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*

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