Nightswimming #13: 09/05/24-09/12/24
Gen Z Neil Young! Ambient Space Jazz! JET?? And MORE!
Highly Recommend! (best of the week)
Manning Fireworks - MJ Lenderman (ANTI-)
“Please don’t laugh. Only half of what I said was a joke.”
At 25 years old, MJ Lenderman has 4 solo albums, a regular gig in 2 side bands, and a laundry list of credited performances on the best indie rock albums of the last 5 years. He has risen quickly from A Guy To Watch to bona-fide indie folk rock superhero in just a few short years. And yet, with each stop on the press tour he has seemed wise, grounded, and 2 beers shy of aloof.
I feel like a late adopter to the LenderVerse. I came onboard with Wednesday’s 2023 album, Rat Saw God. Since then I’ve gone back and listened to Boat Songs, Ghost of Your Guitar Solo, and basically everything I can get my hands on. But hearing Manning Fireworks for the first time felt special. It’s how I imagine our dads felt when, after their older brothers lent them Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, they dropped the needle on their own freshly-purchased copy of Darkness on the Edge of Town to hear the opening notes of Badlands. The thrill to hear something you didn’t know you’d desperately needed, yet kicking yourself for not having your finger on the pulse of the Asheville indie music scene.
Sonically, it’s simple; country-fied fuzz guitars, a rock-solid rhythm section, and Lenderman’s pained twangy crooning. Though Lenderman has built a signature sound on lap steel, pedal steel, and generally fuzzed out saloon guitars, Manning Fireworks expands the Asheville roots vibe with fiddles, double basses, and a screeching clarinet. You can hear the Southern Gothic ghosts in every note, like a stilted saloon on the waterfront, built from salty, warped wooden boards. It’s every bit of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, fronted by Merle Haggard. It’s music that feels designed in a lab to be heard on a front porch, drinking a Miller Lite, under 72 degree overcast skies.
Even the sequencing of the album tells a story. It begins with the stripped-down, dirgey title track, setting the tonal table. It ends with 6 and a half minutes of droney, shoegaze-y post-rock vibrations, giving you time to sit back and reflect, fully unsettled.
In the tradition of Steely Dan and Warren Zevon, Lenderman has made singing about losers cool again. One can envision each main character, be it some fictional schlub or exaggerated pastiche of his own bad habits, wearing a sweat-stained t-shirt to his divorce proceedings. Sung almost exclusively in the first person, these vignettes of pathos give glimpses into sad little worlds where masculinity blows up in the narrator’s face. Be it a working class loser “draining cum from hotel showers” (Joker Lips), or a pompous asshole with a “beach house in Buffalo and a wristwatch that’s a compass and a cell phone” (Wristwatch), forlorn yearning unites them all. Fans often thrust the “Dudes Rock” tag onto Lenderman and his music (which he quickly rejects) but I think his lyrics fall squarely into “Dudes Suck”. Each track is an indirect indictment of masculinity, but with a glimmer of hope. These guys are not heroes, but they’re honest. Even if they aren’t honest with themselves.
Manning Fireworks feels truly special, and it’s exciting to talk about. The music industry may not allow rock bands to exist anymore (unless you’re an impossible-to-sing-along-to hardcore band), but Lenderman is trying his damndest. It’s fun music for recovering Sad Bastards who still search for a Camel Blue after 4 beers.
Highlights: On My Knees, Rudolph, Wristwatch
Endlessness - Nala Sinephro (Warp Records)
Nala Sinephro’s Endlessness is proof that music can still be experiential. The South London composer brilliantly presents ambient jazz not as a monolith, but as a beautiful marriage between ambient music and jazz music. The wedding is attended by electronic music, noise, and cinematic symphony, and presided over by the great Sinephro in engineering, mixing, and mastering. Sinephro leads a veritable Who’s Who of the South London jazz scene into space to explore the cosmos—from the Ezra Collective’s James Mollison on saxophone to Black Midi’s drummer Morgan Simpson, with Sinephro herself on harp, keys, and synths. There are a total of 41 unique musicians on Endlessness, 21 of those being a full string orchestra.
Endlessness is an attempt to tell a sonic story of birth, death, and rebirth. At times gentle, it feels like a canoe floating on a serene lake, sending ripples of sound into the mossy trees. At times jarring, it brings previously-unheard sounds crashing down on the listener’s head like chunks of space dust. At one moment it’s the climax of a gorgeously-shot nature documentary. The very next moment it’s the crimson-lit cellar of a dingey jazz club. Sometimes it’s video game music. Sometimes it’s a harp lulling you to sleep.
I heard Endlessness on a randomly-gracious 63 degree evening right as Summer faded into Fall. I drove around for an hour with the windows of my Nissan Altima down, smelling the first bonfires of the season being lit and watching the sunset earlier than I’d remembered. I felt like I was floating.
This record is best experienced in one sitting, at night, with a cool breeze blowing.
Highlights: Continuum 3, Continuum 5
Worth a Listen! (good to very good)
Lake Philly - Lake Philly (Lake Philly)
A big and bold rock album that is as thoughtful as it is fun. The late 2000’s indie rock influences are clear, both in the vocal performances and the song structure (think Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros meets Grizzly Bear) but there are some seriously potent Midwest Emo-style riffs. Lake Philly feels like wearing a flannel shirt, cooking Spam over a campfire, and watching the sun rise. It’s jangly, it’s warm, and it feels homemade in all the best ways.
It completes the trifecta of albums in today’s issue that beg to be listened to on a front porch in chilly Fall weather.
Highlights: Seen/Unseen, Put Me Out
Hot Singles in Your Area!
Here are some great singles that dropped in the last week:
broken open seed - A Place for Owls (Denver indie rock/emo with impressive Matt Thiessen-esque harmonies. New album Nov. 1st.)
Take a Picture - Frankie Cosmos and Good Morning (cover of the Margo Guryan song from the upcoming tribute album, out Nov. 8th.)
Audacious - Franz Ferdinand (FF just announced a new album coming out in 2025??? Remind us later, guys. Fun track! Are we ready for a mid-2000’s indie rock revival?)
Driver - Soccer Mommy (3rd single from upcoming album out Oct. 25th. Classic Soccer Mommy Sad Girl rock vibes.)
Hurry Hurry - Jet (Yeah, THAT Jet. Oh god, oh god, we might not have a choice about the mid-2000’s revival. Oh god.)
Music Moment of the Week
ROAN OF ARC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nightswimming doesn’t exist without the VMA’s, and Chappell Roan just joined Britney and Madonna and Green Day in the Legendary Performances League.