Wednesday is an American alternative rock band from Asheville, North Carolina, currently signed to Dead Oceans. The band consists of vocalist Karly Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, lap steel player Xandy Chelmis, drummer Alan Miller and bassist Ethan Baechtold. The band's style has been described as a mixture of shoegaze and country rock, while their lyrical content has been praised for its storytelling about life in the American south.
Wednesday was formed in 2017 as a solo project of Karly Hartzman. The band added Lenderman, Chelmis, and Miller to the lineup in 2020. The band's second studio album, I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone, was released in 2020 to positive reviews, followed by Twin Plagues in 2021. The band released a covers album titled Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling 'em Up in 2022. Months after the album's release, the band left its label and signed with Dead Oceans. In 2023, Wednesday released its fifth studio album, Rat Saw God.
Career
Hartzman was inspired to start playing guitar after watching Mitski's NPR Tiny Desk concert. Wednesday initially began as a solo project of Harztman's.[5] Hartzman attended college in Asheville, where she met Daniel Gorham. The two recorded an album together under the moniker Wednesday titled yep definitely.[6] The band's name was inspired by the British band The Sundays.[7] In 2017, Hartzman met Lenderman after he slept over at Hartzman's family home after a show. Lenderman would join Wednesday in 2018 for an EP called How Do You Let Love Into the Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open.[8]
Hartzman formed another band called Diva Sweetly, alongside members of the band Pictures of Vernon, which released an album in 2019.[6] However, Hartzman was interested in making music that was closer to shoegaze, a departure from the style of Diva Sweetly. After Gorham left the band to work on other musical projects, Hartzman gathered new members from the local music scene in Asheville to join Wednesday. The group released their second album, titled I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone in 2020.[9][6] The group released their third record, Twin Plagues, on August 13, 2021. Twin Plagues is the first Wednesday album with Lenderman as a full member of the band.[10][11][8]
Hartzman and Baechtold playing with Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2023.
The band performed at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona on June 4, 2023, where the band, playing on the Amazon Music stage, went on an anti-Amazon speech prior to "Bull Believer" and dedicated the song to "any warehouse workers who have ever been mistreated."[16]
The band's music contains semi-autobiographical details about Hartzman's past life experiences in Greensboro. Some songs mix minor details in the environment with darker tales of drug abuse. Hartzman credits the alt-country band Drive-By Truckers as a songwriting influence, mentioning the band in the song "Bath County". According to The Ringer, the band was also influenced by "country storytellers" like Lucinda Williams and Richard Buckner.[8][17] Hartzman cites Lenderman himself as an influence, having been a fan of his solo work under the name MJ Lenderman before the two met. The pair started dating around the time of Twin Plagues, and several Wednesday songs have since made reference to their relationship,[8] though they have since split.[19]
^Deville, Chris (10 August 2021). "Album Of The Week: Wednesday Twin Plagues". Stereogum. Stereogum Media. Retrieved 18 August 2024. If Wednesday initially scan as yet another band working in a well-traveled tradition, they quickly begin to stand out for the unique way they swirl disparate aesthetics into that old slacker-rock template.
