MJ Lenderman‘s music is slightly unhappy, generally humorous and virtually all the time comforting. He is already performed the Tiny Desk with the indie rock band Wednesday, however after a stellar 2024 — a memorable function on Waxahatchee‘s “Proper Again To It” and his personal solo album, Manning Fireworks — it was time to convey him in for his personal set.
His band, usually referred to as MJ Lenderman and The Wind, instructed us that after they play their songs stripped again like this, they check with themselves as MJ Lenderman and The Breeze. The fiddle-forward “Rip Torn” and “You Do not Know The Form I am In” really feel particularly appropriate for the house.
Lenderman’s compelling lyricism and wry sense of self shines on this efficiency. On a track pulled from Ghost of Your Guitar Solo, he displays on how he used to suppose he needed to be a Catholic priest: “I’d by no means have to fret / Concerning the ladies tryin’ to interrupt my coronary heart / All bills paid / Yeah, I would have it made / The home would come furnished.” Afterward, he muses, “Nothing humorous has ever occurred to me.”
SET LIST
- “Wristwatch”
- “Rip Torn”
- “Catholic Priest”
- “You Do not Know The Form I am In”
MUSICIANS
- MJ Lenderman: vocals, guitar
- Jon Samuels: guitar
- Landon George: upright bass
- Ethan Baechtold: piano
- Colin Miller: drums, background vocals
- Xandy Chelmis: dobro, fiddle, background vocals
TINY DESK TEAM
- Producer: Elle Mannion
- Director/Editor: Maia Stern
- Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
- Host/Sequence Producer: Bobby Carter
- Videographers: Maia Stern, Kara Body, Mitra I. Arthur
- Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
- Manufacturing Assistant: Ashley Pointer
- Photographer: Michael Zamora
- Tiny Desk Workforce: Joshua Bryant, Hazel Cills
- Government Producer: Suraya Mohamed
- Sequence Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
- VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
