Another day, another drizzle.  Must be June in Santa Barbara.

To match the mood, we give you Lorn’s Cherry Moon.

This month Lorn released his “Nothing Else” record on Flying Lotus’s newly-enabled label, Brainfeeder.  Highly recommended for the complexities and range of emotions captured in the electrons of Lorn’s electronica.

Set against this relentless grayness, Cherry Moon emotes “Blade Runner” with swelling string-synth melody and syncopated beats.  We hear breakbeat-techno apparitions yearning for something that just won’t come.  Perhaps the sun.  Perhaps a cherry moon.

Lorn–Cherry Moon

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-Cherry-Moon.mp3|titles=04 Cherry Moon]

As mentioned before, we love the jazz music.  And as you can hopefully also tell, we love songs.  Especially worthy “first songs.”

There are a few musical moments in one’s life that can stick with you forever and cling to your soul.

For us, we will confess that those moments are far fewer in strictly instrumental music.  Faure’s sweet  Pavane, Claudio Arrau’s heart-rending recording of Brahm’s posthumous Sonata in B-Flat Major, and portions of Keith Jarret’s “Koln Concert” come to mind (though there are others, our mind’s a bit foggy during the World Cup proceedings).

But the jazz song that is embedded forever in our list of favorite songs, and that has stuck with us since we first heard it twenty-some years ago, is Charlie Haden’s beautiful First Song (for Ruth) as recorded with Quartet West and featuring the soulful saxophone genius of Ernie Watts.

Charlie Haden wrote an enduring beauty which has been covered by Stan Getz, Abbey Lincoln and others since it first appeared on Quartet West’s 1988 “In Angel City.” It was the first song Charlie wrote for his  wife, Ruth Cameron, whom he married in 1989 and has acknowledged “saved my life” (from heroin addiction amongst other afflictions).   And so it sounds in First Song.  One hears a relatively simple, but haunting melody, that moves through many moods:  from heavyhearted torment, to anger, to soulful wonderment, perhaps, of a saving second chance.

And in the Quartet West recording heard below, Ernie Watts sees this song in all its beauty and raises it one (perhaps two).

Charlie Haden and Quartet West–First Song (for Ruth)

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-First-Song-For-Ruth.mp3|titles=02 First Song (For Ruth)]

First there was Nat.  And then there was Lloyd.  The Kings of Cole.

We have been huge fans of Lloyd Cole since his “Rattlesnakes” record first came out in the Darker Ages (1984 for you Orwell and Bowie fans).   Cole made quite a commotion back then and in the 90s with his jangle-pop, crafty songwriting and literate lyrics.  Since then, he has released additional great records, though arguably not at the level of his earlier years.

But never count out a great artist.  We were reminded of Lloyd recently when listening to Believer magazine’s annual music issue and Cole’s included one-off song, Coattails, came on. On first listen, you recognize the voice but aren’t drawn in completely by the song.  Repeated listens, however, leave you recognizing the brilliance, artistry and delivery of  Lloyd King Cole, who has been doing it on and off for 27 years.  For those who are Cole-savvy, Coattails is done more in the style of Cole’s under-appreciated “Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe” record, and in particular its croonier, cabaret-esque second side (though with less production).  We love the piano’s relaxed, eloquent intro to this song, followed by Cole’s lament for another soul, and his seeming gut-check of his prior offerings (of all sorts) and his resolve that “you have yet to read my defining works.”  This previously unreleased song is articulate and soulful and harkens back to another era.

So listen in below, and if you haven’t heard Lloyd Cole (gasp!), we include a couple of our favorites from his earlier discography.  We can’t wait for his “defining works” given what he’s already delivered.

“Couldn’t get arrested
So you went and stole a car
And now you say that it was me
Who drove you where you are

Got out of the city
Everyone agreed
The life that you were living
It wasn’t healthy

And now it’s
One more piece of paper
Flying through the air
Are these your waste paper basket diaries?
And you wont get to the future
In that old time machine
But if you climb in back
We could take you a little while

And then again

Written for kicks
Paid by the line
Straight from the sticks
To the beginning of Time
Who wouldn’t want to raise a glass to that?

And I may be drunk
But this is no church
And you have yet to read
My defining works
I’m getting close
I’m closing on the final scene

And now it’s
One more piece of paper
Flying through the air
Are these my waste paper basket diaries?
And I know that I wont get to the future
In thisold time machine
But if I climb in back
You could take me a little while

And then again
And then again”

Lloyd Cole–Coattails

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-Coattails.mp3|titles=04 Coattails]

Lloyd Cole–Rattlesnakes

Pertinent lyrics:

“She is less than sure if her heart has come to stay in San Jose
And her neverborn child still haunts her
As she speeds down the freeway
As she tries her luck with the traffic police
out of boredom more than spite
She never finds no trouble she tries too hard
She’s obvious despite herself”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/05-Rattlesnakes.mp3|titles=05 Rattlesnakes]

Lloyd Cole–Forest Fire

Pertinent lyrics:

“She crossed herself as she put on her things
She has promised once before not to live this way
If she don’t calm down she will burn herself out
Like a forest fire well doesn’t that make you smile”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03-Forest-Fire.mp3|titles=03 Forest Fire]

Lloyd Cole–Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken?

Well are ya?

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Are-You-Ready-To-Be-Heartbroken_.mp3|titles=02 Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken_]

All lyrics written by Lloyd Cole and published by Chrysalis Music.

In recent posts, we have derided some young bands’ blatant copying of the sounds and styles of more artful artists, and failing to add to or alter such sounds to make them their own.

Listen below to a smattering of young bands who have bucked that trend. These bands have incorporated in their songs some of the sounds and motifs of The Arcade Fire, but haven’t just provided mere effluent effigies thereof.  Their songs are instructive as to how to properly borrow and how to do it well.

And while we’re on The Arcade Fire subject, give their new 12″ a spin (way below) before their new record, “The Suburbs,” is released on August 3rd.

But first listen to the bright promise and new fire heard in the young bands below.

We have seen The Middle East live twice, and each time their song, Blood, has been the highlight of the show. This Queensland, Australia band shows great promise.

The Middle East–Blood

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/17-Blood1.mp3|titles=17 Blood]

Next up are Givers and their song, Saw You First.. Givers hails from Francophonic Lafayette, Louisiana so their raising up of Montreal’s Arcade Fire is understandable.

Givers–Saw You First

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Saw-You-First.mp3|titles=02 Saw You First]

Comes now Typefighter (from Washington, DC) and their strong song, Ocean Floor.

Typefighter–Ocean Floor

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/18_ocean_floor.mp3|titles=18_ocean_floor]

Brooklyn’s own Here We Go Magic bring their necromancy to their song, Collector.

Here We Go Magic–Collector

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04_collector.mp3|titles=04_collector]

And last, but certainly not least, is LA’s Local Natives’ and their worldly song, World News.

Local Natives–World News

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03_world_news1.mp3|titles=03_world_news]

And now, from the source themselves, two great new songs from The Arcade Fire (click the arrow on left below 45 rpm):

We have always enjoyed cover songs.  Sometimes a cover has enthralled because of a great, altered delivery of a great song heard previously.  At other times a cover has entailed a known artist deftly divulging an unknown artist’s worthy song.  And sometimes a cover is simply a joyous homage to a great song.

One of our favorite bands (particularly live), Nada Surf, recently released a new studio record, “If I Had a Hi-fi” (a palindrome), consisting completely of cover songs.   Listen below to their ebullient delivery of one of our favorite Go-Betweens’ songs, Love Goes On, and then check out their cool cover of a Spoon song we had not heard, The Agony of Lafitte.

Nada Surf–Love Goes On

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03-Love-Goes-On.mp3|titles=03 Love Goes On]

Nada Surf–The Agony of Lafitte

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/07-The-Agony-of-Laffitte.mp3|titles=07 The Agony of Laffitte]

Amongst our other favorite covers, we have to mention Cat Power and her “The Covers Record” (which recently was sequeled by Ms. Marshall).  Listen below to Cat Power’s great re-invention of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction and then check out her beautiful rendering of a comparatively unheralded song, I Found a Reason, by Lou Reed while with the Velvet Underground.

Cat Power–Satisfaction

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/01-I-Cant-Get-No-Satisfaction.mp3|titles=01 (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction]

Cat Power–I Found a Reason

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/07-I-Found-A-Reason.mp3|titles=07 I Found A Reason]

And finally, check out one of our favorite recorded songs of all time:  Andrew Bird’s haunting rendition of the somewhat obscure Handsome Family’s song, Don’t Be Scared.

We hear the mix of all human emotions in this song, from melancholia to joyous wonder.   We sense desultory solitude set against the calling from others and the birth of new days.  Were it not for the phone call, we might have inferred Paul in a Roman cell.   Bird has delivered one of the great covers of all time.  Check it out below.

“When
Whenever Paul
thinks of rain
swallows fall
in a wave
and tap
on his windows
with their beaks

And when Paul
thinks of snow
soft winds blow
’round his head
and the phone
rings just once
late at night
like a bird
calling out,
“Wake up, Paul.
Don’t be scared,
don’t believe you’re all alone.”

“Wake up, Paul,”
whisper clouds rolling by
and the seeds

falling from the branches
and they’re out from the branches
and they’re
falling from the branches of the trees

out from the branches
falling from the branches
and they’re
falling from the branches
of the trees”

Andrew Bird–Don’t Be Scared

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/06-Dont-Be-Scared.mp3|titles=06 Don’t Be Scared]

OK, now that we have your attention….

The New Pornographers recently released their fifth record, “Together,” and it is provocatively revealing (in a sub-pornographic way).  This “supergroup” consisting of Carl “A.C.” Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case has given us some of the best post-millennium pop records to date, and Together is no exception.  Despite the ridiculous group moniker (sidebar:  this is one of the dangers of jokingly adopting an asinine name and then being stuck with it as public awareness pigeonholes you), this is one of the most talented musical collectives currently extant.  And each of the NP’s solo members’ projects are well worth your effort as well.  A.C. Newman’s perfect, off-kilter, math-pop records, “The Slow Wonder” and “Get Guilty,” are wonders.  And Neko Case’s stellar reverb-enriched vocals and records are universally critically-acclaimed (our pick being her 2002 “Blacklisted” record, but every one worthy).

But the band’s new Together recording is somewhat unique in the band’s ouevre because some of the best moments on the record are not delivered by Newman or Case, but instead by Dan Bejar.  We have been huge fans of Dan Bejar and his Destroyer band since the beginning of this century.  Destroyer’s “This Night” and “Destroyer’s Rubies” records are amongst our favorites, consisting of Bejar’s usual cryptic-poetic lyrics, early-70’s Bowie stylistics and stunning melodies.

Check out Bejar on Together’s Daughters of Sorrow and on a few great Destroyer songs.

The New Pornographers–Daughters of Sorrow

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/11-Daughters-Of-Sorrow.mp3|titles=11 Daughters Of Sorrow]

On Destroyer’s This Night the band is in melodious form and a perfect example of Bejar’s lyricism is laid out:

“They led us on
They said it would be yours
Tear down the borders, stop patrolling the shores
Let us in

We wrote a winter song
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
Don’t shelve the opera
You’ve been working this long on it
Twelve years on the east side
And still so house proud

All the neighberhood angels
Are humming the songs [hum along]
To themselves again
Oh they seem to think that when you show up
You’d look good in somebody’s arms

Oh, you should have been a clerk
You should have stayed a stranger
You should have just done the work
But it’s too late now school’s out

Wildcats – you were supposed to go wild
Butchers – you shouldn’t be obsessed with a child
Now Diorama Pete thinks he just sunk the fleet
Much like him you know I live to be cornered
So come on

Hey, Easterner, open your mouth
Don’t speak in tones
I know there’s beauty in the bones of the dam that burst
I know you look good in the shadow of the diamond monger’s thirst
But get out

To the west there is an ocean
There is a mountain on the right
Now will you walk away
Or take the blame for the unfortunately named
Children of this day; children of this night”

Destroyer–This Night

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/01-This-Night.mp3|titles=01 This Night]

And on Destroyer’s Holly Going Lightly, we love how the song gets heavier and yet manages to lift off at second :19.  And the closing refrain and coda kill.  We also favor the first stanza’s obliquely brilliant lyrics (“I am ravening”!! and “Like deciphering what it means when the band goes “DooRah DooRah DooRah DooRah!”–pot-calling-the-kettle-black kinda thing).

Check out the full lyrics and enjoy below:

“I was stark… I was ravening…
I was idle in spring, and it felt good…
I was fashioned after something made of wood, that I shouldn’t have done…
Some girls got guns…
And some get into running favors for the Queen,
Like deciphering what it means when the band goes –
“DooRah DooRah DooRah DooRah!”

I was ‘bedsit’ and reviews were rave…
I dug your poetry a grave and it felt good…
I was modeled after something made of wood, that I shouldn’t have done…
Some boys build guns…
And some have built the running errands for the King
like making out the words when the band goes –
“DooRah DooRah DooRah DooRah!”

Hey there, pretty flower…
Get yourself together…
Mama’s been looking for you,
But mama should know better.

I was silver… I was gold…
I watched Holly going lightly down the road…”

Destroyer–Holly Going Lightly

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Holly-Going-Lightly.mp3|titles=02 Holly Going Lightly]

Oh and here’s the great Sweet Talk from Together featuring Newman and Case

The New Pornographers–Sweet Talk

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/05-Sweet-Talk-Sweet-Talk.mp3|titles=05 Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk]

Comes now a rare, merciful Monday in Clubland, and mercifully close to our clubhouse. So we rambled down to Jensen’s Mainstage, sucked in by the musical black hole to the black box that is the Mainstage, for the Woodsist label’s grove of bands.

First up was Philly’s Kurt Vile, circa solo acoustic.  We’ve witnessed performers who can still pull this act off (Tom Brosseau, wherefore art thou?; and Eef Barzelay, we anxiously await your return with open arms), but after all that has passed in the solo acoustic millennia, you had better bring the creative forces of Genesis (not the band, even with Gabriel–sans horn) or we’ll be outside.  Mr. Vile had some clever wordplay and invoked some good guitar sounds, but only occasionally transcended the confines of the genre or space.  So off to the sidewalk we went to survey the saturnaliasts and constellations.

Next up was Woodsist’s Woods band.  We have heard Woods tracks intermittently over the years and, frankly, until now we have never really gotten lost in them.  But this night we found ourselves sucked in from the sidewalk for the white pop-noise of Woods.  Woods’ latest record, “At Echo Lake,” is their finest yet, with sparkling, dulcet songs aplenty.   The Woods’ sound combines a psych-folk gestalt (they played Big Sur ferheavensake), with jangly, fuzztone guitars and the fecund falsetto vocals of Jeremy Earl (think love-child born of Neil Young and Graham Nash genetics), and the floor-delivered knob-twiddling and vocoder overlays of wolfman G. Lucas Crane.  Tonight we favored the melodies and Earl’s falsetto flourishes, and didn’t mind a bit of Crane’s effects.  Next time around, we’ll hope the band sticks to its more-carefully constructed songs, manages to rein in some of Crane’s noise-for-noise’s-sake affectations and skips most of the jammy, instrumental meanderings.  Yes, life is too short, and we have avoided the drugs that would have made the repetitive bombast more meaningful (sadly).  If they can rein it in a bit, Woods could clear-cut its competition.

Check em:

Following Woods, headliners Real Estate took the stage.  Hailing from Jersey, the much-vaunted Real Estate brought their own brand of melodic pop to the stage.  Real Estate is lead by horn-rimmed Martin Courtenay and, combined with Mathew Mondanile, delivers looping, tuneful, twin-guitar songs of suburbia and surf. The band manages in its songs to deftly describe the sense and sensibilities of the suburbia state of mind (the “Suburban Dogs” refrain entices: “suburban dogs are in love with their chains”).  Having escaped Orcutt, we know from suburbia.  In addition to playing songs from its eponymously entitled debut record, Real Estate bore a batch of new numbers that matched or raised the debut’s ante.  We especially enjoyed the band’s live delivery this night on Fake Blue, Swimmers and Beach Comber.   We can’t say that the band matched the hype, and we hope they will develop more stage presence (Courtenay’s mid-set dispensing with his glasses ain’t gonna cut it). But Real Estate has a sweet pop sound with fine songs that bode well for the band’s future.

Check ’em out.

After driving home from deep Los Angeles last night, we meandered down to Muddy Waters for the seemingly daily dosage of Club Mercy.  Have Mercy!

We were chiefly there to see Chief, the opener for Brooklyn-resident April Smith and the Great Picture Show.  Having seen Chief open for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in March (see March 14th post), we were clammoring to catch them again.  At Muddy Waters they confirmed that if musical justice can be found in this great land, they will be breaking onto iPods and airwaves everywhere this summer and after.

Comprised of singer/guitarist Evan Koga (above right), siblings Danny (2nd from right; guitar/vocals) and Michael Fujikawa (2nd from left; drums/vocals), and Mike Moonves (on left; bass/vocals), Chief took the floor at the Muddy and held sway for a stunning set of well-crafted and delivered songs.   What struck us for the second time were the four-part harmonies and forceful, driving sound of the cohesive ensemble that at times recalls (but updates and is distinguished from) The Band, CSN&Y, Love, and other great 70’s bands.  Koga sings lead vocals on a majority of the songs and his delivery laudably limns Dylan and Petty.  Danny is the other main voice of Chief and his comparatively understated, but choice vocals perfectly bookend Koga’s, while delivering chiming guitar flourishes via his ES-137 hollowbody Gibson.  Mike Moonves plays virtuosic bass and provides signature harmony vocals.  And Michael provides alternately driving and deft drums while supplying an emphatic fourth voice.   As always, a band’s songs are where the proverbial rubber meets the road, and Chief’s songs are multi-melodic, filled with passionate ensemble musicianship, with laden and lifting lyrics and tales worth telling.

We spoke with Danny and Michael before their set and were struck by their engaging intellect (they formed while all attending New York University) and graciousness.  They could not hide their excitement to be headlining the next night at the Troubadour and to head out on a summer tour of European festivals before returning to the States

Owing perhaps to the Lakers/Chowderheads game and the other pulls of Sunday, the Muddy housed a smaller, more intimate crowd on Sunday.  Despite its size, the audience was vocal and enraptured throughout Chief’s set and at end stomped, cheered and demanded an encore from these openers (a great song off of their phenomenal first EP, “The Castle is Gone”).

At the end, Chief proudly announced that their first longplayer, “Modern Rituals,” will be released by Domino Records on August 17th.  Be ready to buy it and enjoy.

We gave headliners, April Smith and the Great Picture Show a good listen, but they weren’t our cup of tea (we’ll give April her incredible vocals and the band its able accompaniment).  For the first time so far the Brooklyn spell was broken.

Once again we observed major headliner/opener dyslexia.   We predict Chief will be headlining to good crowds the next time they come to town.

Check ’em out.

Chief–Your Direction

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/01-Your-Direction.mp3|titles=01 Your Direction]

We were reminded of the great band, The Weakerthans, upon the release of their new live record, “Live at the Burton Cummings Theater.”  Once again the band has shown they are stronger artistically than most bands on the planet.

We have been huge fans of this band for quite some time (thanks Matt).  Every record glimmers, glistens and gains your undivided attention.  John K. Samson writes songs with magnificent melodies and carefully crafted, complex lyrics, while the band stunningly supports and harmonizes.   The weight of the world is felt and lifted off in Samson’s stories.  Amongst our faves of all time.

We caught them live finally several months ago at Downtown Brew in San Luis Obispo, and the long wait was more than worth it.  We brought others along who had never heard a single song of theirs before the show, but whose jaws dropped as they became instant fans and exclaimed, “How is it possible that this band is so phenomenal, and I’ve never even heard of them?”  Such is life in the modern era where Pro Tools and the internet have enabled the musical Niagara Falls into which we thrust our nets in search of impeccable specimens.

The new live record is a perfect place to witness one’s knees weaken over the Weakerthans.  Listen below to the even-better-live delivery on one of their stunning achievements, Benediction, with heartstrung pedal steel from Stephen Carroll. This is a great song of self-examination and doubt.  Samson and Christine Fellow’s acappela segment at 2:20 is rapturous, and begins one of the finest stanzas in all of modern music:

“Megaphones in helicopters squeal, “Hey, are you okay?” as searchlights circle where we lost our way. All our accidents went purposeful and fell, stripped of providence or any way to tell that our intentions were intangible and sweet. Sick with simple math and shy discoveries, piled up against our impending defeat.”

(Yet another great song with saving-helicopter metaphors:  see our prior review of The Antlers’ song, Wake.)

The Weakerthans–Benediction (live)

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/20-Benediction.mp3|titles=20 Benediction]

Also take a good listen to a few of our other favorite Weakerthans songs from their studio records.

Time’s Arrow includes these stunning verses:

“All the streets lie down, deserted in the darkest part of night, to lead you through the evening to the light. Pulled along in the tender grip of watches and ellipses. Small request. Could we please turn around?”

The Weakerthans–Times Arrow

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/07-Times-Arrow.mp3|titles=07 Time’s Arrow]

In the great Left and Leaving, Samson regally regales with these show-stopping lyrics of a relationship’s demise:

“Someone choose who’s left and who’s leaving. Memory will rust and erode into lists of all that you gave me: some matches, a blanket, this pain in my chest, the best parts of Lonely, duct-tape and soldered wires, new words for old desires, and every birthday card I threw away. I wait in 4/4 time. Count yellow highway lines that you’re relying on to lead you home.”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/07-Left-Leaving.mp3|titles=07 Left & Leaving]

And in A New Name for Everything, Samson again leaves other lyricists to leap from their laptops:

“One more time, try. Stand with your hands in your pockets and stare at the smudge on a newspaper sky, and ask it to rain a new name for everything. Fire every phrase. They don’t want to work for us anymore. Dot and Dash our days. Make your face the flag of a semaphore. All you won’t show. The boxes you brought here and never unpacked are still patiently waiting to go. So put on those clothes you never grew into, and smile like you mean it for once. If you come back, bring a new name for everything.”

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/10-A-New-Name-For-Everything.mp3|titles=10 A New Name For Everything]

Please listen in and then go buy their new, stronger-than live record.

We don’t know if it’s possible given our (and lots of others’) incessant warblings about this band, but in case you have not heard The Wrens and their 2003 record “The Meadowlands,” we think it’s high time.  We have played this record to exhaustion since we first discovered it in 2004 and never grow tired of it.  Every song (yes, every dang song–well maybe not that last one or two) is a mini-masterpiece.

The Wrens have a storied past.  They put out two records in the 1990s (the second, “Secaucus,” in 1996) to justifiable critical raves, and then suffered serious record label setbacks and band difficulties, resulting in their follow-up, The Meadowlands, not being released until 2003.  And in the seven years since 2003 and now?  A couple of singles and compilation contributions, and that’s it.   There have been some live shows and lots of rumors and innuendo regarding tracks being written and some cut (and a few actually released), but no new longplayer has been launched since The Meadowlands.  The wait became so interminable for some that in 2009 Magnet magazine established a Wren’s Watch (a hilarious page).

(As an aside, the great Santa Barbara band, Buellton, has now exceeded the Wrens-esque delay in their follow-up to their star-spangled 2001 record, “Avenue of the Flags.”  Beware Buellton:  we are seriously considering establishing the “Belated Buellton Bulletin” on these very pages.)

Suffice it to say there’s a large indie community out there eagerly awaiting the next Wrens record.  And/or tour.  At some point both will happen, and we won’t miss it.

In the meantime, check out a few seminal songs from The Meadowlands.

One of our favorite songs of all time is She Sends Kisses. While some find the lyrics of this song of lost-love too “emo,” to those we would heartily recommend an urgent soul-implant.  Against appropriately mournful organ, at second :17 the doleful vocals enter, elegantly-harmonized.   The singer will “cue every memory at half-speeds” and then lists TMI details of the courtship (the well-wrought “hopes pinned to poses honed in men’s room mirrors”–what dude hasn’t?– being the least discomforting).  The title chorus is first heard, high and barely discernible, at 1:29, but the second time at 2:58 the singer wails in full.  After a series of key changes, the chorus is kicked up yet again at 4:55.  And the lyrics “she sends kisses in envelopes stamped w/ ‘Hope & Hearts’ – ripped right open” convey the pain.  A great song.

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/03-She-Sends-Kisses.mp3|titles=03 She Sends Kisses]

One of our other favorites is This Boy is Exhausted, wherein the band voices its frustration with its struggles (analogized to “splitting rocks, cutting diamonds” for “8 years long”).  But, set against a storming melody, we also hear of the intermittent epiphanies and the revival of their music that carries them on (“but then once a while we’ll play a show then that makes it worthwhile,” and “then Greg plugs in, a treble checking that says we might win”).  Ultimately the sheer exhaustion is felt and heard in lead and harmony vocals alike, but with glimmers of hope.

The Wrens–This Boy is Exhausted

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/04-This-Boy-Is-Exhausted.mp3|titles=04 This Boy Is Exhausted]

And in Happy a jilted lover (perhaps the same from She Sends Kisses) initially bemoans a love, but eventually sends vehement kiss-offs to the same girl.  The change in tone in this one song is stunning (it took Noah and the Whale an entire album to do the same in its highly-laudable “The First Days of Spring” earlier this year).   The change in lyrical tone is perfectly paralleled by the increasing tension of the band’s music.  That tension builds throughout until the release at 4:27.

The Wrens–Happy

[audio:https://www.thelefortreport.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/02-Happy.mp3|titles=02 Happy]

What we miss about these Wrens is their phenomenal sense of dynamics and the ability in one song to capture so much.

Hey Wrens:  Please put the Wren Watch out of business and give us another masterwork soon.