the wrens

So…this is our new website. Kind of like the old one except now we know how to drive it. All over the road, granted, but it is us behind the wheel.
Oh, the places we’ll go.

Everything we said in our original ‘welcome to our new site’ sticky applies, just this time, a few years later, we really mean it.

No…really. C’mon, baby…don’t be like that. This time we really mean it.

We were gonna prattle on about all the poop we have waiting in the wings but we’ve promised a lot before, so maybe we’re better off actually doing stuff, than talking about it.

Instead, this seems like a good time to thank the folks that over the years,
helped get us gradually online like good Samaritans guiding the elderly at crosswalks.

First, there was our friend Michael Wojtasiak who started this site over ten years before we knew him (and before we even had cable, let alone a clue). It’s also his band, the Five Mod Four that we did this split ep with.

Then our friend Lysa Opfer , who helped us with all the Meadowlands art work, took over the reins of the site and took us to many Eagles vs. Giants games as well. Sorry, pal.

After annoying Lysa no end, we ushered in the Merlin Mann era . Merlin is the eternally wise and hilarious soul who convinced us to switch to a content management system so we could d.i.o. (o = ourselves) and then got it all up & running for us.
Having Merlin Mann set up your website – for free, no less – is in many quarters, roughly like getting Steve Jobs to activate your iPhone.
One million thanks.

And which leads in turn, directly to our current Wrens 2.0 guru, the incomparable Ben Durbin , who already works with Merlin doing some of the heavy technical lifting behind the scenes there. Not only is Ben an all-around champ of website/Drupal/tech knowledge, he has the patience of a dozen saints and was always willing to show us how to do something ourselves down to the most intricate workings of the site, and step in after hours to clean up the rope we used to hang ourselves, html-ly speaking.

We owe Ben a great lot of thanks, and payment for the current invoice, I believe. Check’s in the mail, Ben.

Howdy,

Don’t be fooled by the factual brevity of this post, it is a big deal. We’re just swamped getting our wrensian ducks in a row, buying each other presents, the usual.

But Charles long-planned split 7” with Will form Okkervil River just came out yesterday. You can find it here and buy it here.
Charles covers “It Ends with a Fall” from “Down the River of Golden Dreams” and Will & co. cover “ex-grille confection” from “the meadowlands”.

There’s actually one or two humorous asides to the whole deal but we’ll save those for when we’re back in the new-content saddle, posting and posting.

Will has a solo tour going to promote the single and lazily-inclined newly-stay-at-home dad Charles is joining him tomorrow night, Thurs. the 11th at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

And then also on Friday night at Sound Fix Records, also in Williamsburg. Note how ‘greenpoint’ Charles is getting. What a pretender. He doesn’t even return our calls anymore. We have to fax his handlers at an unlisted number.

Anyway…we should be up & running in the new year. Have a wonderful bunch of holidays and a great end of the year.

And as always, thanks,
the wrens.

Hi.

This wasn’t probably the first post in x months you were looking for but work on the next album…? Begins soon enough, Grasshopper.

In the meantime though, there’s…Charles! Broadway Charles!
Jazz Charles! Freshly washed & waxed from his stint as Okkervil River’s guitar temp, he’s playing a solo set at Knitting Factory (NY) along with good friends, Get Him Eat Him and
The Capstan Shafts .

Besides, what else are you gonna do tonight? Stay home & watch tv? Is there even anything on?
I mean it’s not as if centuries of cultural history are culminating in one crystalline moment of staggering importance, reaching a key journey point in an American political roadtrip set in motion in part by Lincoln over 140 years ago - and on the very anniversary of M.L.K.’s earlier milestone, no less - with the official party nomination acceptance speech of a presidential candidate so spectacularly cast by fate and/or nature for the role of leader that his mere presence on a proscenium stage moves regular folk to civic involvement, to feelings of true patriotism, to at least awareness and not uncommonly, to tears .
Wait, is that tonight?

can I come over?

Well, you can always TiVo history. In the meantime, we’ll be holed up here:

Thursday August 28th,
Knitting Factory (74 Leonard Street).
Show starts at 8:00pm.
Tickets
are $10 in advance and $12 at the door.

There’s even a Facebook page for this show, which is a kind of giveaway that we weren’t part of planning since it’s at all current, of our time or cool.

See you in September…

the wrens

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Howdy citizens of 2008,

Hoping your all your holidays and new year and stuff have been as nifty as our own. I got an actual stocking.

Just a quick little – yet important - news item for this next week. Charles has been invited along with an impressive handful of much cooler musicians (see below) to participate in a 3-day artist retreat and benefit show in New Orleans put together by the Future of Music Coalition and Air Traffic Control.

This retreat, the third since Katrina, is designed to promote social justice activism by musical artists and to encourage and facilitate the engagement and support of national artists with the local New Orleans music community as our community struggles to rebuild.

The retreat culminates in a benefit show for Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO), an umbrella organization for 14 non-profit agencies serving New Orleans' music community. SHNO provides relocation, housing, and social services to musicians and tradition bearers in need. Thousands of New Orleans musicians have yet to find stable housing in their neighborhoods since the flood of 2005. SHNO's mission is to help these artists return to their communities, where they can revitalize the city and share their unique culture with future generations.

Details for the benefit show:

Indie Artists Perform Benefit for New Orleans Musicians Thursday, January 10 at The Parish @ House of Blues New Orleans 9:00pm

On January 10, at the House of Blues Parish Room,

Jon Langford & Sally Timms of The Mekons,
Patrick Hallahan of My Morning Jacket,
Charles Bissell of the Wrens,
Kimya Dawson (who recently contributed eight songs to the hit movie Juno),
Timothy Bracy of Mendoza Line,
Janet Bean of Freakwater
Craig Klein, Matt Perrine, Eric Bolivar & Bert Cotton of Bonerama
And as of today, Nellie McKay

…come together to play a benefit show for musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Showtime is 9 pm.

Buy Tickets

Find out about Sweet Home New Orleans

And if you’re not in the neighborhood to make the show Thursday, consider donating online through their website.

Thanks as always and when we come back online a little later this month we’ll have some new muzak news for you.

take care,
the wrens

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Howdy,

Just a little warning that we're updating the software that runs our site so we'll be offline a little later today, Wednesday, 12/5/07. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours.
Then hopefully some new (read: actual) news in the next week or two.

Thanks as always,
the wrens

Howdy,

In typical 11th-hour style, just letting you all know that Charles is playing a solo show tonight, Wed. 10/17, for the nice folks at Gothamist and WOXY who are holding court at White Rabbit (on Houston), lo this week of the CMJ Fest.

It’s a day-party-type thing so set time’s about 6:45pm.

And very honored to be taking up stage space before Rev. Billly and the Church of Stop Shopping. Great recent article on him here, also courtesy Gothamist.

The Forms, another great band, are also playing tonight and later in the week, the ongoing Gothamist/WOXY party will feature Palomar and Pattern is Movement (two faves) among a bunch of others.

To be forewarned, Chazzie cut a chunk off a fingertip chopping brussel sprouts two nights ago so all guarantees on quality-of-performance are even iffier than usual.

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For those of you who prefer your muzak storage mediums flat, round and on the dark side, the double-vinyl version of our Meadowlands album (w/ bonus songs) is back in stock.

Hope summer's been good to you.

Related to the story below regarding Bottom of the Hudson’s tragic accident, we’re doing a couple of benefit shows in September (details of both the accident and updates on news can be found on our label’s site,
Absolutely Kosher).

First, Charles is doing a solo show at Monkey Town in Williamsburg, Brooklyn this Wednesday, Sept. 5th.
This is the usual solo Charles thing with out-of-the-norm wrens songs into looping pedals but unusually this time, in collaboration with video artists Elizabeth Maertens and Phillip Kim who will be pushing Monkey Town’s four built-in video screens to their limits.
Also on this bill is Tris McCall (another of NJ’s own and a wonderful songwriter) and the really, really good Overlord.

Monkey Town is a very nifty venue and a very small one - reservations are required and seating is very limited.
But note that they’re currently having server problems with the online reservation form so best bets are to email reservation requests directly to:

monkeytownhq@aol.com

Whatever proceeds Charles drums up from this show will also be going to Trevor’s family and to help offset medical expenses for Bottom of the Hudson’s Greg Lytle, who was also seriously injured in the crash.

Secondly, the full Wren-ish band is doing a benefit show in Philadelphia with Man Man (amazingly good, if you haven’t seen them) and the A-Sides (about whom we’ve heard good things).
The show is at the First Unitarian Church on Thursday, September 20th and all proceeds will be donated to the family of Trevor Butler, Bottom of the Hudson’s bassist, who was killed in the accident.

Details for both shows can be found on our ’Tours’ page.

Also, even if you’re not able to make either of the shows, donations to Trevor’s family can still be made via PayPal to
both@absolutelykosher.com.

We hope you’ve been having a wonderful summer and we hope to be back soon with happier news.

Thanks as always,
the wrens

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By now many of you may have heard that Trevor Butler, the bass player for Bottom of the Hudson, died yesterday, June 29th, when their tour van went off the highway following a tire blowout.
The accident also injured others including their new drummer who is in critical condition at a nearby hospital:

the story via pitchfork.

We’ve known the Bottom Of The Hudson folks for a few years now, toured with them in spring of 2004, and they’re such good, good people and wonderful musicians. Our hearts and sympathies go out to them at this terrible time.

So very sad…

Bottom of the Hudson

Bottom of the Hudson at Absolutely Kosher