Pitchfork

You would be forgiven to think a band like the Wrens, with well over a decade of steady touring, sporadic releases, unforgiving patches of bad luck, and label changes galore under their belts, would be just about ready to recede into the winter of their life, but you would also be mistaken. They may be approaching their twilight years as a band, but don't expect any pastel trousers, mesh slip-ons, or bingo outings with the "Golden Girls" any time soon. As Pitchfork found out recently, not only are plans to revamp and resusitate their Abbott 1135 EP continuing unabated (although certainly more slowly than the boys would prefer), but a new album is in the works; the first steps of recording are due to begin within the next two weeks. Pitchfork's own intrepid reporter Ryan Schreiber accosted, sorry, gently coaxed details about recording processes and upcoming developments out of the Wrens' singer/guitarist Charles Bissell last weekend in Chicago at something called the Intonation Festival:

Pitchfork: What's the deal with this EP?

Charles Bissell: It's a little bogged down at the moment...and the funny things is we just had a long talk with Cory [Brown, from Absolutely Kosher] about this, and I can't quite get it together the way we want to. The ironic thing is, we are about a week or two from starting the next record. It may end up where we have the EP done in August so we may it may end up kind of being open ended as far as what will come out first.

Pitchfork: How much new material do you have written for the next record?

Charles: [laughs] Ummm...none!

Pitchfork: Did you have songs pre-written then for the last few records or did you just come up with stuff in the studio?

Charles: On the last bunch it's always worked where we had a ton pre-written and then blitzed through them, assembled them, and recorded them. Then invariably over the course of time, go and change stuff-- whether it's several months with Secaucus or several years with The Meadowlands or something else with the EP. I just can't do that anymore...that's why I'm not worried about the songs. It always seemed to be the easy part, putting together two sections with four bars each and a catchy melody. Yeah, that's the easy part. Getting it to work the right way has always seemed been the hard part. That's what Les Savy Fav does so well, musically the songs format-wise are simple but it's what they do and how they do them live and those cool guitar parts that work so well.

Pitchfork: How many songs did you have to choose from for The Meadowlands before you put that out?

Charles: At that point we were stilling doing it that old way, like a really bastardized Lennon-McCartney way where you each show up with your songs. We probably showed each other in the band 25 songs each, which maybe 25 total were put together into working order...about 17 were recorded and then however many were on the record.

Pitchfork: So you are recording in the same way as always, with your home studio, and you will all convene there and start working on new stuff, right?

Charles: Exactly, our goal is to do it this time-- or at least as much as we can-- more like the way most bands do it. Prepare ahead of time what they want and then work with that and adjust a little, rather than recording some slapped ass version of the song and then fixing it all in overdubs.

Pitchfork: No projection on release then?

Charles: It's hard to say. I've never been this excited and had this many ideas about music in general in our band and what we want do. This is the only time in our life when I didn't have a full-time job and it's kind of a now or never kind of thing with productivity. I'd be really surprised if it came to the end of the year and it wasn't done.

Pitchfork: So the EP might come out after that?

Charles: It's hard to say, too. I still think in very simplistic terms as far as that stuff. We were told it might not be a good thing to release both of them too close to each other so maybe we'll push off the album till spring...

The New Jerseyites seem to get better with age live as well if their Intonation set was anything to go by. The bond between the band and crowd was irresistible, and the band pulled out all the stops, short of Cossack dancing, white tigers, and a guest vocal set by William Shatner, or did this reporter just miss those parts? Absolutely Kosher has added a few dates to the Wrens' touring schedule on the label's site.

07-21 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's, Jersey Beat Benefit
08-05 Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club, Team Clermont's Summer Festival
08-06 Charlotte, NC - Tremont Music Hall
08-19 Cambridge, MA - The Middle East (with Jim Yoshii Pile-Up & Audible)
08-25 Houston, TX - mary jane's Fat Cats (with Jim Yoshii Pile-Up & Thane Matcek and his Band)
08-26 Austin, TX - (with Jim Yoshii Pile-Up & Centro-matic)
08-27 Denton, TX - Hailey's
09-09 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-10 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom (with the Dudley Corporation)
09-15 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge, Absolutely Kosher Showcase (with Goblin Cock, the Dudley Corporation, and Jim Yoshii Pile-Up)
09-24 Bryn Mawr, PA - Bryn Mawr College

* The Wrens: