WITH A BLAZING (NOT TO MENTION “FLUID LIKE THE WIND”) BAND BEHIND HIM, INDIE ROCK’S LEADING OVERDRIVE PURVEYOR TAKES HIS BEST ONE-MAN-BAND MATERIAL TO WILD NEW PLACES
By Richard Bienstock
NEWS + NOTES
MJ LENDERMAN IS a big fan of live albums, from the Band’s Rock of Ages and the Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72 to Drive-By Truckers’ Alabama Ass Whuppin’ and “a million Neil Young records.” But his decision to add his own offering to the live album canon was for a more specific reason. “My live show sounds different from the records, because when I’m in the studio I’m playing most of the instruments,” the Asheville, North Carolina-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist says. “Onstage, it’s a different thing.”
In-the-know rock fans, particularly those who favor bands on the rootsier — and noisier — end of the spectrum, may be familiar with Lenderman from his widescreen guitar work with alt-Americana darlings Wednesday (whose 2023 album, Rat Saw God, was a mainstay of end-of-year best-of lists). But in his solo music, Lenderman tends to handle almost everything, from songwriting and production to vocals, drums, bass and, of course, guitars, himself. His most recent studio full-length, 2022’s Boat Songs, showcased his idiosyncratic mix of relaxed, pedal-steel-inflected alt-country grooves and strident, fuzzed-out six-string excursions (he counts J Mascis, Thurston Moore and Neil Young among his six-string idols) wrapped in wry and often humorous story-songs delivered in a laidback, breezy drawl.
On the new concert document, And the Wind (Live and Loose!), Lenderman offers a more expansive, and, as the title implies, looser take on the Boat Songs tracks. For the majority of the songs, captured at the Lodge Room in L.A., Lenderman played a Fender Jazzmaster through Vox AC15 and Fender Deluxe amps, while the remainder
