I recently traveled to Asheville, N.C. (the home of Wednesday) for the first time. I had a day to explore and found myself at the All Day Darling café. If you’re in the area I recommend going — they serve great coffee and delicious food.
As I was enjoying my breakfast, I took in my fellow patrons while listening to Wednesday's “Elderberry Wine.” That song worked perfectly as the soundtrack to the cast of characters around the café.
There was a tattooed indie couple with their two chihuahuas, a barista who looked like she didn’t want to be there and an older woman gardening outside. Mixed in were all the other assorted hippie/hipster clientele. It was like living in the song.
Painting pictures is where Wednesday's new album Bleeds shines. The storytelling on this album is sublime. It's so easy to imagine — to see — the cast of characters, situations and overall imagery in every song on the album. And the more you listen, the more you get.
Karly Hartzman (lead singer of Wednesday) is an underrated songwriter in my opinion. She tackles many subjects: life in the South, drug use, getting into fights, the underbelly of America — you get the idea. Those are dark subjects, but they were handled with such genuine feeling and such a light musical touch that I couldn’t stop listening.
The band backs Hartzman up seamlessly, with beautiful slide guitars transforming into My Bloody Valentine levels of distortion (supplied by indie darling MJ Lenderman). This musical dichotomy is another aspect of what makes Wednesday such a unique band. Going from a country tinged song like “Elderberry Wine” to a full blown rocker like “Candy Breath” is typically jarring, and in the hands of another group these musical transitions wouldn't work. But that's not the case here. Wednesday has made this part of the band's sound. It’s unique, and they own it.
The band even goes into hardcore territory on “Wasp,” with Hartzman screaming the entire song. It’s a cathartic release and doesn’t come off out of place. That's an impressive feat!
Humor doesn’t escape Hartzman either. Take the line “We watched a Phish concert and Human Centipede / Two things I wished I’d never seen” off of "Phish Pepsi" for example. That’s just a good line, and it made me laugh.
“Wound Up Here (By Holding On”) is a highlight for me and is a great example of Wednesday firing on all cylinders. The guitars rip and even rise to Smashing Pumpkins level of pinch harmonics with the guitar solo. The lyrics, according to Hartzman, come from a story a friend told her about pulling a dead body out of a creek. They're disturbing and bizarre, but are delivered with such assuredness that at first listen I didn't connect the dots. It's when you take the time to peel pack the layers that the darkness of Hertzman's lyrics reveal themselves.
This theme continues with “Carolina Murder Suicide,” a piano heavy track about finding the remains of a — you guessed it ... murder suicide. Weirdly, it's probably the most beautiful track on the album, and it's about a terribly gruesome topic. I imagine the conversation between the band going like this: “I’ve got this track about a murder suicide, I’m thinking ... piano ballad?” It’s unexpected, but works perfectly.
Bleeds is a must listen and gets better after every spin. It’s complex, eclectic, weirdly American and you'll be doing yourself a favor by checking it out.
