There is a brief but impressive history of ice cream shop workers transitioning from scoop jockeys to rock stars. At least one D.C. Haagen Daz store can boast both Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye as former employees; Gwen Stefani used to work at a Dairy Queen in Anaheim, CA; and both members of the Dresden dolls clocked in at a local ice cream shop in Cambridge, MA.
Like those rock stars before him, Jake Lenderman was just another ice cream scooper in Ashville, NC, coming home at night and working on songs for his solo albums, all released under his initials, MJ Linderman. The pandemic rolled across the globe, and he joined the indie band on Wednesday. His 2022 Boat Songs, recorded for a meager $1,000, became a breakout, word-of-mouth hit, and suddenly, there was not a lot of need to return to the ice cream parlor. Manning Fireworks, the follow-up to Boat Songs, recorded over four days in his hometown, is even more impressive and destined to get even more folks talking up about his talent.
The album builds nicely on his first three efforts, drawing comparisons to other indie singer-songwriters like Jeff Tweedy, The Jayhawks, and even Freedy Johnston at the time. His fourth solo effort but first for ANTI-, the album like those before it is an unpretentious affair, filled with plenty of sly, smart humor, packed with underdog energy.
The lo-fi production features Lenderman playing almost all the instruments and pairs him with his friend and frequent collaborator Alex Farrar as co-producer. Mellow, sometimes bordering on melancholy, the wit in his lyrics is balanced out by sadness and starkness in much of the music. The opening title track is a sublime acoustic number that offers a perfect introduction to the uninitiated, with his leisurely delivery of whip-smart lyrics. “Wristwatch” is a stellar example of his masterful blend of equal parts humor and sadness, as is “You Don’t Know The Shape I’m In,” both prime examples of “if I wasn’t laughing, I’d be crying.”
But it’s not all tear-in-my-beer ballads; on “Rudolph,” over a stellar crunchy guitar line, he sings about Santa’s head reindeer getting run over by Lightning McQueen, the star of the Pixax Cars series, leading to the line “How many roads must a man walk down ’til he learns/He’s just a jerk who flirts with the clergy nurse ’til it burns.” Michael Stipe couldn’t write a cooler, more enigmatic line.
The album closes on the 10-minute-long guitar-centric “Bark At The Moon” – a song that closes on five minutes of nothing but feedback – the perfect reminder that even though you think you have Lenderman figured out, far from being just another laidback indie folk roots rocker, Manning Fireworks will dissuade you of any preconceived notions.
