The Wrens are fast becoming...

...my latest obsession. Mid-90s indie rock band. Found by me -- courtesy of my sister -- who gave me a compilation called "Grass of '96," a sampler from Grass Records for Christmas one year. (By the way, the first four songs on that CD are amazing. The rest? Eh.)

The CD -- and correct me if I'm wrong on this -- was available at Wal-Mart in their $.99 bin for a long time. So the CD really captures my interest on a number of levels -- cheap, fast, easy, and totally random.

However, at some point, Grass Records became evil. As The Wrens put it on their website:

"Halfway into first tour supporting Secaucus, the wrens are told that if they do not sign their ‘big buck record contract’ all promotion for Secaucus will be stopped. The wrens, frowning on strong-arm tactics, do not re-sign and as promised, all promotion (including support for a pending tour of Europe with Brainiac) is pulled. The head of the record company, infuriated, commences layoffs of involved record company personnel and vows that “the next band to walk through that door will be made famous - at any cost”. The next band through the door is Creed. Grass Records becomes Wind Up Records. Creed becomes famous at any cost."

The Wrens are dropped, bounce around a while, and just sort of float off into oblivion. The kind of band that gets airplay on college radio stations, but not much more than that. Secaucus, the album mentioned above, went out of print and became a collector's item...for those interested in collecting mid-90s alt-rock artifacts.

Anyway, I mention all this for the pure sake of bringing up the lyrics for "Surprise, Honeycomb." Some of the strangest lyrics I've ever heard. A song about killing. The full lyrics are available here, but I'm almost more partial to just hearing snippets of them while I do something else. Adds to the fractured, off-kilter effect.

"cut a killing path / through the true west
dozens laid rest / settled down then at last...

...marie came home tattooed / it covers her back
it’s God done in black / says “it protects me from you”...

...i started out fine
i used to kill time / now Detroit’s killing me...

...looks like you need a man time, honey comb
hid away for wine years how you’ve grown
we can call your folks / from a highway side rotary...

...i drive up to your door / and wracked by disease
i do what i please / drop you to the floor...

...pop the door i think this wander lust
ain’t the only thing between both of us
i’ll make you famous / and we’ll double the states you’ve seen..."