MJ Lenderman

Deserves a thread.

Talented Neil Young/Wilco/Pavement influnced songs. He also had a great Slowcore album from 2019

His new song (from new album) is 💪

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFVVzavii0

also in Wednesday! you forgot that part.

my kid turned me on to MJ and then months later i told my kid that i had heard Wednesday and really liked them and my kid said yeah that's the band that MJL is in...and i had no idea. but i like both things. solo and day job. and i usually don't care about stuff like this anymore. but i like them. they sound good to me.

Yeah, i heard and liked Wednsday, but i think his solo stuff is better

i think a lot of people think that. from what i gather.

That new single rules. Feels good to have a new indie rock guitar hero.

No snark intended and I'm asking in good faith but what exactly distinguishes this from thousands of other competent 90s-sounding indie rock artists in thrall to Crazy Horse and Dinosaur Jr? If you told me this was a reissue of an old Slobberbone or Buffalo Tom album, I'd believe it

I went into this assuming it’d sound like a mashup of ML Buch and Westerman. I was wrong

xp you can go listen to Boat Songs - the best album of 2022, imo - and see if you think it stands out to you. if it doesn't, that's fine. it does for lots of people.

mjlenderman.bandcamp.com/album/boat-songs

it's not really about distinguishing from others - that's a fool's errand. it's about whether *you* like it or not, y'know?

Nothing groundbreaking, yes, but he does it good and with authenticity.

Besides, how many current acts have a unique and ineresting style in rock and in general?

We might as well not listen to new stuff at all with that point of view

Xpost

his live album is what really convinced me he can credibly channel the spirit of neil and j, etc. lyrics are also charming, funny, and plaintive, and often tell the stories of long-retired athletes.

Go rent a Ferrari
And sing the blues
Believe that Clapton was the second coming

This is all high praise and I will give Boat Songs a shot

I have friends who like this guy too, so I'm probably just missing something

His ST slowcore album is also great imo

Agreed ^ and that's not normally my thing.

most of the stuff he recorded and released before Boat Songs, to me, has heavy Jason Molina vibes. i don't love Molina's music as much as most people do, but Jake's way of doing it works for me, for whatever reason.

Neil / Dino Jr / Pavement *is* my things, however, and i knew Boat Songs was likely my AOTY the first time I heard it.

he also plays an integral role in what i think is one of the best songs of this year so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3iHhERWJw

glad there's a thread now. i'm a fan!

i'm a fan too and i do not listen to a ton of indie stuff. i'm very picky in my old age. though i do find myself liking more current stuff now than in the past 5 or 10 years. there is good stuff out there. and not just in Australia.

speaking of dinosaur, lou came in the store yesterday and he's very excited about his upcoming folk implosion tour so you should go see him and get your 90s on. it IS almost the 30th anniversary of Kids after all.

she's leaving you is a pretty great bummer jam

haven't listened a ton but have liked what I've heard
went to see Waxahatchee recently and he was on guitar, really good player as a sideman, Jeff Tweedy's son was on drums, he can really play too

new vid/single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTEpo9orjlg

Kinda dissapointing compared to the previous single

it's a solid single, not a career highlight like the last one

Yeah. Upgrading to "solid"

Bumping this thread because I'm starting to get amped for Manning Fireworks coming out on Sept 6th--I even just pre-ordered a CD copy at my local record store (a store which is de facto a vinyl-only one, but stll lets customers special-order CDs).

Maybe the step-up in mastering is helping me make this conclusion, but the three advance singles off this new/upcoming one and the live album have been my go-to headphones listens in getting acquainted with this guy--S/T, Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo and Boat Songs all have great songs IMO, but the newest output is real ear candy to these ears (esp impressive to me w/r/t to the beefed-up sound on Live and Loose compared to the studio versions)...

I liked his last album pretty well and really like “She’s Leaving You,” definitely interested in hearing the full release. As to what differentiates him, at least the songs I’ve heard and like, it’s nothing formalist, he is obviously working well plowed ground. But he’s a good songwriter, basically. Both lyrically and melodically it seems to me that finds interesting turns of tune and phrase.

That HE finds …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeGujHpGUIs

i dig it.

I knew nothing about this guy and then see a New Yorker article about him; and a Washington Post article on Waxahatchee where she mentions how Lenderman helped her with her latest album and songwriting

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/09/09/mj-lenderman-manning-fireworks-music-review

so now you know stuff about him

And finally listened to him and well, he's ok

New single is very good.
New album is very good too.

really like this album, non-single highlights for me are the title track and "you don't know the shape i'm in," but i can't help but feeling like the 10 minute song is only 10 minutes long because he wanted to have a song that long on the album. the drone that reverberates after the 4-minute mark isn't very interesting.

100% agree, voodoo chili--was hoping that "Howl At The Moon" was 10 mins long b/c he went full Powerfinger or Cortez on it (not that I mind things veering into the drone zone per se, but still, was likewise relatively disappointed in that respect given the context)

(Also agree re: "You Don't Know The Shape I'm In" being a nice non-single highlight--the drum machine intro reminds of me of Kurt Vile ca. Wakin' On A Pretty Daze in a great way, and the clarinet part in the back half of it is even a bit unexpectedly Andy Shauf-y [who I'm prob primed to now compare him to since they're now Anti- labelmates])

shit damn fuck I'm just tuning in to this guy and it is 1000% My Shit "She's Leaving You" SOTY

also dude's success is inversely proportional to how much I've Wasted My Life and that makes me like him *more*, somehow....? ? ?

Album is good, but man people overhyped it all over the internet,as if its the best album ever

the last one was the best album ever. this one is merely the one those people are catching up to.

just now, as an old, learning of this young man, I for one like it a lot

the guitar solo in “she’s leaving you”

new album's fine but i agree it's rude of him to tease the idea of a 10 minute neil young-esque epic and just do a drone outro instead

“I want to be financially stable, and I want to be able to make music—but I’m not really interested in getting bigger,” the 25-year-old singer and guitarist says, tucked in a booth of the Manhattan restaurant Lafayette one evening this summer, nursing a Kronenbourg and wondering where he’ll watch the N.B.A. finals later that night.

Liking that "wrist watch " song more now

Three listens later, I'm meh on the voice. I used to be a sucker for scuzzy Neil Youngisms.

can’t be an original observation, but I hear a ton of malkmus too

Lenderman is one of those “on paper” artists for me. He is squarely in my favorite genre of music (not quite “indie twang” but more like “alt jangle”) but there is just *something* missing for me, and I’m not quite sure what it is. The most I can think is that I can really here an artist who is very influenced by stuff I loved (and still love) from 25 years ago, but he clearly wasn’t actually old enough to be influenced by it then. That’s not meant as a harsh criticism, I just detect an inherent distance between what he’s putting out and what I’m receiving.

I’VE GOT A HOUSEBOAT DOCKED AT THE HIMBODOME

getting obsessed with this guy. the live album is everything

live album is where the neil comparisons actually make sense imo. has that ramshackle feel and is genuinely, thrillingly *loud*

Like a lot of artists, for me at least, I like individual songs but get bored by albums. "Toontown" on the last one, "She's Leaving You" on this one. Eight more albums and he'll have a good best-of!

i think people who are lukewarm on him might not have listened to the live album? which is a fatal mistake. there are definitely people who think its his best album.

Finally getting around to the new one, it is indeed terrific. But I'd already been sold with Boat Songs and that killer live one.

his self-titled is really good too! neo-slowcore

"joker lips" is so good

manning fireworks is just very obviously one of the hookiest indie rock albums in years. idk what else to say. especially this specific kinda red meat indie rock like… i love alex g but this is a different level of immediacy. the stupid drone ending aside it’s refreshing to hear a big indie rock record w/ no experimentation, atmospherics etc — thinking of alex g ‘god save the animals’, dijon ‘absolutely’, cindy lee … all albums i love (last soccer mommy album being one i don’t love) … this is just my own taste i’m sure i’m leaving out counter examples but anyway manning fireworks hits like an 80s pop record w/ how many catchy songs are packed into a short tracklist

i need to stop using record and album interchangeably sorry

manning fireworks heads should check out the slaughter beach dog album from last year — manning fireworks is better but there’s a lot of similarities in terms of that indie/country mix, cool guitar tones, idiosyncratic songwriting etc my fav indie rock album in recent memory that nobody talks about, also an amazing live band

that is where i can go with a Pavement comparison. Pavement records and guitars sounded GREAT and so much better than a lot of their peers and the same is true of MJ.

no experimentation, atmospherics etc

This is one of the things about the album that's so obvious that I kinda didn't even notice until you pointed it out. There's a strong sense of immediacy to this album, because it's so straightforward, sonically.

Also this album more than anything makes me want to practice guitar again

I'm one of the skeptics. I can see myself liking the back half, which I listen to often when I work out; but I'm so past Lenderman's vocal choices that the album's hard for me to take unless I was listening to live renditions.

https://i.imgur.com/zL3ZkHQ.png

i haven't heard a lot of it, it's pretty good

The singles are the best songs on this album, while the rest are just ok (except On My Knees maybe) which is a bummer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii4ubl3URhc

i wish i could hear what other people hear in this record. there are hooks?

all the songs sound the same and the lyrics are terrible by the way

what's something better that has come out this year? i would check it out. i listen to maybe 3 indie rock records a year.

yeah, the appeal of this clearly mediocre guy continues to completely elude me but I guess it's better than Tobias Jesso or something (who I evoke only because it was the last time a songwriter guy was getting accolades that had me wondering if it was like the way some people experience cilantro as tasting like metal)

I don't listen to a ton of modern indie either, scott, but two contemporary artists in this general realm that I recommend are Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band and Styrofoam Winos / Lou Turner. Sharper lyricists, better melody writers, better everything imo

yeah the music is competent but the lyrics, my god

I've listened to this album a couple of times and think I agree, I just don't hear it, and the few lyrics that jumped out at me were kind of embarrassing, iirc. I still might check him out next week, because people like him live, but I dunno.

The lyrics are at points a little undercooked, but they're far from terrible. And I think they're where the albums real "hooks" reside--these funny, evocative little phrases that stick in your head. "DUI scooter"; "houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome"; "There's men, and Men in Black" etc.

I do think that a lot of the hype around this record has been overblown and it suffers a bit from that. It's just a very good indie/alt-country album that satisfyingly scratches a particular itch.

i like the lyrics. but i liked pavement and they had goofy lyrics. i like the lyrics to "joker lips". for real though i never remember lyrics and they rarely make an impression on me. i like the sounds that people make.

Also, based on its reputation I did go into this hoping to hear something akin to Crazy Horse, but yeah, I did immediately hear Malkmus instead, which I didn't really expect/want to hear.

he should have done "she's leaving you" on fallon. a ton of people would have bought the album after hearing that.

i do have a soft spot for funny lyrics/non sequiturs.

for like the ninth time, the live show/album are the reason for the crazy horse comparisons

i do too, i don't think the lyrics are bad because they are non sequiturs, but if ppl like the lyrics that's great

i listen to a lot of things that are recommended on this board but i haven't heard the Great indie record of 2024, not mine anyway, i'll be sure to let you know if i find it, scott

xp

i hate that i love this album so much because it makes me feel like such a basic middle-aged man who grew up on indie rock. i hate when i fall for stuff that feels directly targeted at me. but i do love it.

i'd say the lyrics are like david berman through an americana filter but people would try to argue with me about it and who cares.

people are so afraid of humor in lyrics

the songs aren't wordy, but he still does a pretty good job of writing lines that you remember

its funny about preferences because i love pavement and the silver jews guy does the pavement thing but i really don't like his voice at all so i can't listen to him. same with smog. they have the same voice kinda.

if the woman who sings on beat happening songs sang all their songs i would own every beat happening album but it is not the case and i own no beat happening albums.

and yet i love the pastels! brains are weird.

Low frog voice.

I don't mind silly or dumb, or non-sequiturs, or anything like that if the hooks and songs are there, but I just didn't hear them in this case. And as a middle-aged guy raised on indie, I too thought I would enjoy it. But hey, it's not like the last 50 years of music made with guitars doesn't exist, there is no reason to like everything. Heck, I still don't feel like I've spent enough time (or even had enough time to spend) with last year's Wednesday album.

you don't think "she's leaving you" is catchy? its okay if you don't but its totally catchy to me.

It might be the one! There was some day where I was randomly served one of his songs, and I thought, hey, this is good! And that's what finally made me listen to the album. But the rest of the album was so uneven I had to check the playlist to make sure it wasn't giving me random other stuff instead, or the wrong album, because it didn't track with the praise I'd heard.

i will say it again: Boat Songs is better, and hookier.

this is a classic case of the greater music critic ecosystem finding the previous cool/underground album too late to review it when it came out, then overreacting to the next record - which in this case is good! don't get me wrong, i like this one. but Boat Songs is better (imo).

if you kinda like this or you thought you'd like it or you wish you understood the hype, i would suggest going and listening to Boat Songs.

Boat Songs is really cool! Very good in a more raucous and ramshackle way. Definitely get more of the Crazy Horse vibe on that one, especially on "Tastes Just Like it Costs"

I like about half this album (with lyrics that give me insights into a different type of existence) and I don't like Pavement and I think it just reminds me of the Drive-By Truckers whose lyrics are better. But, yeah, "She's Leaving You" is wicked catchy.

Nothing productive to add here but I’d believe you if you told me this was new Ben Kweller or some dull Saddle Creek or Secretly Canadian band from ‘03.

xxpost, i don't mean that as a shot at the greater music critic ecosystem or the critics themselves, btw. many people caught onto Boat Songs not long after it was released, it's just that so many people work for places that won't run a review 3 months after release date. people got to do year-end stories and blurbs for Top Whatever lists, but for many folks, this is really the first chance they've gotten to praise Jake and his music, so it's coming in hot.

Boat Songs is both more Pavement-y and more Crazy Horse ... this one is more Waxahatchee. *shrug*

its very New Yorker Magazine but i like it anyway. or like him anyway. i like Wednesday too.

the new yorker recently ran an interview with him!

I don’t know what accounts for the dislike other than people have their own tastes

the idea that his lyrics are non-sequiturs doesn't scan for me, it just feels like a surface level or incurious reading of the songs. not that i intend to assign everyone listening homework but after a few plays of this i found the lyrical POV to be very legible. honestly some of you guys are talking about a break up album like it's sanskrit. to me, for example, "kahlua shooter / DUI scooter / with a rolling start down a hill / this morning's trying to kill me" qualifies as idiosyncratic lyricism for sure -- but y'all really can't glean the meaning of that verse w/in the context of the song? a song that is quite clearly about being out on the road alone and your life spiraling over a break up. you could read it literally if you want, it makes plenty sense -- getting too drunk, taking a reckless joyride down a hill, waking up to reality w/ a crushing hangover -- or you could, more likely, read it as a sketch of a general emotional state. but it's only a non-sequitur when you type it out and divorce it completely from its source material.

to me the emotions being articulated across the album -- the way a break up can bring about mournfulness, self-pity, resignation, self-deprecation, loneliness, depression -- are very present. like, it doesn't take a huge amount of critical thinking skills to derive meaning from the lyrics "i've got a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome" in the context of a song about a guy w/ "a funny face" whose ex thinks he's a loser who has "wasted [his] life away." i'm not gonna sit here and say that everyone has to love the lyric "deleted scene of Lightning McQueen / blacked out at full speed" but i will argue that its meaning w/in the context of "rudolph" + the album overall is apparent. taste is taste it's all good i get why the lyrics would rub people the wrong way, that's part of what makes him great. but if there is a problem w/ intelligibility here it's coming from the side of the listener and not the writer, imo

i guess to me there is an interplay between the "non-sequiturs" and the very direct and simple lyrics that makes for a really effective and special combo. i mean we can go back and forth about what "i've got a houseboat docked at the himbo dome" means, but the emotional weight of that song is conveyed quite traditionally in the way the verses turn from "and a wristwatch that tells me you're all alone" to "and a wristwatch that tells me i'm on my own." just in that little turn of phrasing, to me, he conveys a lot about the internal tug of war one experience's when going thru a break up -- the way that deriving pleasure from the wasteland that is your ex's life can rub uncomfortably against the fact that yours probably is too. i hear someone struggling w/ wanting to feel happy and defiant and proud of himself but ultimately losing that battle to loneliness. all the stuff about himbo domes and compasses and cellphones doesn't blunt any of that to me

"It gets dark/We all got work to do" is a fantastic lyric.

My favorite indie/jangle albums this year are by Waxahatchee and Hurray for the Riffraff.

Nothing productive to add here but I’d believe you if you told me this was new Ben Kweller or some dull Saddle Creek or Secretly Canadian band from ‘03.
― avoid boring people, Thursday, September 26, 2024 2:26 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Six of one. I'm guessing based on this evidence that I'm roughly 3.5 years older than you

No snark intended and I'm asking in good faith but what exactly distinguishes this from thousands of other competent 90s-sounding indie rock artists in thrall to Crazy Horse and Dinosaur Jr? If you told me this was a reissue of an old Slobberbone or Buffalo Tom album, I'd believe it
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, June 25, 2024 2:15 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

i let it pass the first time but the idea that mj lenderman sounds like ben kweller is completely idiotic

this whole line of argument about lenderman sounding like a lot of other indie rock reminds me of when people ask why anyone cares about snail mail and soccer mommy when you can just listen to liz phair, and the answer is the same -- the songs matter. the emotional experience of listening to music is not just a sorting game

I’m firmly in the “his lyrics are amazing” camp. I also think he’s a great songwriter and his voice fits the vibe perfectly. There’s a feeling in his voice that you can’t fake. Not everyone’s cup of tea, though, I get it.

Like I posted earlier, the voice was a hindrance; it's my own decreased tolerance for this kind of singing (his tone reminds me of Rufus Wainwright odd). I'm cooler about it now.

Reminds a little of the Grifters. I'm not hungry for this kind of sound in my life right now, but it seems like he's being authentic.

honestly dying to see this guy play live in [checks tickets]... february

"i guess to me there is an interplay between the "non-sequiturs" and the very direct and simple lyrics that makes for a really effective and special combo."

yeah, no, i dig this for sure!

"It gets dark/We all got work to do" is a fantastic lyric."

and this fucking hell yeah i love it! my second fave rock song of the year.

but honestly when i hear "DUI scooter" i can't help but think of the people in my town who ride around on Rascals and who will never drive a car again because of their boozy unsteadiness.

agree he's an outstanding lyricist from what i've heard, it's what broke through some of my skepticism. the second verse of she's leaving you and how it takes you to a completely different place from the rest of the song was what got me

You said
"Vegas is beautiful at night"
And it's not about the money
You just like the lights
Though you know what is implied
When your room is free
You're feeling lucky

I’m not here to sap anyone’s enthusiasm. I don’t even actively dislike Mr. Lenderman. He’s just not for me but I hope he’s enjoying his moment. To J0rdan -no, he sounds nothing like Ben Kweller. Just a snarky/dismissive name I grabbed. To Paul - I’m 45 (which probably ages me out of this conversation).

Does it? Most of the album's fans here are over 30.

when people ask why anyone cares about snail mail and soccer mommy when you can just listen to liz phair, and the answer is the same -- the songs matter

100% agree with this. it's precisely the songwriting that i don't like. the music/production sounds great and so do the vocals imo!

this whole line of argument

for my part, i'm not arguing anything. i don't really see the point of arguing about music, just sharing my opinion. really enjoyed your posts though and your enthusiasm here and around ilm

A lot of you don't have a houseboat docked at the Himbo Dome and it fucking shows.

i don't have one of those but i do have a wristwatch that's a compass and a cell phone

i wonder if the himbo dome is architecturally similar to the custerdome

I like the old one about his dad seeing Dan Marino at Harris Teeter in South Carolina.

Reminds me of the time I saw Marvin Harrison at Walgreens.

I saw Beitt Daniel in cargo shorts in a Chipotle line.

Britt

and his hair was perfect

Are you sure he wasn't drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's?

A disillusionment to say the least.

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdD23Vk4XKrrejcbek1Fa2oIU-akZMaCQz7g&s

Hey that guy was in my apartment about 15 years ago!

My favorite indie/jangle albums this year are by Waxahatchee and Hurray for the Riffraff.

― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, September 26, 2024 4:32 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

+1

that song "knockin'" destroys me. so few words, so powerful. also doubles as music criticism, or somehow turbocharges an old tune you don't even think twice about anymore.

don't think twice it's alright.

that song "knockin'" destroys me. so few words, so powerful. also doubles as music criticism, or somehow turbocharges an old tune you don't even think twice about anymore.

― Thus Sang Freud, Friday, October 4, 2024 6:49 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yes! I think this is my favorite song of his.

cyrus - my kid - wanted to play me his fave red house painters song and i hadn't heard it in a long time and the first thing i think when i hear it is "totally proto-lenderman!". cyrus agreed with me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp-Tg_t993U

Surprise guest at tonight's Yo La Tengo Hanukkah show.

got a dreidel docked at the latke dome

"She's Leaving You" getting a lot of spins on the local AAA station

I had seen the thread for this guy on ILX, they play him on a local radio station, and my Dad sent me a link to one of his songs, but I hadn't heard this guy until they opened up for YLT last night. I enjoyed him a lot, at least in a live setting. Definitely got the Dino Jr. vibes. He and the band really sold their rock moves. He must be pretty popular because there were some younger people singing along with every word.

xps that's my favorite RHP song, which probably helps explain why I was primed to dig MJ

finally heard this guy as well and it was fine but made me want to listen to uncle tupelo's "long cut"

ppl seem to be all oh pshaw it's minor-key 70s neil young but it's been 50 years (or 30 years, in the case of uncle tupelo); conceivably there's room for good music to be made in that vein unless you're boomer calstars

But there are alty-country bands that sound indistinguishable from this (and from each other) in every US city with a population over 100,000 people, and this has been consistently true since Uncle Tupelo, if not since Neil Young. The only difference is that Pitchfork doesn't write about them

the difference is that he brings it live every single night. once again imploring anyone who doesn't get it to check out his live album.

It’s okay if some people don’t think there’s anything special about Lenderman’s music. It’s also okay to not post about it in the thread dedicated to his music.

Like, move on and go listen to an artist that you enjoy listening to (and post about it in their thread!).

There are many artists whose music I don’t like, but I don’t feel the need to enter their threads and post a bunch of vague thoughts about why I don’t like them. Constructive criticism is great, of course, but there’s a difference between being constructive and being a downer, you know?

another difference with MJ is that he is also in a really popular indie band aside from his solo stuff and not every member of an alt-country band across the country can say that. Wednesday fans go to MJ shows. MJ fans go to Wednesday shows. corporate synergy.

i guess i don't even really think of country or alt-country when i hear MJ songs. just sounds like more indie rock to me. i've never listened to Uncle Tupelo though. or Son Volt. or Wilco really. i mean i have played a few Wilco songs on Youtube before and quickly realized that they are not for me no matter who their guitarist is.

"But there are alty-country bands that sound indistinguishable from this (and from each other) in every US city with a population over 100,000 people,"

name five and then post tracks by them so we can hear how they sound exactly like MJ Lenderman and are as good or better than him. we can all learn something!

There are many artists whose music I don’t like, but I don’t feel the need to enter their threads and post a bunch of vague thoughts about why I don’t like them.

This isn't anybody's fan board, if this is the reaction to the most anodyne criticism imaginable we might as well close up the whole thing today.

Not a bad idea! We can all head to X and continue beating up on straw men there.

there are country-ish elements to lenderman's music and guitar playing, but it's filtered through those aforementioned neil and dinosaur jr influences. and whatever he brings into the studio after playing with wednesday (who do consciously try to implement country music into their sound)

anodyne criticism

whoa this really is becoming the uncle tupelo thread

ok let's agree that anodyne criticism is boring but street teaming for one of the most inexplicably popular artists of 2024 is equally boring

he's fine but it feels like he could make something really great but isn't really there yet. i like the long songs on his s/t album and wish he'd do more like those

name five and then post tracks by them so we can hear how they sound exactly like MJ Lenderman and are as good or better than him. we can all learn something!

― scott seward, Tuesday, December 31, 2024 10:51 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I probably haven't really listened to anything remotely like this on purpose since the second Whiskeytown record, but Country Westerns, Slobberbone, Two Cow Garage, and Centro-matic are names I hear mentioned a lot from certain Son Volt-stanning friends.

Just sampling a few of these now, I won't say any of these bands sound exactly like MJL, but they sound close enough to me. I will, however, concede the following: in any niche subgenre, the devil is probably in the details, and maybe the remaining alt country aficionados out there can tell the difference between these bands. Like I'm sure most of the people I encounter on a daily basis couldn't tell Burial from Andy Stott, or High On Fire from the Melvins.

For the record, I don't think this guy's music is bad! I just don't get what's so special about it, and yes I did sample some of the live material. I won't clog the thread with snark, though, and sorry to b a party pooper.

if burial sounded anything like andy stott I would be into andy stott, alas

I don't think critics and listeners aren't saying it's special, it sounds good at the moment. You can like minor bands!

aren't = are

or not even minor bands you can just like a genre sound. as a fan of dance music and metal i listen to a LOT of similar-sounding music.

on the other hand, i don't listen to a lot of music that sounds like MJ Lenderman music. it has to have a great guitar sound and good writing for me to dig it usually. and he's got both.

I wasn’t dismissing the guy with the long cut comparison. Probably should have added that he hits a similar vocal ache that early tweedy was great at (I hate tweedy’s later singing). Also hear some pinegrove. Anyway this is what happens when I’m stuck in a rental car with Sirius for 10 hours

Wednesday fans go to MJ shows.

Not...necessarily.

Guy with guitar does zero for me since I turned 30 or so. My aesthetic has evolved in a very sophisticated way since then

"Not...necessarily."

my 22-year-old kid wants to know what you are on about. they say everyone they know in Montreal is a fan of both (and all the women they know are big MJ fans as well as Wednesday fans). though MJ has more hype now cuzza the new album and he probably has a lot of new (older) fans who don't listen to Wednesday.

i STILL can't see his name without singing to myself: "MJ Lenderman/Cripplin' mankind..."

its just a thing my brain does to try and make me insane. its been going on for months now...

I heard about Wednesday first a couple of years back, heard Wednesday first, and very much like them -- still annoyed I've missed the shows they've played here! Along the way I read something about how 'there's this guy who plays with them who does a thing' and I offhand listened once and shrugged. So this explosion of interest in said solo career has had me going "Huh. Well, takes all kinds."

he should totally steal this though:

"To divide the cockeyed world in two
Throw your pride to one side, it's the least you can do
Beatniks and politics, nothin' is new
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view"

OH okay you meant yourself, ned. got it. i thought you had some inside MJ demographic info or something.

yeah, sure, but it does make sense that he kinda had a built-in audience for his new album. people just like him in general.

(i mean he has his own fans from previous solo stuff AND Wednesday fans. an enviable position to be in for an indie rocker.)

uy with guitar does zero for me since I turned 30 or so. My aesthetic has evolved in a very sophisticated way since then

― calstars, Tuesday, December 31, 2024

What have you listened to in the year since that moment

tbf that was actually a decent joke

imagining calstars getting home from work and putting on air mixes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1on3V-W3w_I

new single, cover of this is lorelei’s “dancing in the club”

(it’s really good)

this is lorelei album is amazing, seeing him & MJ next month super stoked

this was far and away my favorite from the this is lorelei album. i love that it has a folky sort of melody (am i crazy to think that is kind-of ben gibbard-y?), and mj really brings that out in his version

I can totally see what MJ saw in that song, and it’s an amazing cover… personally I find this is lorelei a bit too owl city adjacent for my taste

Boy he nails that Drive By Truckers / Neil Young world weariness with this. Not the familiar with the original, will check that out too.

still playing this every few days. MJ is a genius

manning fireworks heads should check out the slaughter beach dog album from last year

btw otm — ty for this rec

cheers k3v — if you can see them live they’re great

I liked him live quite a bit - they really go for it. The records really haven't done a thing for me.

really really

I think I like "Dancing in the Club" cover more than half of the Lenderman album

more than half haha. I was even inspired enough to get out my guitar and find a rudimentary tab for it so I could sing it for myself.

feel dumb for not having realized this because I love both songs, but lenderman’s “TLC cage match” is a pretty straightforward interpolation of nina simone’s “do what you gotta do”

"tastes just like it costs" sounds deeply indebted to songs: ohia's "almost was good enough"

I have been so obsessed with “TLC cagematch” for a while and this just adds another amazing layer

i liked the first son volt album too (complimentary)