Tee Time is (another) new segment we’re trying out here at Fast & Loose HQ (aka me and my laptop). It’s about people’s treasured band t-shirt collections. Is the name bad? Who can say! Life is a highway. Let’s get to it:
Karly Hartzman is the front woman and main creative engine (beep beep) of one of my favorite contemporary bands, Wednesday. I’m fairly certain if you read this newsletter you already fuck with Wednesday, but if not I implore you to correct that for your own life’s improvement. She’s like Flannery O’Connor with blue lipstick and an electric guitar (and more use of interiority) - her detail-rich lyrics about the bars, ticks, and smoking weed out of a Pepsi can, her sharp observation of her Southern existence braided through with her universally resonant expressions of pain and heartbreak make for some of the best albums (last year’s Bleeds and 2023’s Rat Saw God especially) I’ve heard in a long time.
Karly is not your typical band t-shirt collector - she’s not out here dropping $350 on a singular t-shirt (dragging my own ass to hell here). Instead she transforms new shirts into something new through actual artistry and craft.
Here is her Tee Time:
KH: Almost all of my fave band tees are modern ones where I cut out the graphic and sew them on vintage shirts myself. I’m very picky with fit and comfort level of my tees. I can’t wear modern Gildan or any of those type of brands really. I’ll pick up 70s-00s blanks for the sole purpose of making them into these tees.
I think it’s really really cool to find and buy original vintage merch from the 90’s and aughts bands I love but I can almost never rationalize paying the prices the go for. I appreciate the value of t-shirts as archival items but like .... defo don’t tolerate some of the price gouging I see on sites like Grailed.
Usually I will buy the modern merch directly from the band unless their shit is totally out of print.
KH: I wear the Unwound tee, the Belle & Sebastian, Drop Nineteens and Swirlies tanks constantly....
The Swirlies one is especially exciting to me right now cause the shirt I cut the graphic from was sent to me by the original bassist of the band, along with some other really sweet memorabilia. His hand writing is tattooed on my arm cause he wrote some text on one of their covers and I ripped it for the tat on my wrist!
I think doing this kinda ultimately captures the DIY/scrappy nature of these bands anyways. It helps me feel like I’m having a creative exchange with the artwork and the band itself?
KH: I’ve made a few of these for some modern bands too (like the Harsh Realm and 9Million t-shirts). I ironed on the creepy graphic to the Harsh Realm tee as well and it’s very sacred to me. Alex who records all our albums is in that band.
KH: I have a few straight up vintage shirts that I wear as is: The Willie Nelson, The Band, Drive-By Truckers and Smashing Pumpkins. The DBT one was a gift! Both me and Jake have been gifted vintage DBT merch, some of it from people who got it from their early shows ... Jake has most of it. I just can’t believe that people we’re willing to part with that shit to give it to us!!!!
The Willie tee was thrifted and I believe I got the Band and the SP tees on tour for very reasonable prices at vintage stores.
KH: This Hotline TNT/ Toner tour tee is basically the only modern band tee I wear as is. Although I did add a patch to cover an oil stain. I have worn this shirt a billllion times.
KH: The Peavey shirt is not a band obviously... but I think Peavey amps has one of the coolest logos of alllll time!!! Also I love the moth holes at the bottom of the shirt. I had to cover up a bunch of mysterious stains with patches. I got this from my friend Rafi in Asheville for $10. We have veryyyy similar taste in clothes. His store was completely flooded and destroyed by the hurricane/flooding, so idk where to find his stuff at the moment. His store in Asheville was called Wildflower Vintage though so ya’ll might be able to find him somewhere online.
KH: Lastly I included some stuff that I collaged a bunchhhh of shit on to. The tshirt was gifted to me by a fan, it has a picture of Gwen Stefani and it says “Gwednesday” on it but I always feel soooo weird wearing shit with my band name on it, but I loved the fucked up graphic on it. I added some other bands tee’s to it: Cryogeyser, Draag, Tagabow, and then the graphic from a Teen Titans shirt from my childhood.
KH: The sweatshirt is a TAGABOW one that I got from our tour with them in ‘21 (I think that was the year) but it was white so of course I spilled a smoothie all over it. I added a bunch of patches to cover the stains up and then I added this “Karly” airbrush graphic on the back that I found on a sweatshirt in a Goodwill in Chicago!! I never find stuff with my name on it (at least not spelled with a K) so I was stoked.
I made a playlist of all the bands in her tees HERE. Now go listen to Wednesday all day! xx
Yes.. more tee times please
I love this idea. I just need a tutorial on the sewing part.
I also think the title to this segment is perfect.