songs. For example, 'Gary's' from their 2021 album returns as the 'Bleeds' closer in 'Gary's II,' where he gets into a bar fight. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. 'In a way, I'm writing the same songs over and over, but I'm just trying to make them better,' she says. There is always more humanity to excavate. And often, those emotions, 'they aren't done with you,' she adds. 'They're not letting you go.' So, let the bloodletting begin. ___ A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Margo Schulz as Wednesday's bassist. Ethan Baechtold is the current bassist. Schulz parted ways with the group before the release of the 2023 album 'Rat Saw God.'
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
The world according to Wednesday, your new favorite alt-country indie rock band
NEW YORK -- A pit bull puppy peeing off a balcony. Mounted antlers in the kitchen on a crooked nail. Pink boiled eggs stay afloat in the brine. For its dedicated audience, the North Carolina alt-country-meets-indie rock band Wednesday is an exemplar in evocative songwriting, where whole worlds are found in short lyrical lines. And that says nothing of what they sound like. The most exciting band in contemporary indie rock is informed by Drive-By Truckers and Pavement in equal measure, a distinctive sonic fabric of lap steel, guitar fuzz, folksy and jagged vocals. On Sept. 19, they will release their sixth and most ambitious full-length, 'Bleeds.' 'My songwriting is just better on this album,' Wednesday's singer and songwriter Karly Hartzman explains. 'Things are said more succinctly ... the immediacy of these songs was the main growth.' Wednesday began as Hartzman's solo project, evidenced in 2018's sweet-sounding 'yep definitely.' They became a full band on 2020's 'I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone,' a dive into guitar distortions, and 2021's 'Twin Plagues,' a further refinement of their 'creek rock' sound. The lineup consists of Hartzman, bassist Margo Schulz, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, guitarist Jake Lenderman and drummer Alan Miller. Some also tour with Lenderman's solo project, MJ Lenderman. (Hartzman and Lenderman previously dated.) Wednesday's last album, the narrative 'Rat Saw God,' was named one of the best albums of 2023 by The Associated Press partially for its uncanny ability to dive into the particularities and complications of Southern identity. 'Bleeds' sharpens those tools. 'Originally, I was going to call it 'Carolina Girl' but my bandmates did not like that,'' Hartzman jokes. 'Bleeds' comes from the explosive opening track, 'Reality TV Argument Bleeds.' She likes how the band name and album title sound together — ''Wednesday Bleeds,' which I feel like I do, when I play music ... I'm almost, in a way, bloodletting and exorcising a demon.' Lyrically, 'Bleeds' features some of Wednesday's best work — even in the revisiting of an older song, 'Phish Pepsi,' that hilariously references both the jam band and the most disturbing movie released in 2010 — a kind of specificity born from Hartzman's writing practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and Lenderman 'wrote 20 lines of writing each day,' a practice adopted from Silver Jews' David Berman. She's also a documentarian of memory: She takes notes of things her friends say and images that are affecting, to later collage them together in songs. 'The well never runs dry,' Hartzman says. 'Because I've admitted not everything can come from inside. I need to look outward outside of myself for inspiration.' Remembering, she says, 'is the goal for most of the (expletive) I do. ... I care. I want stories to persist.' 'Bleeds' manages cohesion across a variance of sound. 'Wasp' is hard-core catharsis; lead single 'Elderberry Wine' drops guitar noise for shimmery, fermented country. 'Wound Up Here (By Holding On),' which references the Appalachian poet Evan Gray, is a pretty indie rock track about a hometown hero who drowns. The quietest moment on the album, the plucked 'The Way Love Goes,' was written as 'a love song for Jake when we were still together. 'Elderberry Wine' as well.'' Hartzman explains. ''Elderberry Wine' is kind of talking about me noticing slight changes in a relationship.' These are not breakup songs; they exist right before the point of dissolution. 'Sweet song is a long con / I drove ya to the airport with the E-brake on,' she sings on the latter. Later: 'Sometimes in my head I give up and / Flip the board completely.' 'I'm understanding how sound creates emotion. That's what I'm learning over time,' Hartzman says of her musical growth. 'I'm also listening to more music with every year that passes. So, my understanding of what's possible, or what I can be inspired by, shifts.' A number of the songs pull from childhood memory, as they always have across Wednesday's discography. 'I think about growing up a lot,' she says. 'When I think of trying to tell ... a story that's vivid and intense, that's just the easiest time in my life, where everything felt vivid and intense.' Longtime fans of the band will find recurring themes and characters from past songs. For example, 'Gary's' from their 2021 album returns as the 'Bleeds' closer in 'Gary's II,' where he gets into a bar fight. 'In a way, I'm writing the same songs over and over, but I'm just trying to make them better,' she says. There is always more humanity to excavate. And often, those emotions, 'they aren't done with you,' she adds. 'They're not letting you go.'
