How To Get Into: Wednesday

In a cultural space crowded with inauthenticity, Wednesday have consistently delivered on projects packed full of genuine storytelling and dripping with alternative influences. From shoegaze to alt-country, this article explores a modest selection of artists and albums that have shaped the North Carolina natives, whilst also discussing the band’s excellent body of work and how best to traverse it.  

Life in the Deep South is the canvas on which lead vocalist Karly Hartzman paints – this she shares with Lucinda Williams, a cornerstone of country, blues, and Americana for the last fifty years, and fittingly a key influence on Wednesday’s 2023 release Rat Saw God. Parallels between Williams’ small-town stories of adventure and heartbreak and Hartzman’s exploration of her southern identity can’t be ignored. Both Lucinda Williams (1988) and Car Wheels on a Gravel Road (1998) are well worth a listen for fans of singer-songwriter country.  

Youthful insecurities and complex relationships with home are shared across the pond

Hartzman also cites alternative rock band The Sundays as a major influence on the band’s early work – “I [knew I wanted to] combine The Sundays’ vocals with [shoegaze] music and country lyrics”, she recalled in conversation with The Forty-Five. Whilst the ethereal jangle of the English band shares little with Wednesday’s noisy alt-rock sound, vocal and lyrical similarities can be found between Hartzman and Harriet Wheeler, especially on tracks like ‘Hideous Towns’ and ‘Summertime’. Youthful insecurities and complex relationships with home are shared across the pond.  

Other key players in the WednesDNA include Pavement (Hartzman’s absurd lyrical juxtapositions reminiscent of Stephen Malkmus’ stream-of-consciousness style), as well as shoegaze acts like Slowdive and Sweet Trip. Fuzzy guitar work is leaned upon heavily in early releases, such as 2018’s How Do You Let the Love Into the Heart That Isn’t Split Wide Open, but this dreamy shoegaze approach is shelved in favour of noisier, grungier sounds on later albums.  

Tight songwriting and catchy vocal hooks feature early in Wednesday’s album catalogue; I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone boasting some excellent songs indicative of more quality to come. Standouts include album opener ‘Fate Is…’ and ‘Maura’, a beautiful tune packed with jagged, space-age guitar akin to indietronica acts like Broadcast.  

Twin Plagues, Wednesday’s final release on Orindal Records, introduced a country twang to the band’s sound, and 2022’s cover album Mowing the Leaves Instead of Piling ‘em Up confirmed the influence was here to stay – the project includes songs from Gary Stewart, Roger Miller, and the country-adjacent Vic Chestnutt, each given the full Wednesday treatment. The shoegaze spin on ‘She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles)’ in particular is well worth a listen.  

Hartzman recounts all manner of stories in vivid brushstrokes, often darkly comic and always deeply human

A move to Dead Oceans Records culminated in the band’s most critically acclaimed album, Rat Saw God, a project that flits between boisterous, punky instrumentation (‘Bull Believer’, ‘Bath County’) and achingly pretty ditties (‘Formula One’, ‘TV in the Gas Pump’) across its forty-minute runtime. Hartzman recounts all manner of stories in vivid brushstrokes, often darkly comic and always deeply human.  

“Georgie set fire to acres of cotton setting off model rockets/ Kid from the Jewish family got the preacher’s kid pregnant/ They sent her off” (‘Quarry’, Wednesday) 

“I sat on the stairs with a never-ending nosebleed/ You were playing Mortal Kombat/ God, make me good but not quite yet” (‘Bull Believer’, Wednesday) 

Recent release Bleeds has garnered the band further commercial and critical success – a TV debut performance of ‘Elderberry Wine’ on Stephen Colbert in May and stellar reviews from NME and Pitchfork look set to push Hartzman and co. to the forefront of the Southern alternative scene. Songs like ‘Townies’ and ‘Bitter Everyday’ are some of Wednesday’s tightest, most accessible work yet, leaving the sky as the only limit of what to expect from the group in future.  

Fans of Wednesday are spoiled for choice when it comes to contemporary artists worth exploring. Lead guitarist MJ Lenderman’s recent solo album Manning Fireworks is excellent, bristling with the same quirky melancholia found in his band’s music. Water From Your Eyes and Shallowater both released albums this year that experiment more aggressively with alternative rock, and a new project from Alice Phoebe Lou looks set to be a strong addition to a catalogue of folky singer-songwriter ballads akin to Wednesday’s more subdued moments.