I owe my fandom to the thankfully still active Wilfully Obscure, who, in 2008, blogged a wonderful write-up on the Jersey quartet's 1995 7", "Life Stories From the Union". I didn't know these dudes from Adam, but the 7" was on Sonic Bubblegum, who'd released a few Tugboat Annie records over the years. I figured, why not, it's just bandwidth. It easily turned out to be one of my all-time favorite discoveries, the kind where you wonder just how your head ended up so far up your own ass that you'd only come across it that day. They had to have played shows I could have attended, right? Surely they played with the Oranges Band or Candy Machine or any number of Ottobar/Memory Lane/Talking Head bands in the late 90s and early aughts, just $15 in tolls and a three-hour trip from the Tri-State to Baltimore. So how was it that I missed them, yet caught Lifter Puller and Karate and Chisel and the Karl Hendricks Trio? Life moves in mysterious ways, I suppose.
I made up for lost time, in the end. One could turn up nearly their entire discography for less than $100, the exceptions being the really limited CD-Rs and that goddamned split with Park Ave., an early Saddle Creek joint that probably goes for so much due to one Conor Oberst's appearance on the flip. "The Meadowlands" is every bit the rock classic that better scribes than I have been saying for almost two decades. Their earlier records, "Silver" and "Seacaucus", deserve better than a footnote in the catalog of the label that brought us Creed and Drowning Pool. And the singles! Every time I spent actual money on one, then cursed myself for buying one record for what I could have spent elsewhere on four, the package would show up and I'd hear something quite unlike any other band.
"Abbott 1135" came out the year after "Seacaucus". Was it an addendum to the 19 songs that'd come out on the LP? Was it a demo, casting about for a new home? Who the hell was Ten23 Records? It has that sense of immediacy that makes the Wrens so great, but none of the polish present six years later when "The Meadowlands" came out. Which is fine; the Wrens must have been one hell of a bash-em-out band back then. Six songs, 20 minutes, 17 seconds. I can only imagine their taking a weekend or two to knock the whole endeavor out.
Anyway, I ordered this right before New Year's Eve, and it arrived yesterday, the first mailorder of the new year. Three of these songs showed up on the legendary "Overnight Success" tape; "Pretty O.K." came out in some form via a Magnet Magazine sampler, "This Machine" would get tacked onto the 2006 double vinyl reissue of "Meadowlands", and "North To Nothing" is exclusive to this CD. You could (and probably will) do worse things with your day than give this a spin.
Oh, and Spavid, if you're reading, thanks for hipping me to one of my favorite bands. Here's hoping we get that record before I turn 50.
2 comments:
Thanks so much for this man, love it. It's pretty hard to find some Wren's music these days, so i'm glad you have it here! Here's to hoping the new album is out in 2021
Thank you so much for posting this (and leaving it up).
You may be aware that Kevin from the Wrens has released a record under the name 'Aeon Station', including songs that were destined for the Meadowlands follow-up. There is some kind of fall-out over it but the record is undeniably superb.
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