EASE DOWN THE ROAD

In January of 2003 New Jersey indie rockers The Wrens completed their third studio album, The Meadowlands, an album they began recording exactly four years earlier. Though not quite the dense, progressive statement Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was upon its release, The Meadowlands was every bit as inventive and rewarding, and as a result also received the same sort of atypical unanimous acclaim Yankee did.

A modest band who encompass everything pure about subterraneous rock culture, The Wrens hit the road after finally releasing their creative opus in 2004, translating their 13 new songs, as well as selections from their first two studio albums, Silver and Secaucus, into a stage show as volatile and energetic as any. Realizing that - aside from appearances at festivals and a steady schedule of weekend shows - The Wrens had been mostly quiet for the last two years, I did what I had to do to contact the band, eventually receiving a friendly e-mail from Wrens guitarist Greg Whelan. “Color me stoked.” Those were the late night words I derisorily used when bugging Whelan initially, his response: “Color you stoked.” It was on; Whelan was willing to spill some of his guts for one of his biggest fans (me), as well as the weekly Ease readership. I hope you, the weekly Ease reader, are stoked too; if not, you probably haven’t listened to The Meadowlands, Secaucus or Silver enough.

“[The Meadowlands] was a monster project that went through so many revisions and different versions of the tunes; it was year’s worth of work,” said Whelan looking back on his band’s signature album. “In fact, that is why we erased the masters, if not we would still be tweaking it. It was just one of those things where we thought we knew where we were going with a tune. Fortunately it took us so long that many times when we would go back a listen it, we would be like ‘oh my, what the hell were we thinking.’ But in the end we were pretty happy with the record.” As Iggy Pop would say, “The proof is in the pudding.” The labor put into The Meadowlands percolates through every second of the album, saturated with details and ideas not usually seen in today’s now-now-now culture. Upon talking with Whelan, it was confirmed that the band is in fact working on a fourth proper studio album.

“We have learned a lot since recording The Meadowlands; basically how not to record a record. We have a ton of tunes and we have been internally sharing the demos with each other. We basically rebuilt [our] studio, which is just about complete. [We’re about to] buckle down and record,” said Whelan, putting to rest Internet rumors that the band is already almost done with their fourth record. “The crazy thing is, we have tunes of recorded stuff just sitting around but never released, but we do have a few plans. This next record will not be a monster process like the last. We are at a great place and really focused on what we need to do. Our goal is to have it all finished by the end of this year, or thereabouts.”

What then, I asked Whelan, have the band been doing since The Meadowlands? “Life stuff, really,” said Whelan. “Weddings, kids, day jobs, mortgage payments … all great stuff. We have been fortunate to tour each weekend through the U.S. and Europe for the last 3 years in support of The Meadowlands, which is just crazy. Really, all is great and we are really looking forward to our next chapter.”

On the topic of Internet rumors, I also took this opportunity to ask Whelan if he had any spoilers concerning a long-rumored Wrens documentary film, supposedly being worked on by the Little Quillers. “Great folks, the Little Quillers are. I think they are going through all the footage and doing cuts. I guess a bit of our work ethic has rubbed off on them. I also think that they’ve been waiting for us to start this the new record,” confirmed Whelan.

After bugging Whelan about my own obsession, another 90s-era indie band named Pavement (“My bro probably like them the best”), Whelan and I discussed the “Internet Revolution” that changed the music scene during the gap between 1996’s Secaucus and 2004’s The Meadowlands. “The Internet is a godsend for musicians,” Whelan said. “Had it not been available to us when we released The Meadowlands (on the then-emerging indie label, Absolutely Kosher), we would probably not be doing this interview. Look at the power the Pitchforks of the world have now. Record companies who once controlled everything have been striped of most of their power. So we are all at an exciting time, especially for our next record,” continued an excited Whelan. “There are so many options available to us to get our stuff out there to share with anyone who wants to take a listen.”
Whelan’s comment concerning record labels led me to ask him something I’d long wondered: How in the world have The Wrens never been signed by an indie major, such as Matador, Sub Pop or Secretly Canadian? “We have always been a bit surprised about that ourselves. For some reason we have never been accepted by the cool scenesters, which is perfectly fine with us. All is cool with us at this point.”

And finally, after beating around the bush, I went for it all. A big part of The Wrens’ history is the story of their relationship with their original record label, Grass Records (now called Wind-Up Records), who dropped them, signed Creed and refused to make The Wrens’ first two records (Secaucus and 1994’s Silver) available for purchase. I wanted the dish. I needed the dirt. “It’s all 100% true, though they might not remember it the same way” said Whelan when asked if the mind-boggling statement about the situation found on their Website is true. To paraphrase said statement, Grass told the band that if they did not sign a new, high-dollar contract, all promotion for the band’s current record, Secaucus, would stop. Not a fan of strong-arm tactics, The Wrens did not resign and, as a result, the head of Grass Records vowed that the next band to walk through that door would “be made famous at any cost.” The next band through the door? Creed. Grass then became Wind-Up Records and Creed put the final nail in mainstream rock’s coffin … at any cost. Symbolic? I think so. “We’re on good terms with those guys now,” said Whelan. “They reissued our first two records.”

In closing, I asked Whelan to name a “perfect record” for me. “Peter Gabriel’s third solo record, the one with the melting face cover, that’s a perfect record. A record with no cymbals, how cool is that?” Yeah, melting faces and Peter Gabriel are always cool, but The Meadowlands … now there’s a perfect record.