Manning Fireworks (Album)

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    Meet MJ Lenderman, Southern Rock’s Tragicomic Poet

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    Hear tracks from his new album, “Manning Fireworks,” and more.Erin BrethauerDear listeners,One of my favorite albums of the year comes out today: “Manning Fireworks” by the North Carolina singer-songwriter-guitarist MJ Lenderman, a young artist with an old soul and a keen eye for observational detail that makes his canted portraits of small-town life come alive. I believe so strongly that Lenderman is worth your time that today’s playlist is an introduction to — or, if you’re already familiar, a refresher on — his music and his surrounding scene in Asheville.There’s a fine art to writing songs that are both comedic and heartbreaking, but Lenderman has the knack: His best lines smart like resounding wallops to the funny bone. “I wouldn’t be in the seminary if I could be with you,” he howls atop jangly, bittersweet chords on “Rudolph,” a single from the new album which you’ll hear on today’s playlist. I love that lyric because it showcases one of Lenderman’s songwriting superpowers, his sense of concision. There’s basically an entire tragicomic short story in those 12 simple words.The drollness and economy of his writing sometimes reminds me of the great folk singer Bill Callahan, so I wasn’t surprised when Lenderman mentioned, in Will Hermes’s recent Times interview, his love of Callahan’s earlier project Smog. Other Lendermanian touchstones include, to my ears, the shambolic blaze of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, the twangy sparkle of early R.E.M. and the sad-sack poetry of the Silver Jews frontman David Berman. But another thing I love about Lenderman’s music is the way he manages to carry the weight of rock history with both sincerity and an irreverent lightness. “Rudolph” and the final song on this playlist, “Knockin,” riff on Bob Dylan lyrics, while the new album’s closer, “Bark at the Moon,” is, in part, about playing the titular Ozzy Osbourne tune … on Guitar Hero.In addition to his solo work, Lenderman is the guitarist in the punky Southern rock group Wednesday and has also played on records by indie mainstays like Waxahatchee and Indigo De Souza. I’ve included tracks from those artists, too, to give a wider sense of Lenderman’s musical milieu.I don’t know what fans of Lenderman call themselves — Lenderheads? Lendermen? Lendermaniacs? — but regardless, count me among their ranks. Perhaps you’ll join us, too.Don’t move to New York City, babe, it’s gonna change the way you dress,LindsayWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Timely Dude-ology of MJ Lenderman

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      The in-demand sideman and Wednesday guitarist sharpens his tragicomic musical portraiture on a new solo album, “Manning Fireworks.”MJ Lenderman has been traveling light. In a London Airbnb on a recent afternoon, the 25-year-old rock musician (the MJ is for Mark Jacob; friends call him Jake) had a day off from his summer European tour with the band Wednesday, with plans to catch a screening of “Alien: Romulus.” Asked if he’d picked up any souvenirs on his travels, he searched his luggage, producing just a Nature’s Bakery fig bar and a bottle of tequila.“I tend to not buy things on tour,” he said on a video call, dressed in a T-shirt with the logo of a friend’s record label (Sophomore Lounge). And the success of Wednesday’s most recent album, “Rat Saw God” from 2023, has kept him on the road. The LP, earmarked by his laconically fierce guitar and the frontwoman Karly Hartzman’s vivid storytelling, elevated the band to a new tier. Lenderman’s guitar and vocal harmonies are also prominent on “Tigers Blood,” the acclaimed LP by the kindred Southern indie rock act Waxahatchee, particularly on its single “Right Back to It,” his standout duet with the singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield.This Friday, Lenderman releases his latest solo album, “Manning Fireworks,” doubling down on his skills as a singer-songwriter frontman — skills on striking display on the single “She’s Leaving You,” a Neil Young-style country-rocker involving an unfortunate character who evidently discovers that what happens in Las Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas. Opening on the withering couplet “You can put your clothes back on/She’s leaving you,” it accrues comically damning details on a downward spiral that resolves with an incongruously anthemic chorus. “It falls apart,” Lenderman drawls, offering cold comfort over a terrifically catchy hook, “We all got work to do.”The combination of humor and poignancy — John Prine was a master of it — is a trick few songwriters can pull off. Lenderman can. “I tend to like that in the stuff that I consume,” he said, listing some creative touchstones. “Larry Brown — I’ve read most of his books. Harry Crews. Certain filmmakers, like Todd Solondz. The Coen brothers. I love David Berman’s songwriting. Will Oldham. Bill Callahan, too; his lyrics are super airtight. I’ve been obsessed with ‘37 Push Ups’ — it’s an old Smog song. Whatever that character is, is kind of a blueprint for the kind of characters I like to write about.”Lenderman’s new solo album is a flipbook of misshapen masculinity, toxic and otherwise.Erin Brethauer for The New York TimesOn “Manning Fireworks,” those characters might be described as Questionable Dudes. “Wristwatch” is a droll sketch of a braggart inspired, Lenderman explained, by Andrew Tate and “this idea of alpha males gaining popularity. People spend thousands of dollars thinking they can learn how to be the ‘perfect man’ or something. It’s embarrassing.” Lenderman describes the lyrics of the title track as “kind of a laundry list of what makes this character a jerk,” one that builds from the couplet “One of these days you’ll kill a man/For asking a question you don’t understand.” The album is a flipbook of misshapen masculinity, toxic and otherwise.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More