contents:
News (31 May 2003) - Live MP3s - Discography - Reviews - Related Bands - Equipment - Misc. - Lyrics - Tablature - Bootlegs - Photographs - Fliers - Tour History - Booking
new stuff on this page:
(10 January 2003) new photo link added - go down there.
(3 December 2002) link to live MP3s and video - go down there.
(24 April 2002) new interview and reviews added - go down there.
(10 December 2001) link to food diary added - go down there.
The Wrens are an American indie rock band from New Jersey. The group consists of Charles Bissell (guitar/vocals), brothers Greg Whelan (guitar) and Kevin Whelan (bass/vocals), and Jerry MacDonald (drums). They have released three albums so far, although a combination of problems with their former record label and having to fit in writing and recording with the daily pressures of home life and full-time jobs means that only one album has been released since 1996. The band have gained a reputation for their intense live shows – following a gig at the University of London Union in London in March 2006, The Guardian declared that "on this form the Wrens are surely one of the best live bands in the world".
At various times they also played the alto saxophone, the Optigon, a Vibra-Slap, and other odd objects. On some recordings they featured Steve Fisk, who was their producer for a while, on keyboards, a person named Dave Carter on trumpet, and a friend named Dustin, who also toured with the band as a roadie, on trombone. On their most recent record, they were joined by Janet Weiss, Brandt Sandeno, Murray W., and Derek Johnson. Almost all of their recordings were issued on the Kill Rock Stars record label, which is an independent music label based in Washington state.
Vern and Justin formed the band in 1991 with a friend named Brandt Sandeno on drums. They had all been in and out of bands in the Tumwater area, where they all grew up. The group released three seven-inch singles and appeared on a few compilation albums before Brandt left the group in July of 1992. They also recorded an entire album, which was not released until much later because of Brandt's departure.
Sara moved to Olympia from Bloomington, Indiana, when she became interested in the music scene there. She had started playing drums in the seventh grade and prior to joining Unwound she had previously played in the Belgian Waffles and in Witchypoo, among other groups. She joined the group in 1992 and became the band's permanent drummer.
After touring the U.S., Europe and Japan countless times and releasing a number of records, the band split up amicably on 1 April 2002. Each member plans to continue making music and future collaborations seem likely.
You can get information about the group from their record label:
Kill Rock Stars
120 NE State #418
Olympia, WA 98501
email: KRSpromo@aol.com
alternate email: promo@killrockstars.com
http://www.killrockstars.com/
KRS mailing list: http://valis.olywa.net:768/guest/RemoteListSummary/KRS_News
or from another record label they occasionally dealt with:
Troubleman Unlimited
16 Willow Street
Bayonne, NJ 07002
http://home.earthlink.net/~troubleman/
http://www.troublemanunlimited.com
Vern also ran his own record label:
Punk In My Vitamins
PO Box 2283
Olympia, WA 98507
http://www.punkinmyvitamins.com
pnmv@punkinmyvitamins.com
Vern and Justin built a recording studio: MagRecOne
And you can subscribe to an Unwound mailing list here. There is also reportedly an Unwound-oriented IRC chat channel on DALnet called #unwound.
KRS has an audio sample from the new album at their site
The video for Scarlette (also available on the Leaves Turn CD)
Matador Europe has a live video clip of one of the last Unwound shows (Petals Like Bricks at All Tommorow's Parties in L.A.)
A site featuring a live video clip
A good-looking page with a live sound clip
A site with Unwound MP3 tracks, and another one
This web site has information on a new documentary which features Unwound
The Island Of Joy video 'zine features an interview with Unwound
Indyrock.com has some Unwound MP3s (Torch Song) and a review
You might find an MP3 of Negated here
More MP3s at Matador Europe
Check these interviews with Sara and Justin at the KRS site
Grunnen RocksVern interviewed by Satanosphere
Leaves turn reviewed by someone who almost gets it
Albums reviewed and Justin interviewed by Piero Scaruffi
Sara and Justin interviewed by Noreaster Zine
A very extensive interview with Justin.
Sincere Brutality features a show review and a review of Leaves Turn Inside You
Reviews of Leaves Turn Inside You. A few on this site, and one external link.
More reviews of Leaves Turn Inside You: here and here and here and here and here and here
Noreaster has a live review (halfway down the page) and a review of Leaves Turn Inside You
An article and review from Wire
An article/interview from Insound
Interview from Axis - text version (fast download) or scanned version (slow download)
There was an Unwound article in a Dutch newspaper - here's the translation
Another interview with Justin
An interview from Holland (Scroll down the page to get to the English; by the way, "Gelächter" means "laughter") (here is a cheesy translation of the German portion of the article; it was translated by an AltaVista script)
Very brief interview and article (scroll down a bit)
A small review of Corpse Pose and Repetition, and another review of Repetition, as well as Broken E-strings and the Seen Not Heard split, and a review of Challenge For A Civilized Society, and a review of A Single History, and another review, and here's a review, but you'll have to scroll way down the page to read it (or use your browser's Find feature).
A few words on our favorite bandA photo and a photo and a show review here.
This site has great links and a photos section.
A few photos of Justin T. with a lot of photos of Stereo Total.
Some cooool photos from a show in Belfast (featuring Kevin, ex of Fabric and DesManDeablo on guitar)
Mounds of photos of the making of Leaves Turn Inside You
Photos from a show in Kontich
Photograph here and here and here.
The PogoPop site, with very nice photos from a show in Italy.
Georg Schnellinger's Unwound photo site (from a 1999 Nuremberg show)
Unwound looking scrubby
Check out Crazy Bob's crazy photos of Unwound and other bands
Mike Baer's page, with pictures of Unwound and some other bands as well.
Photos from Insound: by Brian Price - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - photo by Ben Clark - photo by Michael L. - and two photos by Michael Galinsky - 1 - 2
Concert photos from Kris's site
Sonic's page - tons of photos, but you might as well go make a sandwich while they download
A site with some Unwound pictures and an Unwound flyer.
A page with some nice-looking photos
Pictures from Yo Yo A Go Go in 1997 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5Notes:
Someone named Sara Lund is a horror film actress. It's not the same Sara Lund. This is according to Sara (via the KRS Questions page).
Regarding last year's Peel Session, from Sara: "BBC owns the rights so no one else can put them out. Unless of course, some naughty person from Texas puts it out as a bootleg and calls it UNWOUND LIVE IN LONDON. But I can't believe that would ever happen..."
Rat Conspiracy rumor: Sara says Rat Conspiracy was the tentative title for Fake Train. (Thanks to Jason Hurd for asking Sara about these three rumors, since I didn't even think of it.)
There are also bar bands named Unwound in Austin TX and Pittsburgh PA.
Read here an abbreviated article about the government's MK Ultra (Ultra Mind Kontrol) experiments, which is the subject of an Unwound song of the same name.
if you know anything about new releases, tour dates, crack cocaine habits, or anything else related to Unwound, mail me. (you can also mail me just to shoot the bull.)
This site used to be located elsewhere.
info
Thanks to Adam Dinwiddie!about the creator of this page (me)
Email me to contribute to this site. I need contributions, mistake corrections, reviews, anything. Write as much as you want; I'll try to find a place for it here.
Also, please let me know if any of the above links are outdated.This is NOT Unwound's email address. Don't write to me expecting it to reach them. Write to their label, KRS, if you want to contact them. Write to me if you just want to chew the fat.
This document was last updated 31 May 2003
UNWOUND 1991 ---> 2091
Nerviosa Energía - establecido 1996. 35,552 visitors logged between 22 August 1999 and 9 October 2001 (when i turned off the counter).
