Latest news with #Wednesday
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Arson, sex shops, livestreamed funerals: Wednesday's Karly Hartzman on the wild stories in her southern gothic rock
To step into Karly Hartzman's home is to see the contents of her brain shaken out. There is a fireplace mantel covered in dolls and figurines; a wooden rack filled with cassette tapes; an old doll's house filled to the brim with fabric scraps; a few overflowing bookshelves. As the 28-year-old leader of the indie-rock band Wednesday greets me at the door, she realises a few new additions have just landed through the letterbox, some books about the history of hardcore and punk: she has been listening to both a lot and is eager to educate herself. Hartzman is a collector by nature, a habit that is also at the heart of her songwriting. Equally inspired by the southern rockers Drive-By Truckers and the shoegaze greats Swirlies, Wednesday's sound combines heartfelt twang with walls of pummelling sound. Hartzman's lyrics are highly narrative, inflected with striking, gnarly details. Listen to the band's breakthrough album, 2023's Rat Saw God, and you will hear about urine-coloured soda, roadside sex shops, accidental arson and teens getting high on Benadryl. The band's forthcoming sixth album, Bleeds, refines their sound, never letting the raw noise overshadow Hartzman's knack for melody and unique stories. 'This is what we've been working towards this whole time,' she says. She calls the band's singular sound an 'unavoidable' result of the members' individual tastes. By now, she says: 'We know what a Wednesday record sounds like, and then we make it.' Although Pitchfork declared Wednesday 'one of the best indie-rock bands around', Hartzman keeps a low profile in her home town, the small North Carolina city of Greensboro. She recently moved back from nearby Asheville, where she lived on a bucolic property known as Haw Creek that was home to various local musicians. In person, Hartzman is thoughtful, expressive and more reserved than you might expect from her riotous performances. As we drive around Greensboro, she points out her teenage haunts, such as the cafe she used to frequent when she skipped school. As a kid, she resented being told what to do, but never let that get in the way of an education. 'I was very methodical,' she says about cutting class. 'I was writing and reading and doing work – I was doing my own school, on my terms.' She credits her taste in music to a few crucial sources: her parents, who played Counting Crows and the singer-songwriter Edwin McCain around the house; her older sister, who got her into Warped tour punk (Paramore were an early favourite); and a longtime friend who introduced her to shoegaze and post-hardcore bands such as My Bloody Valentine and Unwound. When she started college, Hartzman admired her friends who played in bands, but she wasn't interested in taking music lessons. Then she saw the band Palberta – a playful indie-rock trio whose members traded instruments every few songs – and felt inspired by the messy, uncomplicated style of playing the three women shared. 'They were doing something that sounded awesome and very easy,' she says. 'After that show, I bought my friend's guitar off him.' Hartzman's earliest recordings were solo; she got a formal band together only when her sister asked her to perform at her birthday party. From there, Wednesday rotated through a few members before settling into a stable lineup: Xandy Chelmis on steel guitar, Ethan Baechtold on bass and piano, Alan Miller on drums and MJ Lenderman on guitar. They started playing house shows and tiny spots with friends' bands and folks they met in local DIY scenes. Wednesday's shows could be raucous, rowdy affairs, but their home lives centred around the quietude of Haw Creek, surrounded by streams and open fields – the kind of place where they could go fishing in the morning, then practice in the living room later on. 'We lived on acres of land,' she says. 'Nothing will ever beat that.' Hartzman lived at Haw Creek with Lenderman who, alongside his work in Wednesday, found meteoric success last year for his fourth solo album, Manning Fireworks. He and Hartzman started dating before Lenderman joined Wednesday – Hartzman was a fan of his music, playing it over the speakers at the coffee shop where she worked before they met. After six years together, they broke up amicably in 2024. Hartzman chalks it up to the usual big-picture differences that emerge in adulthood. In your early 20s, she says: 'You're just like: 'Oh, I like this person, I'll date them.' But then, when you're 28, you have to be like: 'Does this person have the same intentions in life?'' Hartzman was interested in marriage and kids; Lenderman was not quite on the same page, she says. But, from the beginning, 'I've known, even if we're not romantic for ever, we're creative collaborators for ever'. Lenderman will be on future records; while he won't perform on their next tour, Hartzman insists it's nothing personal; between Wednesday and his solo career, his touring schedule has been relentless and 'he needs a break'. The songs on Bleeds were written before the breakup, although some of them hint at the deteriorating relationship. The Way Love Goes started as an apology for not being fully present. 'When I wrote it, I was like: 'But I'm gonna fight for this,'' she says. 'Of course, by the time we recorded it, that was not the situation.' Wasp, meanwhile, describes the bitter self-recrimination she felt towards the relationship's end. 'My body just kind of gave up on me,' she says. 'I was really dissociated because I didn't want to break up, but I was having to accept that we needed to.' Bleeds is haunted by images of loss and violence: a washed-up body, a livestreamed funeral, a car crash, a knife fight. Hartzman doesn't see it necessarily as a dark record; she sees it as chasing good stories and telling the truth. 'Death is around at every point,' she says. 'If you don't acknowledge that, you're lying.' She is drawn to mixing the cartoonish and the creepy: 'I think that's just a southern gothic attitude,' she says, describing her taste as 'a little bit scary, but there's a heart of gold underneath'. Much of Hartzman's songwriting draws on her memories of youthful debauchery, like sneaking out late then teaching Sunday school. She is also a keen collector of stories, keeping an eye out for strange characters and unbelievable happenings. 'If someone has a story where they're, like: 'Oh my God, this was so embarrassing,' or: 'This is kind of a secret,'' her ears prick up. (She always asks for permission and changes names and identifying details to protect the innocent.) From Bleeds, the drowning victim on Wound Up Here (By Holdin' On) comes from a friend's story from his days as a rafting guide in West Virginia; Carolina Murder Suicide was inspired by a true-crime podcast. But Hartzman's songs still feel intimate, told in first person through a singular lens, treating their subjects with compassion. Rat Saw God took the band to new heights, landing on many publications' year-end lists. But as she looks towards the release of Bleeds, Hartzman is committed to keeping her personal life steady. It helps that while 'the shows have changed a lot' – getting bigger and bigger – 'my life at home has been so consistent'. This year, she ditched her smartphone, got off social media and built herself a charmingly retro, Y2K-style personal website. The apps were zapping her focus; then, a profile of Lenderman was published with details of their breakup. 'People were putting their own two cents on that shit,' she says with an eye roll. 'I was like: oh, it would feel so good to get off that.' She has changed how she listens to music, too, jettisoning the algorithm to favour recommendations from friends and blogs. 'It's been so rewarding.' On her site, she shares monthly journal entries and roundups of the music and media she is enjoying. She answers reader-submitted questions about everything from learning guitar to her relationship with religion. She also has a PO box where listeners can send letters; she replies to as many as she can. It's important for her to be in touch with the people who love her music, she says, and she wants to give them something special. But this method represents, for her, a 'closeness on my own terms' – a way of preventing the always-on burnout faced by many musicians on the rise. Her ability to tune out industry pressure surprises even those closest to her. Lenderman 'is always wondering: 'How do you not feel that kind of pressure of expectation?'' she says. 'But my need to write is so important to me, more than any reception.' As well as making her own merch from customised thrift store T-shirts, in her precious downtime, Hartzman has been writing and spending time with local friends – they are fond of a laundromat-cum-bar called Suds & Duds. She has never lived outside North Carolina – and doesn't plan to. 'I love it,' she says. 'It feels like home to me. And that feeling is addicting.' Folks here know her face because they watched her grow up, or grew up alongside her, not because her band recently played The Late Show (although she did get recognised recently by a Wednesday listener at her grandmother's retirement home). Most of what happens in her songs 'could happen anywhere', she says. 'I'm not trying to say, necessarily, that I had a different upbringing or lifestyle than most teenagers.' But she is telling her story truthfully – 'and, in reality, it happened here'. Hartzman understands why other artists might move to a major city to find artistic success, but she is glad to be rooted in such a distinctive place. 'I don't like the feeling of: 'I'm in the cultural centre of the universe and what I do here will pervade the rest of culture,'' she says with a shrug. 'I like the idea of coming in from the edge.' Bleeds is released via Dead Oceans on 19 September
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Cruel eczema makes my face swell up and covers my body in a raw rash. Then I discovered the game-changing ways to control it - and now my skin looks like THIS
You know how it goes. You look amazing at 3pm on a Wednesday when no one's around, but the second you need to leave the house for something important, your skin decides to have a meltdown. That's my experience anyway. And in my case, by meltdown I mean an eczema flare-up of epic proportions.
Geek Tyrant
14 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
New WEDNESDAY Season 2 Trailer Sees Steve Buscemi Give Us a Tour of NeverMore — GeekTyrant
Netflix has debuted a fun trailer for Wednesday Season 2, and it gives us a tour of the "new" NeverMore Academy. It introduces us to Steve Buscemi as Barry Dort, the new principal of NeverMore offering the tour, and he's definitly having fun in this role. Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) returns to Nevermore Academy and she "must navigate family, friends and old adversaries, propelling her into another year of delightfully dark and kooky mayhem. 'Armed with her signature razor-sharp wit and deadpan charm, Wednesday is also plunged into a new bone-chilling supernatural mystery." Fresh foes and woes await Wednesday at NeverMore. . The series comes from Alfred Goughand Miles Millar, who return for the spine-tingling second season, alongside exec producer and director Tim Burton. The series also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Emma Myers, Joy Sunday, Luis Guzmán, Hunter Doohan, Billie Piper, and Moosa Mostafa. Guest stars include Jamie McShane, Joanna Lumley, Joonas Suatamo, Fred Armisen, Christopher Lloyd, Thandiwe Newton and Lady Gaga.. I'm just happy seeing Buscemi embrace his kookiness again with this role. Enjoy. Season 2 of Wednesday will drop in two parts with Part 1 on August 6th, and Part 2 on September 3rd.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Steve Buscemi looks unrecognizable as he takes on new role in Wednesday season 2
Fans of Netflix 's Wednesday will be greeted by a familiar face like you've never seen him before when they return to Nevermore Academy in Season 2. The streaming service released a new video on Wednesday, which confirms an iconic actor has joined the cast for this new season. He will be portraying the new principal of Nevermore Academy, Barry Dort, who takes over for previous principal Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie). The video appears to be a recruitment video of sorts, with Barry trying to convince prospective students that he is turning the school around with him in charge. They even launched a new website - - where fans are invited to 'apply' for the fictional school showcased in the series, starring Jenna Ortega as the title character. So who is playing this new principal trying to bring Nevermore Academy to new heights? It's none other than Steve Buscemi! The 67-year-old actor is clad in a purple suit, explaining to viewers, 'Last year, this school, this sanctuary, came under attack, thanks to my predecessor, Larissa Weems.' They show Weems' portrait being removed from the school, as Dort says, 'Her repugnant devotion to all things normie was a disaster, but I relish every opportunity to right her wrongs,' as they go past his own official portrait. He also lays out his plan to restore the school to its former glory by 'replenishing its ranks with a new batch of eager, young outcasts.' Barry then joins Pugsley Addams (Isaac Ordonez), an incoming freshman at Nevermore, seen controlling lightning bolts with his hands, who Barry says is, 'still learning to control his outcast ability.' He adds that, 'whatever kind of outcast you are, you'll find a home at Nevermore, as she passes Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), who says, 'Because here, we celebrate what makes us unique.' Barry and Bianca both pass Jenna Ortega's title character and her roommate Enid (Emma Myers), with Enid continuing, 'And we can become our true selves,' while a droll Wednesday adds, 'Even if that true self resembles nails on a chalkboard.' The video wraps up with Barry standing on a Nevermore statue above many of his students, adding, 'So what are you waiting for? Seize your chance to join the new Nevermore, because Nevermore is never better!' The teaser concludes by revealing that Part 1 of Wednesday Season 2 debuts on the streaming service August 6, with Part 2 following September 3. They show Weems' portrait being removed from the school, as Dort says, 'Her repugnant devotion to all things normie was a disaster, but I relish every opportunity to right her wrongs,' as they go past his own official portrait. The teaser concludes by revealing that Part 1 of Wednesday Season 2 debuts on the streaming service August 6, with Part 2 following September 3 Series star Jenna Ortega caused many fans to be angry with her after an interview with Harper's Bazaar, where she revealed that she was 'an unhappy person' once she received all of the attention from Wednesday. 'After the pressure, the attention - as somebody who's quite introverted, that was so intense and so scary.' And although Ortega is returning to the show for a second season, she opened up about how doing the show comes with cons - especially for the future of her career. 'I'm doing a show I'm going to be doing for years where I play a schoolgirl, but I'm also a young woman,' she added.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
WHO 13 Farm Report: Wednesday, June 18th
David Geiger takes a look at Wednesday's farm and agriculture news. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
