MJ Lenderman & The Wind
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MJ Lenderman & The Wind
October 11, 2024 @ 9:00 pm - 11:30 pm
$22 โ $24
Englert Presents: Track Zero
MJ Lenderman & The Wind
with Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band
Manning Fireworks Tour
Track Zero is The Englert’s new concert series that presents burgeoning, diverse, and boundary-pushing artists in Iowa City. Let us be your mixtape to the new and excitingโoff the track list! Follow us on Instagram at @trackzeroic.
Series Information
No one paid too much attention when Jake Lenderman recorded Boat Songs, his third albumย released under his initials, MJ Lenderman. Before he cut it, after all, he was a 20-year-oldย guitarist working at an ice cream shop in his mountain hometown of Asheville, North Carolina,ย getting away for self-booked tours of his own songs or with the band heโd recently joined,ย Wednesday, whenever possible.
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But as the pandemic took hold just as he turned 21, Lendermanโthen making more moneyย through state unemployment than he had ever serving scoops enjoyed the sudden luxury of freeย time. Every day, he would read, paint, and write; every night, he and his roommates, bandmates,ย and best friends would drink and jam in their catawampus rental home, singing whatever came toย mind over their collective racket. Some of those lines stuck around the next morning, slowlyย becoming 2021โs self-made Ghost of Your Guitar Solo and then 2022โs Boat Songs, recorded in aย proper studio for a grand. With its barbed little jokes, canny sports references, and gloriouslyย ragged guitar solos, Boat Songs became one of that yearโs biggest breakthroughs, a ramshackleย set of charms and chuckles. Much the same happened for Wednesday. Suddenly, people wereย paying a lot of attention to what Jake Lenderman might make next.
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The answer is Manning Fireworks, recorded at Ashevilleโs Drop of Sun during multiple four-dayย stints whenever Lenderman had a break from the road.
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Coproducing it with pal and frequentย collaborator Alex Farrar, Lenderman plays nearly every instrument here. It is not only his fourthย full-length and studio debut for ANTI- but also a remarkable development in his story as anย incredibly incisive singer-songwriter, whose propensity for humor always points to some uneasy,ย disorienting darkness. He wrote and made it with full awareness of the gaze Boat Songs hadย generated, how people now expected something great.
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Rather than wither, however, Lendermanย used that pressure to ask himself what kind of musician he wanted to beโthe funny cynic in theย corner forever ready with a riposte or barbed bon mot, or one who could sort through his sea ofย cultural jetsam and one-liners to say something real about himself and his world, to figure outย how he fits into all this mess?
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He chose, of course, the latter. As a result, Manning Fireworks is an instant classic of an LP, hisย frank introspection and observation finding the intersection of wit and sadness and taking upย residence there for 39 minutes. Yes, the punchlines are still here, as are the rusted-wire guitarย solos that have made Lenderman a favorite for indie rock fans looking for an emerging guitarย hero. (Speaking of solos, did you hear him leading his totally righteous band, the Wind, on hisย lauded live cassette last year? Wow.) But thereโs a new sincerity, too, as Lenderman lets listenersย clearly see the world through his warped lens, perhaps for the first time. โPlease donโt laugh,โ heย deadpans during โJoker Lips,โ a magnetic song about feeling pushed out by everyone else. โOnlyย half of what I said was a joke.โ Maybe you hear a tremble in his voice? Thatโs the frown behindย the mask, finally slipping from Lendermanโs face.
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Perhaps itโs a good moment, then, to tell you more about Lenderman, as a person. Though he isย in fact a basketball zealot from North Carolina (and a former two guard who once dropped 10ย threes in a game), MJ is not a reference to Michael Jordan. His name is actually Mark Jacobย Lenderman. His parents are heads who were going to Bonnaroo when he was a baby and, as heย admits, know more about modern music than he does. The second-to-youngest in a family of six,ย he was a childhood altar boy who went to Catholic school until he begged to go to public schoolย to join the music program. Guitar Hero changedย his life, leading him to obsessions with Jimiย Hendrix and The Smashing Pumpkins. He began recording himself on his momโs laptop in fifthย grade after discovering My Morning Jacketโs roughshod early works, those lo-fi transmissionsย serving as some DIY semaphore. The lyrics started to come when he was a teenager.
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Those lyrics finally come into sharp focus on Manning Fireworks, where the poetic clarity ofย William Carlos Williams and the economy of Raymond Carver meet the striking imagery ofย Harry Crews. Simply witness the opening title track, where an arresting first glimpse of a birdย succumbing to a windstorm yields to criticisms of performative religious virtue, crassย opportunism, and people who get just plain mean. Or thereโs the way, during โRudolph,โย Lenderman uses an imagined scene of Lightning McQueen (yes, the smiling speedy from Cars)
mowing down a doe to wonder, flatly, โHow many roads must a man walk down โtil he learnsย heโs just a jerk?โ
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During the instantly addictive โWristwatch,โ itโs hard to tell if that jerk is Lenderman or someoneย else thatโs too proud of what they have to be humble about what theyโve forsaken. Indeed, thereย is self-doubt, world weariness, worry, and alcoholism here, conditions rendered with a clarityย and care that make these songs feel like short films. None of this is esoteric or obscure, either;ย Lenderman simply offers everyday anxieties and enthusiasms in uncanny ways.
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If that all reads heavy, it actually sounds quite light on Manning Fireworks, sadness and shameย routed through guitars that echo the sparkle of R.E.M. and the insistence of Drive-By Truckers,ย both fellow Southern greats. A half-sneering portrait of a dad cheating his way through a midlifeย crisis, at least until he gets caught and blasts Clapton in a rented Ferrari en route to Vegas, โSheโsย Leaving Youโ is the perfect shout-along anthem for any kid whoโs ever felt shortchanged by theirย parents. The great โOn My Kneesโ suggests a more efficient Crazy Horse, Lendermanโs voiceย cracking over sawtooth electric guitar as he wonders what it means to have fun in a world whereย so many people seem so full of shit. Even โYou Donโt Know the Shape Iโm Inโโa bummerย acoustic blues bouncing first over a drum machine and then a brushed snare, with Lendermanโsย voice traced by Karly Hartzmanโfeels happy to be here, sorting through these existentialย questions weโre lucky enough to have. There is an abiding sadness to Manning Fireworks, but itย feels friendly and familiar, the kind of troubles youโve always known.
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No, no one paid too much attention to Lenderman when he was recording Boat Songs. And for aย while there, the amount of attention he was getting as he made Manning Fireworks got in hisย head. But on the finale, โBark at the Moon,โ he is back in his childhood bedroom in a sleepyย mountain tourist town, swearing off big cities or changing himself to suit anyoneโs expectations.
Instead, heโs playing Guitar Hero until the wee hours, a kid falling in love with rock music allย over again. He lets out a playful howl, like the beast in that Ozzy hit. He and his friends thenย disappear for the next seven minutes, his guitar solo subsumed in a roaring drone that recalls theย righteous Sonic Youth records that Lenderman loves, the ones made soon after he was born. Itโs aย joyous escape and an important moment. Lenderman is still sorting through the kinds of songs heย wants to write and remembering they can go anywhere he wantsโmuch like they did back atย those late-night house jams, no matter who is now looking.