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)….
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)….
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Monday, 6 January 2020 19:27 (four years ago) link
Lol this new album is never coming out
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:41 (four years ago) link
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
― ufo, Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:56 (four years ago) link
I used to read all those posts with excitement, then I saw how long this one was and I just tuned out lol
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:57 (four years ago) link
idk i think it's actually vaguely possible it finally comes out this year
hahahahhAHAHAHAHHhahahahahzhahahahahhaa
― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 19:58 (four years ago) link
good thing they can't go back in time and unrelease the meadowlands
― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 29 January 2020 20:15 (four years ago) link
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, 30 January 2020 07:00 (four years ago) link
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.
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Thursday, 30 January 2020 07:37 (four years ago) link
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.”
“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/
― bold caucasian eroticism (Simon H.), Saturday, 14 March 2020 23:06 (four years ago) link
longish new interview
https://uproxx.com/indie/the-wrens-interview-long-wait-meadowlands-followup/
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Thursday, 21 January 2021 20:41 (three years ago) link
also I did not know that a genuine full new Wrens song was floating around out there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrMOgcvOoyE
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Thursday, 21 January 2021 20:46 (three years ago) link
make that two and they're both long and great? wtf?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWuoTSoKb44
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Thursday, 21 January 2021 21:02 (three years ago) link
"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
― ufo, Thursday, 21 January 2021 21:27 (three years ago) link
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.
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
― ufo, Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:00 (three years ago) link
"It was really just to make me finish and hand it in." <---me in college
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:16 (three years ago) link
me my whole life
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, 21 January 2021 22:19 (three years ago) link
I forgot about "At Irish Exit" which I assume will also be on this and is great even in its current form
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Friday, 22 January 2021 00:22 (three years ago) link
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
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Friday, 22 January 2021 10:16 (three years ago) link
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 :)
― A Scampo Darkly (Le Bateau Ivre), Friday, 22 January 2021 10:19 (three years ago) link
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)
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Friday, 22 January 2021 10:29 (three years ago) link
ah sorry for the bad formatting i thought youtu.be links didn't embed for some reason
― ufo, Friday, 22 January 2021 11:01 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y02edpf9k8k
also everyone should hear their really great cover of R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming"
― ufo, Friday, 22 January 2021 11:02 (three years ago) link
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
― ufo, Friday, 22 January 2021 11:10 (three years ago) link
sick roundup, I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves these scraps
― stylish but illegal (Simon H.), Friday, 22 January 2021 15:31 (three years ago) link
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
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, January 30, 2020 2:00 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Monday, 26 July 2021 04:19 (two years ago) link
oh well!!
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 20 September 2021 16:15 (two years ago) link
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...!
― ufo, Monday, 20 September 2021 16:20 (two years ago) link
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/arts/music/the-wrens-aeon-station.html
kevin is putting out his wrens songs without charles
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Monday, 20 September 2021 16:21 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Monday, 20 September 2021 16:25 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Monday, 20 September 2021 16:34 (two years ago) link
i like how the Whelan brothers work at competing pharmaceutical companies
― Murgatroid, Monday, 20 September 2021 17:37 (two years ago) link
whelan should have done this 15 years ago
― mookieproof, Monday, 20 September 2021 18:12 (two years ago) link
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.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Monday, 20 September 2021 18:38 (two years ago) link
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.
― Evan, Monday, 20 September 2021 20:10 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 01:01 (two years ago) link
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
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 01:07 (two years ago) link
yup
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 01:44 (two years ago) link
xps lolling at the idea of a smalltime label like Absolutely Kosher exerting "pressure."
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 02:19 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 02:22 (two years ago) link
haha serves me right for not even reading the article
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 02:24 (two years ago) link
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.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 03:07 (two years ago) link
well i personally could have gone for another tour because they were the real deal as a live band
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 03:22 (two years ago) link
Pretty ok…pretty ok: https://www.stereogum.com/2161316/aeon-station-queens/music/
― KPH, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 20:39 (two years ago) link
but then greg plugs in
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 00:36 (two years ago) link
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
― ufo, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 09:22 (two years ago) link
Perhaps if someone could just tinker with it a few more years maybe
― Evan, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 11:10 (two years ago) link
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
― grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 19:11 (two years ago) link
https://soundcloud.com/thewrens/and-its-all-guns-arrows-v10-excerpt-only-as-of-101321
new song snippet from charles
― ufo, Saturday, 16 October 2021 00:34 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRrf8lL5f88
here's the studio "leaves" from kevin, it's good!
― ufo, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 23:21 (two years ago) link
…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
― ufo, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 04:52 (two years ago) link