On April 2, Wednesday announced the re-issue of their EP, “Guttering.” The EP was a collaborative project between Wednesday and MJ Lenderman, a Wednesday band member. The EP came after Lenderman had joined the group in 2020, and after “How Do You Let Love Into The Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open,” the first collaboration between Wednesday and Lenderman in 2018. Though becoming a member, Lenderman continued to produce solo work, leading to “Guttering” being a joint project of Lenderman’s alongside Wednesday.
Wednesday has seen some changes in the last year. After the success of his 2024 album “Manning Fireworks,” Lenderman announced that he would no longer be a touring member of Wednesday. This comes after Wednesday and Lenderman toured separately in 2024, with Lenderman’s tour meant to support “Manning Fireworks.”
Wednesday, while consisting of Alan Miller, Xandy Chelmis, Ethan Baechtold and Lenderman, has always been the project of Karly Hartzman, the lead vocalist and songwriter of the group. In 2017, Wednesday started as a solo project consisting of only Hartzman.When you think of a solo project, it could be defined as the front person and the band. Wednesday has fluctuated as that from time to time, though Wednesday wouldn’t become a mainstay on the indie scene until the full-band sound. The band exists as the brainchild of Hartzman, but the sonic landscapes and narratives the group draws from are the sum of multiple parts.
The album that introduced Wednesday as a full band is “I Was Trying to Describe to Someone.” Back then, Lenderman and Baechtold hadn’t officially joined the band yet, and past Wednesday member Margo Schultz was still around. Schultz would leave sometime after the release of “Rat Saw God,” Wednesday’s breakout and most recent album, around the same time Baechtold joined.
Lenderman and Hartzman met in 2017, part of Hartzman’s efforts in the Asheville DIY-music scene that would lead to her finding band members to help bring her project to life.
Lenderman and Hartzman’s meeting led to a collaboration on “How Do You Let Love Into The Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open,” and ultimately Lenderman’s membership in the band. “Twin Plagues” marked Lenderman’s first appearance on a Wednesday album. His contributions would largely focus on arrangements and playing guitar, being credited on one song, “Three Sisters,” as a songwriter.
Prior to Wednesday, Lenderman had his own musical act and array of music endeavors. He drummed for bands and contributed to Indigo De Souza’s act as a drummer in her band, alongside receiving some songwriting credits on her albums.
In 2019, Lenderman began self-releasing his own music through Bandcamp, the first being the self-titled “MJ Lenderman,” featuring vocals from De Souza and Hartzman. The album “Boat Songs” would catapult Lenderman to critical acclaim, and was listed as the 11th best album of 2022 by Stereogum..
The album came two years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which interupted Wednesday’s 2020 tour. By the time “Rat Saw God” came out in 2023, Lenderman was becoming a recognizable name in the alternative and indie scene.
In a Q&A with fans through Reddit, Lenderman addressed balancing Wednesday with his own solo work, saying “it’s good to have something else to do so that I’m not putting all of my self worth into writing MJ songs,” adding the balance hadn’t “created any issues yet.” In a 2023 interview with Pitchfork, Hartzman also emphasized that MJ Lenderman wasn’t a Wednesday side project.
The group has always tried to preserve their solo projects even when touring as a full band. After the success of “Rat Saw God” in April 2023, the band started touring the album in Oct. 2023, though allotting for three of the tour dates to simply be shows of Hartzman’s solo work and Lenderman’s solo work, separated from Wednesday.
It’s bands like Wednesday that make music that shows that the South is much more than country music, the group orbiting an alt-rock sound of Southern tales. NME has defined their work as stories of “adolescence and childhood that are full of specific details of small town life, whether amusing or brutally morbid.
It’s a coming-of-age story set in the American South, soundtracked by gritty, rip-roaring country-rock.” The composition, specifically the heavy guitar riffs, soundtrack conflicting and stark feelings present in Wednesday’s work. Reverbs come in to project feelings beyond the present into the future.
Oftentimes, Wednesday lyrics are fragments of scenes, observations and inner emotions that cannot be articulated. Usually, there’s no transition between opposed stark scenes. In “Phish Pepsi” off “Guttering,” Hartzman goes from singing about biking how drunk after a disorienting experience of revisiting an old place for a party (described in only four lines), to singing “Last time I saw you was a livestream of a funeral.”
We go from someone flailing through their memories to death. The song is about mapping out how the long-gone people of your life have changed by re-entering past places in a less-than-your-best state. There’s almost a sentiment of shame in the inability to make yourself better or move on, as the people you put on a pedestal keep flying higher; a central thread in Wednesday’s work.
There’s a purgatory of the South in Wednesday’s music, evoking the Southern gothic in musical form. You hang onto an excruciating love that’s always trying to leave; there’s a draining, deadened nature that makes you passive and a hopeless cycle of the present that makes the future seem like some myth.
Rundown towns are pictured as inciting boredom that can only be relieved by exhausting vices that’ll run you down just like the town culture you’re trying to avoid. No one is considered good, everyone has some sort of shortcoming, though some shortcomings are uglier than most. Somehow, it all leads to living a dazed reality, unable to understand the mundane, fluorescent lights stinging your eyes.
The alternative scene coming out of the South also gives an image of America often neglected. Whether it’s depicting working-class life in a small town or addressing the issues of rural America, the South’s alternative, indie and DIY-music scenes are capturing narratives outside of the mainstream or the glossy cities. There’s an element of questioning the cityscapes beyond Southern towns, skepticism about the North and what a life there holds for the deeply-rooted Southern person.
In December 2024, Wednesday performed at The Drake, as a solo act with Hartzman on the guitar. Hartzman discussed how Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on North Carolina had left the band focused on recovering rather than performing full Wednesday shows. The impact of Hurricane Helene was also echoed in Lenderman’s profile with GQ. Though performing alone, Hartzman still carried the essence of the music on her own and played many of the band’s hits..
Hartzman is small, probably around 4-foot-11, with a steady focus on her music. Her voice moves seamlessly between the emotions of her songs, falling apart when necessary in a song’s narrative or belting at the height of a bridge. Alone on stage, her voice became the second instrument, replacing the drums, keys or two other guitars she’d usually have with her. Her voice nearly directs the path she wants the audience to follow in her performance, at times, the guitar meshing into her vocal delivery.
By the time of Wednesday’s Drake show, Lenderman had left his own musical imprint on 2024. Where “Boat Songs” brought him critical acclaim, “Manning Fireworks” turned him into a central figure. He’d also contributed vocals and guitar to Waxahatchee’s “Tiger’s Blood,” which would earn Waxahatchee her first Grammy nomination.
The MJ Lenderman act was beyond the acclaim Lenderman had once had, balancing two music projects. Lindsey Zolzadz at the New York Times named “Manning Fireworks” one of her favorite albums of the year, making him a mainstay in the New York Times’s critics’ roundtables. This is all to say that Lenderman was suddenly everywhere and now had obligations to himself, Wednesday and working with Waxahatchee. Ultimately, those obligations, alongside other personal developments, could have factored into Lenderman revealing his touring days with Wednesday were done.
So, what actually changes with MJ Lenderman no longer being a touring member of Wednesday? Maybe nothing, maybe everything. He still intends to make music with the band. Probably at most, is that the band’s image changes. Possibly, Lenderman becomes a background voice, or produces more joint collaborations with Wednesday as he once did. Though Lenderman is still around to contribute to Wednesday, him no longer being a touring member of the group still feels significant.
Maybe it’s because of how essential Southern alternative music is or the impact of splintering bands that this feels so important. Either way, we know that a new Wednesday album is being written, with Hartzman discussing her writing process in Lenderman’s GQ profile. Hopefully, these will continue narratives of rural Southern life in the midst of change for the band.
Suzanne Bagia can be reached at [email protected].
