Jerry Macdonald: Last News

The Wrens’ Charles Bissell has announced that he has left the band and launched a new solo project, Car Colors.The co-frontman of the New Jersey indie rock band is set to launch his new solo project on November 17 with lead single ‘Old Death‘.It will mark both his first new music in 20 years and the end of his time with The Wrens, who formed in 1989.The single will arrive with B-sides ‘And It’s All Guns and Arrows’ and ‘I’ll Bear’, while ‘Old Death’ has been described in press materials as his “life as The Odyssey disguised as a pop album”.A post shared by charles bissell (@_the_wrens)The new three-track single is available to pre-order/pre-save on Bandcamp. The full LP, meanwhile, is slated for a 2024 release.While an Instagram post shared to The Wrens’ profile this weekend appeared to signal the end of the band, a new statement shared with Pitchfork by Aeon Station – aka The Wrens bassist/vocalist Kevin Whelan, his brother Greg and Jerry MacDonald – disputes the idea that Bissell’s departure signals the group’s disbandment.“Though Charles has decided to leave the band, it does not mean that the band has broken up,” the statement read.

The Wrens co-leader Charles Bissell has confirmed that his new album will not be released under the name used by the New Jersey band.Bissell had previously been teasing that a new Wrens record was on the way, set to be the long-awaited follow-up to the band’s 2003 cult classic ‘The Meadowlands’. However, it now appears that Bissell will join co-writer Kevin Whelan in taking those songs to a new project.Whelan released his debut album as Aeon Station earlier this month (December 10), with assistance from the other two Wrens, brother Greg Whelan and Jerry MacDonald.

The Wrens has announced his return with new project Aeon Station – get all the details on new album ‘Observatory’ below.The Wrens, who hail from New Jersey, have been promising fans a new album since 2003, with Whelan and co-songwriter Charles Bissell writing music separately.Songs from the proposed new Wrens album will appear on ‘Observatory’, according to a feature in the New York Times.