The Wrens

Where on ilm?

and by Pitchfork).

Do we really have to bring this up?

They do appear to be just another indie pop band at first. It took awhile to sink in. What generally sets them apart: the Wrens are harder working, the lyrics are better, the songs assembled and arranged carefully/thoughtfully, the eighties bent in production and songwriting, the willful rejection of any trends whatsoever, and finally, the hooks that don't immediately come across as hooks. You'll be humming them for days.

Ah! but this is something!

But seriously, are you saying the record sounds dated because it ain't got disco hi-hat beats or something?

for the record, i've heard a few songs by the wrens (you know, i still have a kinda sucky but oddly comforting release of theirs called 'silver' that i bought used for dirt cheap and haven't listened to in a long time!), i was listening to different records then, but i thought they had a few nice, if relatively unremarkable, indie rock songs. i actually downloaded something from this new cd and found it lousy, maybe i've just gotten too lazy a listener to dig for hooks. and disco hi-hats couldn't hurt.

I hear ya, I know what you mean. This is very true.

I think in this case it is a virtue because the sound, method, whatever, suits the band even if the record does sound dated. They haven't changed too much with the times, but I think it works, and their stubbornness (as I imagine it) is a plus. It has a lot of personality.

Though it should technically matter little, the Wrens are possibly the nicest group of people you'll ever met.

But, yeah, Grass. When booking a Wrens show back in 96, that Fuckwad Boss, forced the addition of Commander Venus (his newest signing) to the bill. The little band of 14-15 year olds was fronted by a pathetic, pubescent Bright Eyes. Now THEY were terrible.

i guess i don't care about "passionate rock music." ha ha ha, etc.

That's how I feel about the Shins. But I love the Wrens' record. And I can't explain why...

Yeah, me too and I didn't want to like them because pitchfork was all up on them, but after further listenings I came to love Meadowlands. Secaucus doesn't do much for me though.

By the way, as long as this is The Wrens thread, has anyone else read Meadowlands reviews with the words 'emo' included? I thought this was a little ridiculous. I mean then what isn't emo?

Also I have little knowledge of Grass as a mid 90s label, but I would think It'd be much easier to rip them for being on Drive-Thru for a minute.

ha ha. this was exactly my thought when I listened to the record. It's pretty good - and it's also definitely emo. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I was extremely perplexed that I hadn't seen any review refer to it as such - like you say. i guess most of the indie review places have worked so hard at slagging and distancing themselves from emo (trashing bands solely on the basis of their genre), that they can't conceive of an emo record that they like. what a sad place to be.

Maybe I'm one of the billion trillion people who aren't quite sure on what emo is.

Seriously. When is everyone going to start using the term 'post-emo' - its about time. Certainly theres a lot of stuff that has been influenced by it, but it just doesn't fit to really call anything emo anymore unless it is used as an insult.

Power pop I say. Sounds like indie rock update on Big Star/Flamin' Groovies.

And if it didn't have the 6 minute long turd that seems like it lasts 13 months it'd be near-perfect.

I just wish I could find the old CDs.

File under: Perfect Sound? Whatever.

Upon relistening, The Meadowlands really is a pretty devastating record. I'm really hoping these guys can keep it together long enough to make another record.

How the fuck has this thread gone all this time with no mention of "Everyone Choose Sides"? Agreed that devastating is as good a word as any for this.

Everybody on the planet should see these boys/middle aged men live too.

I only like the distorted songs at the end of this album.

For a lol indie band I like these guys a lot. And I fucked up and missed them at the Adelphi.

i really like the song 'Happy' but the rest bores me

Saw them at the borderline in london a couple of years ago; was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. Still not tired of the Meadowlands.

i throw "the meadowlands" on a few times a year and it still sounds totally sad and real and close to the bone. saw them live in 2003? 2004? and they were totally excellent and very funny.

Boy did I forget about the Wrens. I mean, I clicked on this thread thinking, "never heard of this band", and read like five posts before I realized I once owned The Meadowlands. I must have sold it or something because I no longer have it and it clearly didn't leave an impression on me...considering giving them another shot...

I take The Meadowlands off the shelf, listen to "Happy" and "She Sends Kisses," and put it back. But damn am I satisfied.

There are a lot of bands where the bio seems beside the point, but I know the Wrens' backstory makes the band mean more to me. My introduction to them was this still inspirationalTimes article that I can't separate from what's on The Meadowlands. Everyone Choose Sides and This Boy Is Exhausted put their daily struggle front and center, which makes all the relationship songs feel epic because you know what it took them to get to the point of being able to tell their tale. The Wrens = hope for all middle-aged rockers.

The Meadowlands is: totally fantastic, totally emo, totally not indie-pop. The beginning of this thread is: totally hilarious.

i still haven't heard Secaucus...
i liked meadowlands fine (it did seem a tad over-hyped at the time) and i'll pull it out every six months or so.

saw em live last year in Philly in the basement of a church(?) and they were pretty fuggin great

I didn't get Wrens - that Meadowlands was overrrated - i cheated it in the wrong sequence - then i saw them (THE WRENS) live.
Oh man. The reasons I love music

Noodle Vague.

Next time Jacko does one hold a Vague banner.

I'm ashamed at the number of "though it was overrated"s in this thread

Don't be ashamed ^ we all got there in the end but maybe not as quickly as you. Well Done

Are we not liking this record now? For crying out loud, what the hell is there not to like? It's on the shortlist of best records of the 2000s, people! Geez louise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ten tons against me and you've gone
I put your favorite records on
and sit around
it spins around
and you're around again
struck dumb while drugs run at how high reeds
cue every memory at half-speeds
just like....charles, hold-me-downs
I'm-coming sounds
cut crap, who's filling shoes like these anymore?
past clumsy crushes beneath Thrill Pier
hopes pinned to poses honed in men's room mirrors
a sophomore at Brown
she worked Lost & Found
I put your face on her all year
from five rows of photos when you wrote
of posed you, dressed blue, a backyard boat
signed at the bottom with this quote:
(#4 North Shore) a cape may address
your new one I guess
'all's well in hell and all here's hoping'
she sends kisses
some signed 'with Love, Beth oooooo xxxxx'
she sends kisses
our oldest joke
some signed 3 sixes
our shore town knockdown sure was fun
yeah, white trash, what have you
I fired replies back gun by gun
past Seven Wrecks I read your four answers: 1. your move 2. I'm tres involved 3. move on 4. love, Beth
I walk it down
this tourist town
'just thought I'd' calls
just friends
she sends kisses
and all at once back doors blow open
she sends.... in envelopes stamped w/ 'Hope & Hearts' - ripped right open
she sends...
but I'm corrupt - I wrote back good luck

from the above lyrics, the following line stands out for me as incredible:

"hopes pinned to poses honed in men's room mirrors"

such a great observation, expressed with a great deal of poetic poise.

I still don't get it.

http://devonrecordclub.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/the-wrens-meadowlands-round-14-toms-selection/

At what point does its brilliance reveal itself?

it took me at least 5 listenings spread throughout the course of a month before i even began to consider coming back to individual songs.

they have their strong moments, but the lyrics in "happy" make me cringecringeCRINGE despite being my favorite song of theirs. and i spent too much of my disowned teenage years listening to nu-metal that that ~voice~ has always struck me as the kind you'd hear opening for Staind that sometimes i turn it down on the bus just in case anyone is actually critical enough to judge the squibbles emitting from my headphones

I like the album a great deal but it's not by any means an easy listen.

Apparently the new record's done, partially spurred on by a near-death experience. They signed a new deal a few weeks back.

http://wrens.com/25th-year-wrap-up_and_record_is_wrapped

Neat. Scary circumstances though, yikes.

do we know which wren is writing there?

I assume it's Kevin?

I was assuming Charles?

I'll put in $5 on Kevin

some of the other recent posts are written by charles for sure

Given their luck, maybe they all got cepsis.

that'd be charles

Dammit!

The Meadowlands is probably in my top ten all time records. I almost dread anticipating this new record. Yet can't wait all the same.

Alright, looks like it reeeeaaaaally is done this time (the album)? I just happened to randomly google them to see what the latest is...

http://www.wrens.com/it-was-five-years-ago-yesterday

aw

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/68199/20160321/wrens-frontman-charles-bissell-shares-cancer-diagnosis-news-facebook.htm

just the worst news

hopefully it's not dire. he's so self-effacing that it's hard to really tell.

So apparently the new album is done; Charles has been posting invitations on FB for people to come by his house and listen to it, if there are any NJ ILXors interested. I guess we can expect a release date at some point in the near future? Maybe?

is it actually done this time? he's been having people come by to listen to the new material for quite a while now, so until there's a release date i won't hold my breath. the last concrete details from twitter were that it was nearly all sequenced & mastered at the start of august, with only a few songs left to tweak

So apparently the new album is done; Charles has been posting invitations on FB for people to come by his house and listen to it, if there are any NJ ILXors interested. I guess we can expect a release date at some point in the near future? Maybe?

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, September 13, 2017 11:40 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought Charles lived in BK? Or are you saying only us NJ ILXors are qualified to get an first listen?

nah I just assumed he lived in jersey

he talks about that a bit here

http://gothamist.com/2017/10/27/charles_bissell_the_wrens_interview.php

I actually went to one of his listening parties in his little studio just off the kitchen. He was very welcoming. It was great to talk about music and art and listen to the new material. The songs themselves are very collage-like and are sounding really good!

Ah that's so great!

I’m curious, are they self-releasing?

Bissell said about a year ago (?) that they had signed to a label, even showed him signing paperwork, but he declined to say what label. Who knows what the deal is now though

When I was at his place he told us the label... I'm not sure whether it's supposed to be a secret though?

I think it is? Maybe you could tell us what it rhymes with.

I have an urge to tell you, but I'm starting to second guess my memory? My wife is also fuzzy on it but she agrees it's probably the one I think...

I sorta reckoned as much anyway

Again, for the record we're both not 100% sure we remember correctly, but pretty sure.

iirc he's said they're intending for the label announcement to be part of the proper album announcement and everything

ah nice! had no idea they had a new album in the works of

I gues this puts them on track to release their 5th record some time around 2045 :D

works of

it's been in the works since 2010 and has been 'almost done' for like two years now, does seem like there's a chance of it finally coming out next year but i'm not getting my hopes up until there's a release date

He gave us some very specific timing estimations based on the promotional/manufacturing process... so it should definitely be for real this time. We'll see!

every time I hear the jeff rosenstock lyric "perfect always takes so long because it don't exist" I think of this goddamn album lol

Probably my most-anticipated release of '18. We'll see.

I've been anticipating this thing for so many years that the idea of it ever coming out sounds like something that's just forever off in the future. If it comes out in 2018 i'll be downright ecstatic.

my lord is there a more self-deprecating songwriter alive than Charles Bissell? today's update:

Super-short super-unimportant...I’d said I was gonna post an update at the end of Aug., and because these things often end up being sprawling multi-page affairs, I put it off. The new work-fast me is going bullet-point:

* Mastered finished songs last summer, i.e. Aug. 2017
* Mastering really just revealed that about half-doz. of them were either not so good or if on the right track, just not quite done, musically speaking.
* I worked on those all fall & winter
* Finished everything by the end of the school year, which was the goal ‘cause I knew summer was gonna be bonkers (family-wise, at-home-parent-of-three-grade-schoolers-wise), and it was. In a nice way. And one of the only stretches, health stuff aside, of really not working on the record at all. It was heavenly.
* With youngsters now back in school (this is the first full week), pulling up the now-finished songs & final-mixing them.
* Honestly, first time I”m happy. I mean I hate them, and myself now, but the record’s good. Not great, overworked maybe, but good (at least as much due Kevin’s anchoring anthems, which have largely been done for at least a year or two)
* Will mix the next little bit (I won’t dare give a specific time-frame but, I don’t know, into Oct..?), hand it in and let you know. Ta-da.
* Thanks, as always.

going back not to the recorded songs but to the songs themselves because mastering "revealed them as not so good" is a pretty intense stance. never heard of it really. like, when a track's mixed, ok. but mastering exposed something missing in the actual song? wild

overworked maybe

I had a sad chuckle at that

lol this album is never going to be finished

ffs even D’Angelo, dr dre and MBV have released their albums by now

I would be more annoyed about it but Charles seems a bit fragile and tbh it's probably for the best that he take his time! (and it's not like he/they have D'Angelo or MBV-level fanbases or resources to help them out...)

i can only imagine how much has been spent during this process. i mean they went to abbey road nine years ago

they didn't start working on it properly until 2010 or 2011 iirc

i don't blame charles for taking his time, especially with the health issues he's had and not having the resources to work on it full-time, but it's a bit sad that he doesn't seem to have the confidence to just let it be done, like deciding to re-write half the tracks after they've been mastered just seems bizarre

congratulations to the Wrens for cutting out a section of one of their still-unreleased songs and releasing it on its own, resulting in the best guided by voices song ever

I've lost myself to work
and lost Betsys to heaven
hard drives damn(ed) Kevin's house
putting demos of this down
please let these forfeit years put up profit and then some
fear far more handsome men come
able, funded, crowned

https://soundcloud.com/thewrens/and-its-all-guns-arrows-cut-bridge-as-of-122317

i rolled my eyes at this stalling tactic and then listened to it about 30 times -- it's so good!

this is like the fourth time they've done it, too

when charles is finally done with the album, he clearly should spend another decade stitching all the parts of songs he cut out into a new album

he says it's going to be done "next week" there so maybe we'll actually get it next year... lol

yeah sure

This boggles the mind - 240 gigobytes for one song! Content warning - the actual song isn't included here.

http://www.wrens.com/news-etc/2019/8/1/too-big-to-fail

"180-some tracks" on one song feels about right tbh

I hope Merge or whoever understands that idiots like me would pay good money for a release format that somehow contained this entire dumb archive

just stumbled across charles' latest update - as of a week ago the recording & mixing is done after being 'almost done' for the past 5 years or so

looking forward to 5+ years of updates on how the mastering is going

lol the meadowlands was #1 on my 2000s albums poll and even i've long given up on this album

if anyone in NYC wants to hear new Wrens material this week

Howdy,

If you wanna hear some of this now-done 10-year Odyssey of a recording (a not-pun that’ll be more clear when the record comes out), I’m gonna be doing a solo set of some of the songs (accompanied by my usual hide-me veil of loop pedal shenanigans), this Wed., January 8th around 6:30pm.

What makes this esp. nifty is that it’s for the closing party for the artist Beth Campbell’s (an actual genius and just my favorite) own solo show, How Do You Know I Am Not A Liar, at the Kate Werble Gallery (83 Vandam St., NYC (Beth’s show runs through this Friday, 1/10/20).

That’s the short of it: Album 4.5 songs, this Wed., 1/8/20, 6:30 at the Kate Werble Gallery.

Swing on by after work, Manhattan professionals.

The longer of it, where I first saw Beth’s work, and later how I got to know her and our still coming-together plan to collaborate re: this next record, is one of those fireside chats I roll out at these ‘come hear the record in our house’ things and even ties into to why I do them to begin with (which speaking of, one last round of those too starting Sunday, 3/1/20. But more on that later)….

Lol this new album is never coming out

idk i think it's actually vaguely possible it finally comes out this year considering all the "it's done for real this time it's finally mixed and i've stopped doing new overdubs at last" posts from around a month ago

this new post (http://www.wrens.com/news-etc/2020/1/29/welcome-back-mr-whelan-birthday-love-letter-to-the-one-at-stage-center) initially reads like kevin has only just started writing & recording new stuff for the record but if you read closely charles mentions he wrote most of the post back in 2013 and kevin has been working on the record with him for years so i don't actually think they've suddenly decided it's not actually done

I used to read all those posts with excitement, then I saw how long this one was and I just tuned out lol

idk i think it's actually vaguely possible it finally comes out this year

hahahahhAHAHAHAHHhahahahahzhahahahahhaa

good thing they can't go back in time and unrelease the meadowlands

don't get me wrong, they'll have written the most gut-wrenchingly self-aware song about "how they're aware they'd said the album was coming out at a timeframe but now that's not the case and you'll find out a teensy weensy bit more after i've fed my chickens update in 2021."

Very proud of and happy for anyone who doesn’t need to finish what they’re working on and therefore doesn’t finish it. True achievement.

OK now that I've read a fuller depiction of Charles' struggles via this long interview I am determined to no longer snark on the long recording time of this album

Exactly how grim it would become, however, was not yet clear. While visiting his in-laws that Thanksgiving, Bissell began feeling severely ill. He and his wife went first to a walk-in clinic and finding that closed, went to a hospital emergency room where Bissell collapsed in the waiting room. He was diagnosed with pneumonia, which led to sepsis. He wound up being placed on a breathing tube and kept in the hospital’s intensive care unit for a week.

“I didn’t know until weeks afterwards, until after I got home, how bad it actually was. My first clue was that on my last night in the hospital they put me in a regular room and the nurse said, ‘I was here the night you were brought in. I didn’t think you were going to make it.’ I was like, ‘Wait…what are you talking about?’” His recovery ended up taking months. “It took me a month or two to be able to walk up the steps without stopping. It was a weird preview of what it’s like to be ninety.”

In 2015, he was hospitalized with pneumonia again, again while visiting his in-laws. He wound up back at the same hospital. This time, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that can cause damage to the kidneys and bones. In the spring of 2016, he began chemotherapy back home in New York. He describes one of the side effects of the therapy as being, “like the most tired you’ve ever been in your life.”

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/03/12/the-comeback-kids-the-wrens-and-their-long-awaited-new-album/

longish new interview

https://uproxx.com/indie/the-wrens-interview-long-wait-meadowlands-followup/

also I did not know that a genuine full new Wrens song was floating around out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrMOgcvOoyE

make that two and they're both long and great? wtf?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWuoTSoKb44

"crescent" and "as i've known" are two songs actually, but one segues into the other. "crescent" is from 2010 and "as i've known" is from 2011, but i think they're still planned for the album. "three types of reading ambiguity" is from 2015 but i think charles has indicated in the past that he's significantly reworked it since that release (of course)

as usual with album 'news' from them, i'll believe it's done when i have a copy of it

You’ve announced a few times since we last talked that the album is finished and then it never actually came out.

Charles: It was really just to make me finish and hand it in. Somehow if I went ahead and said it out loud, then I’d be forced to be done. But it didn’t really change anything, because I couldn’t solve the songs, I couldn’t figure out how to make them work. So you can want to be done, but that doesn’t mean you will be.

of course lol

"It was really just to make me finish and hand it in." <---me in college

me my whole life

I forgot about "At Irish Exit" which I assume will also be on this and is great even in its current form

There's also a few new-to-me songs on this '09 set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfOlYwlOoBU

It's sad that there's so little good Wrens live footage, they seem to have actually been pretty great at the "being a band" thing, hope they get a chance to do it again

Simon you weren't alone in not knowing those two longs new(er) songs. Had no idea! The first one especially is very good. Thanks for linking to the interview. I'm at the point where I'd probably forgive him for murder, my patience is being tested and it seems it's endless :)

yeah I'm glad I hadn't heard "reading ambiguity" in full until now because it has pretty much everything you'd want to hear out of a new wrens song (and will help tide me over until....if/when this album happens)

ah sorry for the bad formatting i thought youtu.be links didn't embed for some reason

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y02edpf9k8k

also everyone should hear their really great cover of R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming"

ok let's try that again without embeds

apparently the versions of "Crescent" and "As I've Known" they released a decade ago were just demos, but they sound very good for demos.

years ago i compiled all the unreleased/unfinished material they've played live or released demos of that i could find, so here's everything that hasn't been mentioned yet. some of it is very rough sketches but other stuff is more fleshed out.

"Whammy Song" (transitions into "This Boy Is Exhausted" in this clip)
"Leaves Ground"/"Leaves"
Sleep" (a demo released on a compilation in 2008): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wso2q70zWWM
"Pulled Fences" (live-in-studio improvisation based on a demo titled "In Turkish Waters" that I can no longer track down at all)
"Marked Up"
"Z"
"The Thousand Do's"
"Well It's Right Then It's Wrong" (a version of this in Simon's video, along with "You Won't Need Me Again" and "Get Out Of This Heartless Town", but this is a longer performance)
untitled songs: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 (two songs in this one), 6

there's a few more bits of songs on their soundcloud that Charles has posted over the years: https://soundcloud.com/thewrens

sick roundup, I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves these scraps

We have a dog, a fish, three children, four chickens and two gerbils that I say goodnight to. pic.twitter.com/3oahJNGHIw

— the wrens (@thewrens) July 26, 2021

don't get me wrong, they'll have written the most gut-wrenchingly self-aware song about "how they're aware they'd said the album was coming out at a timeframe but now that's not the case and you'll find out a teensy weensy bit more after i've fed my chickens update in 2021."

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, January 30, 2020 2:00 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh well!!

idk what this bump is about but i checked their twitter and charles is saying they're announcing new music this week? like i'll believe it when i hear it but...!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/arts/music/the-wrens-aeon-station.html

kevin is putting out his wrens songs without charles

oh damn

at this point i'm just happy that something's on the way but it's a real shame it's come to this

lol that they really did have the album done back in 2013

i just hope the charles solo album is actually coming out too and he's not going to lose faith in it suddenly and spend another decade tinkering with it lol

i like how the Whelan brothers work at competing pharmaceutical companies

whelan should have done this 15 years ago

definite bummer but tbh whenever Charles was posting on the Wrens twitter and it had nothing to do with the next album it became frustrating. Which was pretty much all the time.

Feel like with Charles there is this weird mix of complacency ("it's ok to not be done yet, I still have ideas, people are used to the delay") and madness. I mean you could do this with any collection of songs you want. Work on them to perfection, drive them into the ground and burn out, then change the way you play them to whatever degree necessary until they sound fresh again, repeat.

it sounds like more pressure from the label & the rest of the band might have really helped rather than just leaving charles to his own devices to go mad over it

no shade but if charles did in fact take the position that he should be compensated for being the public face of the wrens, while simultaneously keeping them in release limbo, that's really hard to defend

yup

xps lolling at the idea of a smalltime label like Absolutely Kosher exerting "pressure."

they've been signed to sub pop since 2013! they announced they'd signed to a big indie then but it was never revealed who until now. someone from sub pop was even quoted in the article saying that maybe they should have put more pressure on them when charles backed out of releasing the album in 2013

from the article it sounded like he only wanted to renegotiate things after he was ready to release the album again in 2019, but those negotiations dragged out forever & delayed the album until kevin got sick of it & decided to put out his stuff on his own

haha serves me right for not even reading the article

That article is kind of sad, but really the Wrens have been a hobby band for ages. They all have big jobs and enough family stuff to deal with that the best possible outcome (besides one more album) was probably going to be some thoughtful indie documentary about middle aged family men making a final run at it.

well i personally could have gone for another tour because they were the real deal as a live band

Pretty ok…pretty ok: https://www.stereogum.com/2161316/aeon-station-queens/music/

but then greg plugs in

this is alright but the mix is pretty bad. feels like the pieces of a very good wrens song is there but it hasn't quite come together

Perhaps if someone could just tinker with it a few more years maybe

bissell twitter thred

Believe it or not, I only just finally read the NYT piece yesterday, ditto listened to Kevin's single (which admittedly, I have heard 100's of times, & worked on, over the last 10 years), annnnnd...I guess there is a lot to say. Or not.

— the wrens (@thewrens) October 6, 2021

https://soundcloud.com/thewrens/and-its-all-guns-arrows-v10-excerpt-only-as-of-101321

new song snippet from charles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRrf8lL5f88

here's the studio "leaves" from kevin, it's good!

…but for the little it’s worth here too, Sub Pop never got an album handed in, not two years ago when it was done, let alone in 2013 or something (magically, before we’d even signed with them somehow - ha). But thanks, bmb!)

— the wrens (@thewrens) October 19, 2021

charles also claims there was never an album submitted to sub pop back in 2013

I’ve already been planning that when I announce my own, I’ll also put up the track listing for the now-deep-sixed wrens record and people could paste their own together.

— the wrens (@thewrens) October 19, 2021

& this will be nice to have

tbh the version of the meadowlands i listen to is pasted together too -- there was an initial mp3 version with a different tracklisting and different versions/titles for like half the songs iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CXJV4LQG3s

that would be this, iirc it was an early unmastered version they'd sent out to critics & friends before tweaking it a little more for the actual release. the final tracklist is much better imo & the differences in mixes aren't enough for me to really care either way

like i might take the less blown-out early mixes of "per second second" and "everyone chooses sides" over the final versions but it's not a huge difference. iirc the only other difference is some minor things in "ex-girl collection"

i don't miss either of the cut tracks

ah, ty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DKl7aAKis8

decent

I really like this one, and it reminds me in a weird way of Clint Conley's non-Mission of Burma band Consonant.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/24/its-repulsive-to-me-the-bitter-feud-of-indie-rockers-the-wrens

Whelan showing some patient company exec vibes on something that I imagine would be driving him nuts were that band stuff taking place in his actual day job.

oof.

this doesn't really explain the conflict any further, the previous piece said the big issue was the album had been pretty much done since 2019 but charles wanted to renegotiate contracts or something which dragged everything out and caused conflicts and was the last straw etc.

while this one just makes it seem like kevin was frustrated with charles for taking too long without getting into whatever the contracts dispute was actually about

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/aeon-station-interview-kevin-whelan-b1959977.html

a bit more insightful

kevin gave charles an ultimatum (that he'd quit, but no mention of a solo album, piecing their stories together?) if the album wasn't ready for release by march & then followed through

charles says it was pretty much done by 2019 but then in preparing for release the band fell apart (due to his attempts to renegotiate contracts as mentioned elsewhere) & thus the album was still not ready to be released & now feels very betrayed that kevin recorded a solo album without telling him after quitting

but without the details of what the actual contractual shit that they fell out over it's hard to have much idea of who's in the right or anything

just a very depressing end, hope charles gets his act together & his album is out before long too (lol)

Charles seems quite clearly to be the problem, from the available info.

idk it's hard for me to take the side of a big pharma exec, a career of evil

Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever) at 10:28 16 Nov 21

I really like this one, and it reminds me in a weird way of Clint Conley's non-Mission of Burma band Consonant.

I love that band!

i'm just so fucking bummed about about this. the long Independent piece says the best Bissell tracks are "astounding" and it just sucks that it all came to this. the most fucking wrens ass shit.

kevin's album is out tomorrow and the latest track from it is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaGZMXKWwP8

charles better come through with his own album before too long lol.

I feel like in many years we’ll someday somehow get the “lost album” as it should have been.

probably in like, two decades given the time scales they operate on

charles has promised to release the intended tracklist too so people can frankenstein it out of his solo album & kevin's for the time being

I listened to some of The Meadowlands again - feels even more bittersweet than ever before. Not sure if this is good or bad, as bittersweetness is the essential character of the record. Probably a good thing to not get too nostalgic about anything.

Everyone Choose Sides still slams extremely hard.

aeon station album is really good but you can very much tell it was recorded in two parts 7 years apart lol

I enjoy it very much!

this was posted https://www.stereogum.com/2171393/the-wrens-next-album-wont-actually-be-released-as-a-wrens-album/news/ but also charles is in the comments

still haven't been able to bring myself to listen to the aeon station as yet

^^ the wrens performance mentioned in the comments of above article https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVhtnCNZgAk

I never really enjoyed this band's music until earlier this year when I listened on headphones

The hard-panned dual guitar thing is really awesome

No big official announcey thing until Oct. buuuut…did return from a wonderful family vacation to find test pressings, my first in 40+ years of bands&music, in the mailbox… pic.twitter.com/CBa3jxvSX0

— the wrens (@thewrens) August 31, 2023

the charles solo album is finally complete after all this time

It's been a crazy day, so no Meadowlands-20th-Anniversary-Stuff-You-Prob.-Didn't-Know post until tomorrow, but 'good' crazy - even though album/label/new project is nearing announcement (oct. 6th), even though vinyl is at a pressing plant, etc...

— the wrens (@thewrens) September 15, 2023

proper announcement coming october 6...

he's also posting some interesting trivia about the making of the meadowlands to celebrate its 20th anniversary

meadowlands 20th-anniversary crap you didn't know #3: the twelfth-and-a-half song. Coming out of 13 Months In 6 Minutes, there's this other song that briefly pops up, settles in & immediately begins fading out. It doesn't have a name and there's obv. no start ID/track number.

— the wrens (@thewrens) September 12, 2023

meadowlands 20th-anniversary behind-the-scenes trivia story #2: The preacher dialogue that comes in at the very end of Ex-Girl Collection, is actually not a sample dropped in there as you might assume (super common in say,the '90s, less so by the time this record was finished).

— the wrens (@thewrens) September 11, 2023

additionally, an in-progress version of the unreleased 4th album from 2014 recently leaked, or something like that anyway, idk exactly what the context of it is. the files i have are labelled 'album 4.5 demo'.

lol holy shit these versions are rough sure but it is basically the album

ok sub pop/the rest of the band really should have just insisted on bringing in a producer to sift through all of this and give charles some perspective because this is brilliant even if the mixes are really rough

should have just insisted on bringing in a producer

maybe kevin shields?

i'm pretty sure bissell has already spent more time going mad over these songs than shields did with m b v

certainly looking forward to his solo album for the finished versions of most of these tracks & more but it's absolutely tragic it's never coming out in this form. the the versions of some of kevin's songs here are better than the versions on the aeon station album

but still holy shit!!! the 4th wrens album, which i thought we'd never hear, is fantastic and totally lives up to expectations even in this slightly rough form.

is this how people who liked m b v felt

Haha can you share? Soulseek producing zero results

if you search for 'wrens album 4.5 demo' you should be able to find it on soulseek

this is the tracklist:

Intro
Dog End June Twice Measured
Old Death
Leaves
In Pairs to the Palestra
Face Facts
Maille Singing Old Death The G
Crescent
As Ive Known
Haiti
Three Types of Reading Ambigui
Sophie
Gregs Ballad
And Its All Guns & Arrows
January Piano
Its The Whole Thing, Its The
December Sleep
White Fem Age 61

some of the track titles were cut off and idk what they're all supposed to be. "Its The Whole Thing, Its The" is known to be actually titled "At Irish Exit". it's "Three Types of Reading Ambiguity" obviously. "Leaves" was on the Aeon Station album almost unchanged, along with "Face Facts" (retitled "Air") and "Haiti" (retitled "Empty Rooms"). "Sophie" was re-recorded as "Queens".

OK yeah it popped up... weird that "wrens 4.5" didn't work but that did

i can't wait to hear how charles has ship-of-theseused all these songs in the decade since (if these versions really are from 2014) as well as the new songs that are going to be on it. i hope they're also all 7 minutes long and have these sort of ambitious ideas

I was one of the people that went to his house and listened to cuts in his lil studio room years back, where he personally told us that he was going to submit it to the label and it would be out within 6 months from there or whatever, then I came back here and was like “I think it’s really happening guys”... anyway these sound familiar and I wonder how different they are from the samples we heard or if they’re the same more or less, it’s hard to remember. Can’t imagine anything he’d have landed on anything relatively minimal or simplistic after all this.

Yup, it was 2017. Sigh.

there are two versions of "three types of reading ambiguity" that he previously released in 2015 and they're both relatively close to this, though one is two minutes longer and the other is a minute longer. both have a bunch of kalimba overdubs that aren't on this one at the very least. the final version is going to have kevin's bridge cut out though (it's "hold on" on the aeon station album) and i think he mentioned scrapping some of the verses at some point? he also released an instrumental of "at irish exit" in 2016 and he's clearly swapped a lot of the guitar parts there compared to this one. there were other fragments of songs that he posted on soundcloud after bits and pieces got cut from the album (a scrapped bridge from "and it's all guns & arrows" among other things) but i can't track those down now.

also worth comparing the "crescent"/"as i've known" here to the version from 2010/2011 - he's added a ton of overdubs since then, including some great new parts, but it's also so much denser

ufo thanks for all this including the insight - but I gotta know - where did the leak come from and how do you know it was the version as of 2014 specifically?

i don't have much insight at all! i saw it mentioned on hipinion (lol) and found it on soulseek but idk where it came from or whether it really is a 2014-era version of the album (that's just what someone claimed there). the tags do say 2014 and that would seem to make sense with the other versions of some of these songs we've heard but that's very hard to say with any real certainty or anything

charles posted about his mental health over the past years ahead of the big album announcement happening tomorrow/friday

https://www.wrens.com/news-etc/2023/10/5/the-mh-post

very glad to hear he's doing better these days

https://www.carcolors.net/news/happyannounceday

charles walked away from his sub pop deal to revive absolutely kosher, and is also doing nfts of alt versions of tracks because he's somehow still excited by them

... of course that's how this would end up

but at least the album is on its way at last

Very sad the band couldn’t come to terms on a 20th anniversary Meadowlands reissue.

the final "old death" is pretty great except the drums are mixed real weird, they're buried beneath everything else. it totally realises the ambition of the leaked version otherwise, though there are a bunch of structural changes. it's fascinating how different it is, sounds pretty much totally re-recorded. such a shame this isn't the triumphant comeback single of the wrens because it really is a triumph

the alt. version of "and it's all guns and arrows" is lovely too, way better than the leaked version. you can really get a sense of how much time he's spent obsessing over the arrangements if he has alternate versions like this lying around lol, it's quite different to the early version and i wonder what it'll sound like on the album.

"i'll bear" rules too, and that's a track that didn't make the album!

car colors is such a bad band name though, idk if that or aeon station is worse lol

congratulations to charles for finally releasing some stuff https://carcolors.bandcamp.com/album/old-death

should also add https://www.carcolors.net/news/old-death-released-unto-the-hideous-world

here's the three songs, they're very good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X832hhLW-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbUtB-MFNk8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5Rq3wHp7p4

"old death" is so fucking good. i really missed charles's voice

does anyone have a non soulseek link to the 2014 demos?

i think i've figured out that the source of the 'album 4.5 demo' is a cd-r charles sent to sub pop in 2015 that was supposed to be an unmastered version of the final album

still blown away by "old death" and incredibly looking forward to the car colors album which charles is still promising is being announced soon (apparently the latest delay is due to issues with vinyl production, of course). i really can't wait to hear the final version of "in pairs to the palestra" since that's one of his very best tunes

loving Old Death and I'll Bear. Only gave them a cursory listen last Nov, but listening to them non-stop now.

yeah i absolutely love old death and think it's one of the best songs he's ever written.

if the demos are anything to judge it by the album should be an utter classic when it eventually comes out

...if it eventually comes out

i'm only going to worry about it not coming out if charles starts talking about fiddling with the mixes again

fair! let's hope that he doesn't.

I was on my usual lunchtime walk outside a few days back and happened to be listening to The Meadowlands. During “This Boy is Exhausted,” the title very much fitting my post election mood of late, I saw a semi truck drive past pulling a bright green trailer with the word “WREN” largely written on its side.