Latest news with #MJLenderman
Powys County Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Thousands revel in the sun at Powys staged Green Man 2025
Green Man Festival 2025 is in full swing in the Powys countryside, with the sun-drenched Saturday packing in standout performances, surprise sets, and art-led experiences. There were returning favourites and future stars, and a monumental Mountain Stage performance from CMAT, who described her long awaited Welsh debut as 'one of the best shows of her life'. Draped in the Welsh flag, CMAT and The Very Sexy CMAT Band filled the Mountain Stage with one of the biggest crowds in Green Man history, with festival-goers two-stepping to songs old and new; from her 2022 breakout single I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! to viral hits The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station and Take A Sexy Picture Of Me, staking her claim as one of the most memorable Green Man performances to date. The late-night euphoria of electronic music legends Underworld – who formed in South Wales nearly 40 years ago – closed the day with a pulse-pounding set packed with techno beats, hypnotic visuals, and festival-defining moments. A triumphant rendition of their hit 'Born Slippy' sent the crowd into a frenzy, proving to be one of the biggest highlights of the night. Other remarkable performances lighting up the Mountain Stage on Saturday included Seattle-born singer-songwriting force Perfume Genius, who treated entranced audiences to a captivating set spanning his critically acclaimed catalogue, including tracks from his breakout 2025 record Glory, alongside North Carolina's MJ Lenderman and his band The Wind, whose special, 90-minute extended set of gritty, indie-rock energy and compelling storytelling electrified the crowd. Wales' own star Gwenno took the Green Man crowd by storm on Saturday afternoon, as she mesmerised fans with ethereal vocals and electronic soundscapes from her acclaimed 2025 album Tresor The Mountain Stage also played host to Afrofuturist ensemble Fulu Miziki and Boss Morris, with their modernistic reimagining of morris dancing. MJ Lenderman wasn't the only artist making a triumphant return to the Black Mountains, as 2024 Mercury Prize winners English Teacher and Welsh surf-pop favourites Melin Melyn also returned to Green Man. Having played at the festival in 2022 on the Rising stage, English Teacher soared on the Far Out stage, with crowds singing every word of their breakout anthem 'Nearly Daffodils'. Earlier, Melin Melyn lit up the same stage with their psychedelic flair, sparking a technicolour dance party that stood out as one of the weekend's most joyful moments. Over at the Walled Garden stage, another emerging Bristol star, Lucy Gooch, left crowds breathless as she held them in a dreamlike haze with ambient soundscapes. The ancient stone walls and oaks of the Walled Garden stage proved to be a beautiful setting for her standout performance, and those that followed. The Babbling Tongues area bustled with curious minds on Saturday afternoon, as jasmine.4.t, the newest Saddest Factory signee, joined hyperpop artist and drag royalty Happyness, a.k.a Ash Kenazi, for a raw and fascinating conversation on queer identity, vulnerability, and defying genre expectations in the music industry. Later in the same area on Saturday, celebrated comedian Stewart Lee gave a deliriously funny set of riffs on cultural decline, and the absurdities of modern life, leaving the audience in stitches. For festival goers seeking a fix of heavier sounds, Saturday night provided unruly belters from emerging experimental artist Black Fondu, who brought his signature blend of abstract grime, punk, and electronica to a Rising stage crowd ready to bounce around, and Manchester newcomers Westside Cowboy, who delivered a DIY indie-rock fueled set in the spirit of 2000s garage bands. With the festival weekend now in full swing, there's plenty more in store on the final day of Green Man 2025, with performances from dancefloor funk pioneers Cymande, trip-hop alt-indie alchemist Nilüfer Yanya, mighty Birmingham duo Big Special, New York City genre-benders Been Stellar, ethereal techno auteur Kelly Lee Owens, and many more.
Chicago Tribune
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
MJ Lenderman at Salt Shed: Perfecting the art of malaise
Its only a handful of years into his acclaimed career but to say MJ Lenderman sounds like the second coming of Neil Young has already become tired, however true, and, considering that Young himself is still alive and touring, even kind of blasphemous. Yet, sorry, but it's hard to unhear this: There is the same weary warble tuned to permanent heartbreak, and that trudging pace that suggests the band is seconds away from resting their heads on pillows, and here are the grinding hurricanes of feedback that summon images of western plains and mesas, and a little Sonic Youth. Watching Lenderman at the Salt Shed on Wednesday was to be reminded of the curious power of exhaustion. It's a beautiful, humid, rickety sound. You can hear in it why the sighs of Neil Young became inextricable from Watergate-era malaise, and how Lenderman, 50 years later, sounds like both a throwback to strung-out singer-songwriters of the '70s and very much of his own time. His muse is fading expectations. He sang, 'Every day is a miracle, not to mention a threat.' He sang, 'We sat under a half-mast McDonald's flag.' He sang, 'Every Catholic knows he could've been pope.' That last one, eerily prescient, got a big Chicago cheer. It came just after another Chicago name-drop, 'Hangover Game,' the show opener, about Michael Jordan's infamous 1997 finals performance, the one where he scored 38 points despite supposedly playing through a bout of flu or something. Or as Lenderman sees it: 'It wasn't the pizza/ And it wasn't the flu/ Yeah, I love drinking, too.' And I love a singer I can smile and nod along with. The man is a fountain of random, biting one-liners and, despite a lanky frame and stunned backwoods grin suggesting a half-finished John Mayer, he comes across on stage with a muscular immediacy (which could be why his fanbase seems to be male Gen X dyspeptics, with a helping of depleted millennials). All of this comes across as simultaneously familiar and fresh, even if you don't recognize the precedents. There's the deadpan of John Prine, right there. The late-dawning self-awareness of a Charles Portis character, the non-sequiturs of Steve Martin. Every influence is set to a languid pace — entirely languid, in need of variety — but with hooks you can not shake. (Sorry, one more lyric — 'So you say I've wasted my life away/ Well, I got a beach home up in Buffalo.') I fear I'm making MJ Lenderman (Mark Jacob, of Asheville, North Carolina) sound more like a recipe than what his Salt Shed show proved: At 26, he's more than ready to be the rallying point rock could use. Like other indie stars in his orbit — Waxahatchee, Wednesday, both of which he's recorded and performed with — he avoids coming off like a nostalgia act by drawing more on the spirit than specifics of his influences. Nobody here seems eager to get anywhere. His excellent band can walk a squall of droning guitars and pedal steel into an abrupt stop, hover a second, then surge forward as one, without sounding rehearsed. Nothing feels machine-tooled, nevermind factory-precise. But I hesitate to say this is not fashionable in 2025 — Waxahatchee seems maybe one album away from playing arenas, and MJ Lenderman's sold-out Salt Shed audience of 3,000 was his largest headlining show so far. I also hesitate to say Wilco, which certainly shares fans, could be a model here for the future — MJ Lenderman is still loitering in a pretty comfortable sound, and not showing a lot of eagerness to stretch. And at least right now, it's working ridiculously well. There's no preening, no self-consciousness, only a giant casual cosy hug of recognition at the mess we're in. These songs never talk at you. There's no self-improvement plan or preaching. It's the sound of overheard conversation, bracketed by guitar solos arrived at with minimum fanfare, every line building on a tone of uncertainty and rattling around your head. Like, 'One of these days, you'll kill a man/ For asking a question you don't understand.' Somehow, it's both poignant and unmoored from any specific meaning. For the first encore, MJ Lenderman returned explicitly to Neil Young to cover 'Lotta Love,' but now that famous Top 40 refrain — 'It's gonna take a lotta love, to change the way things are' — repeated and repeated and repeated, no longer suggested just a tenuous romance. It suggested: MJ Lenderman, the new poet laureate of national decline.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wednesday Return With ‘Elderberry Wine,' a Love Song About Finding That ‘Delicate Balance'
It's only fitting that Wednesday returns on a Wednesday. The indie rockers are back with the new single 'Elderberry Wine.' The track opens with Karly Hartzman's razor-sharp lines ('Aint heard that voice in a long time/Had to check back there to make sure you were alive'), with MJ Lenderman on backing vocals and guitar. Xandy Chelmis rounds it out with cozy lap steel, making it a warm welcome back for the band. More from Rolling Stone the Beaches, Wet Leg, MJ Lenderman to Headline Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Tour 'Wednesday' Returns to the Scene of the Crime in Season 2 Teaser Jenna Ortega Left 'Scream 7' Because It Was 'Falling Apart' After Melissa Barrera Was Fired ''Elderberry Wine' is about the potential for sweet things in life (love, family, success) to become poison if not prepared for and attended to correctly,' Hartzman explains. 'Elderberry is known as a healing fruit, and is an ingredient in many tonics and syrups to aid the immune system. One time, however, my sister consumed them raw and it immediately induced vomiting. So 'Elderberry Wine' is ultimately a love song about creating just the right environment for fulfillment. There's a delicate balance that needs to be created, especially in love, for two lives to intersect without poisoning each other.' The video above opens with a man driving to a bar, where Hartzman is serving drinks. He's eagerly watching a horse race, until Hartzman changes the channel to the band performing the single, resulting in him mouthing, 'What the fuck?' According to director Spencer Kelly, the video was shot at the Bench in Greensboro, North Carolina, the city's second-oldest bar. 'We came in with some specific scripted scenes, but we wanted to capture the bar as authentically as possible, so everyone you see in the video is a regular, including Karly's dad, George,' he said in a statement. 'This video is a bit of a love letter to places like this, where the sense of community runs deep and the beers are always cold.' 'Elderberry Wine' marks Wednesday's first new music since their 2023 breakthrough album Rat Saw God. The band (Hartzman, Lenderman, Chelmis, Alan Miller, and Ethan Baechtold) will perform the single this evening on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, making their television debut. Wednesday will hit two festivals this year: Project Pabst on the weekend of July 26 and Best Friends Forever on the weekend of Oct. 10. But amid his massive solo success with his recent LP Manning Fireworks, Lenderman will no longer be touring with the band. He told GQ that his last show with them was on Jan. 4 in Chiba, Japan; he and Hartzman broke up during that tour. In that same interview, Hartzman spoke about the band's new music, recorded after her split with Lenderman. 'I was numb during those sessions. I had to be,' she said. '[Lenderman] and I had written so many songs about each other and our relationship over the years, including these, and I just needed to get them out.' Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
2025 Americana Awards Nominations: Charley Crockett, MJ Lenderman, and More
The Americana Music Association has announced the nominees for the 2025 Americana Honors & Awards. Held every September during the annual Americana Music Festival in Nashville, the ceremonies will recognize the outstanding albums, songs, and artists in the roots music world. This year, Charley Crockett, MJ Lenderman, and the Americana power couple of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are all nominated. The winners will be announced Wednesday, Sept. 10, at the Ryman Auditorium. AmericanaFest kicks off Sept. 9 and runs through the 13th. This marks the festival's 25th year. More from Rolling Stone Wednesday Return With 'Elderberry Wine,' a Love Song About Finding That 'Delicate Balance' the Beaches, Wet Leg, MJ Lenderman to Headline Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Tour Charley Crockett Is Taking Texas to the World 2025 Americana Honors & Awards nominees: ALBUM OF THE YEARLonesome Drifter, Charley Crockett; Produced by Charley Crockett & Shooter JenningsFoxes in the Snow, Jason Isbell; Produced by Jason Isbell & Gena JohnsonManning Fireworks, MJ Lenderman; Produced by Alex Farrar & MJ LendermanSouth of Here, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats; Produced by Brad CookWoodland, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings; Produced by David RawlingsARTIST OF THE YEARCharley CrockettSierra FerrellJoy OladokunBilly StringsWaxahatcheeDUO/GROUP OF THE YEARJulien Baker & TORRESDawesLarkin PoeThe MavericksGillian Welch & David RawlingsEMERGING ACT OF THE YEARNoeline HofmannMJ LendermanMedium BuildMaggie RoseJesse WellesINSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEARFred EltringhamAlex HargreavesMegan JaneKaitlyn RaitzSeth TaylorSONG OF THE YEAR'Johnny Moonshine,' Maggie Antone (Written by Maggie Antone, Natalie Hemby & Aaron Raitiere)'Ancient Light,' I'm With Her (Written by Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan & Sara Watkins)'Wristwatch,' MJ Lenderman (Written by MJ Lenderman)'Sunshine Getaway,' JD McPherson (Written by Page Burkum, JD McPherson & Jack Torrey)'Heartless,' Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats (Written by Nathaniel Rateliff) Best of Rolling Stone Sly and the Family Stone: 20 Essential Songs The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
The Independent
18-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
The world according to Wednesday, your new favorite alt-country indie rock band
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. 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.
