The Friday Dispatch
Wednesday, Kota the Friend, Bethany Cosentino and a trip to Oslo for Øyafestivalen
For this week's digital cover, Best Fit takes a guided tour inside the mind of Karly Hartzman, the central creative force behind North Carolina band Wednesday.
The songs of Hartzman are rooted in the pathos of the American south. "We always started by telling our best stories first, so now that it’s been a while I’ll get to tellin’ you all my worst,” is the promise tied to her band's third album, Rat Saw God - one of the year's best albums.
It’s a spit-swear pact, the kind made when you can be trusted with ugliness; to still have faith in the silver among the shrapnel. Its release has marked the final chapter of a three-year transformation for Wednesday which began with five kids from North Carolina with inked arms and unruly kitchen-scissor mullets packing out basements, and ended, on the other side of it all, with one of the most fascinating indie-rock bands in America.
Wednesday’s songs are sometimes like desperate, sweat-soaked nightmares, sometimes tender in the way of a deep purple bruise - but they always intensely human. Born from the scarred earth of the American South, their sound merges rusty-switchblade shoegaze with the country swoon of a steep-lap guitar. It carries a Gothic sensibility, but not in the way you’ve come to expect. Leave behind your notions of colonial mansions falling into disrepair, haunted by Christ and the old Antebellum promises; Hartzman speaks plainly, and the tales of her particular North Carolina haunts of Greensboro and Asheville have a more terrible kind of beauty because they’re real.
When is an island not an island? When it’s Øyafestivalen
The name of Norway’s biggest and best outdoor music event translates literally to ‘the island festival’, inspired by its original site on Kalvøya in the glittering Oslo fjord, where the first two editions took place with mostly Norwegian artists. Now in its third location, the landlocked Tøyen Park on the east side of the Norwegian capital, Øya is an island in only the figurative sense. More of a lighthouse, really, and the organisers have taken that guiding role to heart, maintaining a strong focus on Norwegian music while also attracting an impressive range of international artists.
Spanning a generous five days – four at Tøyen plus Tuesday’s club night – and spilling out after hours each night into the Oslo’s many indoor venues, Øya has become a hugely important event in the city’s cultural calendar. With a strong emphasis on sustainability and a very visible message of wanting to create a safe and welcoming space for everyone, it has a feelgood factor that other festivals could do well to learn from. There’s no aggro here, and precious little ego either. It’s clean, well serviced, spectacularly efficient, easy to navigate, and the view of the stage is rarely crowded with the glare of phone screens filming entire sets. At Øya, it seems, people are more interested in seeing than in being seen to be seeing.
Something old, something new
Every week, one of Best Fit's writers or editors share their recommendations of two records they love - one from the past, one from the present. This week, Best Fit writer Wepea Buntugu on Lyrics to Go Vol 2 by Kota the Friend (2021) and Natural Disaster by Bethany Cosentino (2023)
Kota the Friend has three priorities: his young son, his money and his legacy. On Lyrics to Go Vol 2, he examines his relationship with these things and the world at large over light, bouncy beats guaranteed to have you head-bopping on your way to work. In true “to-go” fashion, the songs on this project never overstay their welcome; in fact, they usually leave you wanting more. In just under 15 and a half minutes, Kota is a superhero, environmentalist, father, insecure young adult and self-assured rapper, a range of personalities that add even more colour to this project.
As an artist who has not broken into true mainstream consciousness but still has a good amount of success, Kota can wear different caps – and even as he counts his stacks on one song, he longs for simpler circumstances on another. It is refreshing to hear an artist not treating all the bells and whistles of success as the be-all and end-all. In my opinion, this duality does not dull the efficacy of those braggadocious moments at all. It adds perspective and leaves space for you to dream but still appreciate your journey and current reality even if it does not involve “a million-dollar condo in the Stuy”.
On the introspective “Emotionally Dumb”, the instrumentals are airy and allow Kota’s lyricism to take the spotlight. This is one of my highlights on the record and the reason why will become apparent pretty quickly. Here, Kota the Friend reaches deep and touches on several insecurities: being afraid of judgement, failure, and having genuine relationships. The ability of any one song to make you feel seen in some of your difficult moments cannot be understated, and seeing him be honest as he is, will be a comforting reminder for others that they are not alone.
Best Coast – the indie rock duo of singer Bethany Cosentino and instrumentalist Bobb Bruno – enjoyed great success in the 2010s but when the pandemic slowed most things to a halt, Cosentino began to discover another creative side to herself that she wanted to explore. This ultimately led to an indefinite hiatus for the band and a dive into the solo pool for the singer that resulted in debut solo album Natural Disaster. The project has hints of the general malaise and desperation that the majority of the world was feeling in the early parts of the pandemic. It does well not to dwell on that sadness, jumping between moments of personal introspection and euphoric celebration that give the album a well-rounded outlook.
The album's allure for me is mostly contained in Cosentino's energy and passion. I would not – not with a straight face, at least – describe myself as a Best Coast truther, so this was one of my first forays into the Cosentino experience. On the record’s title track, the message is desperate and gloomy, but the chorus rousing and fierce and I was hooked. The project has a bunch of these high moments but is never dependent on them. “Easy”, for example, is a more laidback effort. An honest evaluation of the singer’s current predicament – especially as she compares it to the hopes and dreams she had for herself. She explores some of her worst tendencies and contrasts that with how she feels supported by the special people in her life as she sings, “Every time I’m scared of falling / You’re pulling for me through it all / It’s always easy.”
Music that draws from multiple influences, including notes of country, surf-rock and indie pop, Natural Disaster is a window into one person’s journey of self-exploration. Much like such a journey, it’s not perfect but promises an authenticity throughout that makes it a worthwhile listen.
We have three vinyl copies of Natural Disaster to give away - enter the competition here.
Listen to the week in new music by following our Discovery playlist
Dropping at midnight every Thursday, follow our 20-track playlist for a taste of the best new music from the most exciting breaking artists.
These are the songs our editors and writers have on repeat right now, taken from the hundreds of tracks released in the last seven days. Leading the selection this week are amazing cuts from Human Interest, Unflirt, underscores, Static Dress, Sun June and coverstar Haley Blais.