Manning Fireworks

ALTERNATIVE COUNTRY-ROCK; MALE SINGER-SONGWRITER

Ashville, NC-based MJ Lenderman has been busy: putting out 5 albums in 5 years, playing in the band Wednesday (see ZK #1150007), and collaborating with Waxahatchee and others. The music here is a mix of indie rock and twangy alt country. Lyrics run from sly & funny to ironic & painful. MJ plays guitar, bass, drums, & organ, while backing musicians add guitars, pedal steel, bass, various keyboards, occasional wind instruments, and harmony vocals. All songs are by Lenderman.

FCC in tracks 2 & 8
Released Sep 2024

1 ** quite slow. living carelessly & without purpose. strumming guitar & fiddle (2:59)
2 (FCC “cum”) mid-tempo. song about a down & out loser. country-rock ballad (3:01)
3 mid-tempo. a downer of a song starts w/ killing a deer on the road. elec & steel gtrs (3:31)
4 *** mid-tempo. an ironic look at using possessions as defence against feelings and compensation for loneliness; the song of the album; guitars, piano, pedal steel (3:42)
5 * mid-tempo rock. life & love are falling apart, indulging in bad impulses (4:38)
6 * slow. a friend is hung over & talking nonsense. neo-trad country ballad (3:32)
7 ** mid-tempo. he’s in bad shape, post-breakup. a nice M/F vocal duet with Karly Hartzman (of Wednesday). acoustic & elec guitars, slide guitar, clarinet (3:36)
8 (FCC “piss”) mid-slow electric rocker. about life’s burdens & threats (3:52)
9 *** mid-slow. sinking into a bad mental space and the gf has left. the title refers to an Ozzy song. elec guitar, slide guitar, synth, clarinet & bass clarinet. instrumental lead-out (total time 10:00 but at ~3:30 [6:30 remaining] it segues into a noise & feedback jam)