Bleeds. Wednesday

Here I sit listening to Bleeds and vivid images enter my mind. I see Karly Hartzman floating in a rubber dingy down a river. Everything seems smooth and easy, but just underneath her piranhas are lurking and a colony of crocodiles are out to get her. Water is splashing all of a sudden, only to quiet down once again. Before she knows it the river becomes smaller and her dingy enters a rough patch, bumping up and down on the waves and eddies, bumping off a rock here and there. All the time Hartzman remains calm itself. Until she has had enough, explodes and turns into a storm. And then it starts all over again, with calm flowing water....

With Bleeds Wednesday calls up vivid images in my mind through the music and the singing. Although I have listened to 'Twin Plagues' and 'Rat Saw God' a lot at the time of release, this is the first time that Wednesday makes a shattering impression on me. Bleeds is next level, where everything seems to come together. The country elements are there, so is the southern rock but most of all a punk ethos that makes the songs on Bleeds sparkle and, yes, bleed. Harzman's voice, the amps, my ears, probably the bandmembers' ears, everything is bleeding from sheer exhaustion by the end of the album.

Wednesday is also Xandy Chelmis (lap steel, pedal steel), Alan Miller (drums), Ethan Baechtold (bass, piano), and Jake “M.J.” Lenderman (guitar). Together they turn Kathy Hartzman's songs in complete powerhouses. They take a sledgehammer to the listener and ram the songs in. In New Zealand there's The Beths, were it not that on its latest album 'Straight Line Was A Lie' the band shows a softer side to itself, where Wednesday definitely went into the other direction. Both are fine albums, but nothing prepared me for Bleeds. A song like 'Townies' perhaps comes closest to the repertoire of the two bands, where things go totally out of hand, are reigned in and set loose again.

It's just the beginning as later on Kathy Hartzman's singing and the band's playing show their certified punk side in 'Wasp'. I can only imagine that she will not sing this song every night, as she'll have no voice left after a week. What was the inspiration to go so all out? It can't be a happy experience. 'Wasp' is the most extreme song on the album, as such it stands out as something being the middle of Bleeds, from which the two halves play themselves out.

For me it's quite clear that a band like Nirvana was an inspiration for Bleeds. The unchannelled anger that shines through regularly is a dead giveaway, but that is only one part of the story. There are far more traditional influences as country and southern rock, both translated to an alternative rock band in the 2020s. The single 'Elderberry Wine' is almost traditional country as played by a band like Wednesday. And there's so much more, because where does a song like 'Caroline Murder Suicide' come from? There's definitely a Lou Reed/The Velvet Underground tension underneath it all throughout the song and that title of course. And that leaves the final song, 'Gary's II', an uptempo traditional country song, with Chelmis' pedal steel all over the place. (The abrupt stop is very surprising though.)

With Bleeds Wednesday for me made is best album to date. The album is varied but above all extremely exciting. So much is happening that it is almost impossible to keep up with all the musical plots and twists. There remains enough to discover for quite some time to come.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

 

You can listen to and order Bleeds here:

https://wednesdayband.bandcamp.com/album/bleeds