New Wire Album

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Anyone heard the new wire album yet? I loved the last EP 'Read and Burn' and they were the best live thing saw last year (At All tomorrow's parties). Boomkat.com said "Crafted walls of blistering guitars, brittle drums, mathematical bass and monotonic alive vocals all with an electronic overcoating of digital menace." Can it be this good?

Neil Simpson, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:21 (twenty years ago) link

I'm still waiting for my copy. The Read and Burn eps were brilliant. They give me hope that I will be able to rock like a motherfucker when I'm in my 50s.

Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:52 (twenty years ago) link

What do you mean eps? I have a six track CD. Are there more or was the vinyl different?

Neil Simpson, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 13:58 (twenty years ago) link

eps = not full length albums

read and burn 1 [released May 2002]
read and burn 2 = only available at posteverything.com

DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 14:05 (twenty years ago) link

Well I think it's dismal. I like a lot of the old Wire (I have that On Returning compilation) but this new album struck me as utterly pointless, devoid of tunes and way out of time. Urgh.

JoB (JoB), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 14:07 (twenty years ago) link

i've only given it one listen. i like it. seeing as half the tracks are on read + burn that's not surprising.

toby (tsg20), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 14:17 (twenty years ago) link

It's okay. There's only four new tracks, of which only one is pretty good. They really had their shit together on the first EP but by the second they were already disappearing up their ass into the same line of thinking that was all over the late 80's stuff.

Buy the first EP and you're golden.

Scott Warner (thream), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 16:02 (twenty years ago) link

the read and burn records - as much as i liked them - sounded perilously close to filter. they better be careful.

jess (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 17:05 (twenty years ago) link

Jess is right about the Filter thing. Quite a lot of the songs on Send and the Read & Burn EPs sound a bit like mainstream industrial rock. Some of the guitar sounds sound like they're off of The Downward Spiral.

That said, there's some excellent songs on Send. Two of the best songs on the album weren't on the EPs, "Being Watched" and "Mr. Marx's Table." More than half of the record are the same recordings as on the EPs.

Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 20:02 (twenty years ago) link

i kinda like it but, as mentioned by others, the 1st ep is probably the best of this crop apart from a track here or there. the production annoys me most of all - obviously ramped up and compressed to shit and back, just like the majority of corporate guitar rock and industrial. the attitude to sound reminds me of the current king crimson records (only heard a track or two of the latest cd) : they're obviously trying to show those young whipper snappers a thing or two. nah, we're not old.. etc.

phil turnbull (philT), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

Can't wait to hear the LP version, which is apparently condensed versions of every song on both EPs and the full-length. Fast and hard and SMART.

Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

It's too early to say. It might grow on me. But right now I'm liking it less than 'snakedrill' or 'ideal copy' (comparing to their last major reinvention). I think i even prefer 'the drill' actually. But it's better than either 'manscape' or 'first letter'.

Basically it's got me listening to their older stuff again. Is the 'crazy for love' 12" version of 'our swimmer' one of the most amazing songs of all time or what?

milton, Tuesday, 29 April 2003 23:33 (twenty years ago) link

four years pass...

This makes me very excited. I'm only hoping the North American tour includes stops in Canada.

WIRE announce live dates
After a considerable absence from the live scene (the last show was at Benecassim, Spain in 2004), Wire is set to announce dates for new live shows this year. As yet unconfirmed dates will include European festivals during the summer season and a trip to North America in the autumn.

At this time, we are able to confirm the following early show dates:

April 29: Stuk, Leuven, Belgium
May 01: 4AD, Diksmuide, Belgium - As part of their 50th Anniversary.
May 07: Nuits Sonores Festival - Lyon, France

Wire is, of course, now well advanced in recording and mixing its 11th (as yet untitled) album, due for release later this year.

Binjominia, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:09 (sixteen years ago) link

Is Bruce back in the band?

Mackro Mackro, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:26 (sixteen years ago) link

Is Bruce back in the band?

Was he ever out of the band? If so, I'd be interested in where you read (or heard) this.

kwhitehead, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:40 (sixteen years ago) link

i thought robert had left

akm, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:49 (sixteen years ago) link

Oh no, a new Wire album. Oh yes.

Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 17:59 (sixteen years ago) link

I mean live dates. Sorry.

Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 18:00 (sixteen years ago) link

Gotobed left during the band'd dismal early 90's period and returned for the souped up Read and Burn period.

As far as I know, Gilbert never left.

kwhitehead, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 18:37 (sixteen years ago) link

I'm in love with Graham, damnit. I'm in love with that guy. I
can't get my DVD player to work right so I can look at him.
I'm tired of being quiet about it, about my feelings.

I'm going to look up Alfred Soto's email now.
I need to talk to him.

I'm in love with a man who has three kids. The guilt is killing me.

Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 18:40 (sixteen years ago) link

Absolutely positively totally in love.
And he won't let me tell him how I feel.

Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 18:42 (sixteen years ago) link

I want so much to tell him how I feel.
That's why I'm crying.

Bimble, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 18:45 (sixteen years ago) link

North American booking agency suggests July 2008 dates!

www.billions.com

peepee, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 19:21 (sixteen years ago) link

I heard Gilbert left after A Scottish Play(?)

Well, if that's wrong, then that's great!

Mackro Mackro, Tuesday, 26 February 2008 23:48 (sixteen years ago) link

Well, it's been a while since that, so I guess he's backaroonie!

Mark G, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 00:58 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

I could be wrong though.

Mark G, Wednesday, 23 April 2008 13:34 (sixteen years ago) link

New Wire album: Object 47
Object 47 (the 47th object in Wire's discography) is Wire's 11th studio album, and features nine all-new tracks. It is the second product of an arc of work started in 2006, which has so far produced the well received EP "Read And Burn 03", and stands as a confident statement of where Wire are in 2008 (as ever, looking forward!). Retaining Wire's idiosyncratic mix of an avant-garde mindset with classic pop timing, this album also boasts "tunes with zoom", a unique formula that manages to sound wholly Wire (in a classic sense) and contemporary. A preview of the front cover has been placed on the website at <http://www.pinkflag.com>;.

The full track-listing for the album is: One Of Us; Circumspect; Mekon Headman; Perspex Icon; Four Long Years; Hard Currency; Patient Flees; Are You Ready?; All Fours.

The provisional release date for Object 47 is July 7, 2008.

Let's talk!
During the last couple of weeks we have been testing out a forum on pinkflag.com <http://www.pinkflag.com/talk/>; and now it is ready to accept new members. We have wanted, for some time, a place where people could express their views about Wire, ask questions or just generally discuss stuff related and not so related to the band in a way that's simple and intuitive. Hopefully we've got that (although it hasn't been tested to destruction yet, so bear with us if we have teething problems).

More gigs
The gig list at the front of the website has been growing, and more dates will soon be added or confirmed. The current, officially confirmed, date-list is:

• April 29: Stuk, Leuven, Belgium
• April 30: Ekko, Utrecht, Netherlands
• May 01: 4AD, Diksmuide, Belgium
• May 02: Hedon, Zwolle, Netherlands
• May 03: Futuresonic Festival, Manchester, UK
• May 05: Bronson, Ravenna, Italy
• May 06: Circolo Degli Artisti, Rome, Italy
• May 07: Nuits Sonores Festival, Lyon, France
• May 30: Seaport Music Festival, NYC, USA [free festival]
• June 07: Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto, Portugual
• June 27: Sled Island Festival (#1 Royal Canadian Legion), Calgary, Canada
• June 28: Sled Island Festival (Main Stage), Calgary, Canada
• July 4: Rokaj Festival , Zagreb, Croatia

There will be a London show during the summer. New Yorkers may be interested to note that Wire will be headlining a big free festival on May 30th as part of the River to River series. A more wider-ranging visit to North America will take place in October, but no dates are currently conformed. As always, it pays to check back with the website periodically, to see if more dates have been added.

Note that due to Bruce Gilbert's resignation from the group in 2004, upcoming Wire gigs will have Margaret Fiedler McGinnis augmenting the band on rhythm guitar. Known for her work in Laika (masterminds of one of the best Wire covers to date, the Whore version of German Shepherds), her live credentials are further enhanced by her being a part of PJ Harvey's touring band earlier in the decade.

And finally
This newsletter and the website are complimentary resources. To keep abreast of Wire and and all its doings, we recommend checking Pinkflag.com regularly as well as being signed up to this mailing list.

All the best,

Pinkflag

Mark G, Wednesday, 23 April 2008 13:35 (sixteen years ago) link

No Bruce, No Credibility

Tom D., Wednesday, 23 April 2008 13:37 (sixteen years ago) link

I just saw this myself. I am a bit wary of a Gilbert-less band as well. I loved the way he stood there hunched over and motionless, coaxing brilliance from his guitar.

kwhitehead, Wednesday, 23 April 2008 13:38 (sixteen years ago) link

margaret fielder though! that is NOT a bad trade. I miss Laika

akm, Wednesday, 23 April 2008 16:27 (sixteen years ago) link

one month passes...

"one of us" has leaked and is fucking awesome. THEY SOUND LIKE MKII WIRE AGAIN! honestly: it's ideal-copy-tastic.

bruce doesn't seem to be working with them at the moment, which saddens me, but still: i have enormously high hopes for this album.

ILM has too many wire threads.

grimly fiendish, Saturday, 24 May 2008 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link

two weeks pass...

grimly fiendish otm. great song, too many wire thrds

wilter, Thursday, 12 June 2008 21:57 (fifteen years ago) link

Just listened to "One of Us" and I gotta agree, it totally rules.

van smack, Friday, 13 June 2008 02:37 (fifteen years ago) link

exited!

S-, Friday, 13 June 2008 05:47 (fifteen years ago) link

excited!

S-, Friday, 13 June 2008 05:47 (fifteen years ago) link

exciteed!

Mark G, Friday, 13 June 2008 08:35 (fifteen years ago) link

egg sited!

latebloomer, Friday, 13 June 2008 08:44 (fifteen years ago) link

one month passes...

this is a really good little album. it's nothing exceptional -- i can see it ending up somewhere on my end-of-year list through repeated listening rather than godlike genius -- but it's good clean wirey fun.

maybe the fact we know bruce isn't playing on it makes it sound a little thinner and lighter; maybe it really is just thinner and lighter. certainly, it's the closest they've come to their mid-to-late-eighties incarnation since ... well, the mid-to-late eighties.

i can see myself playing it a lot.

grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 July 2008 22:30 (fifteen years ago) link

well it's better than manscape and wir at any rate

akm, Monday, 14 July 2008 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link

the wir album is a lost classic and i shall scowl at anyone who says otherwise.

grimly fiendish, Monday, 14 July 2008 22:36 (fifteen years ago) link

I've never listened to wir or Manscape...stopped with that era at IBTABA.

Worth hearing?

Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 15 July 2008 00:00 (fifteen years ago) link

not really. the single from the wir album is good though (slow and so it goes).

akm, Tuesday, 15 July 2008 00:25 (fifteen years ago) link

Manscape has maybe 4-5 really good tracks, it's worth it cheap (best; Torch It, Morning Bell I think)

Niles Caulder, Tuesday, 15 July 2008 06:47 (fifteen years ago) link

four years pass...

New album streaming at P-Fork:
http://pitchfork.com/advance/52-change-becomes-us

And tour dates:

Wire Tour Dates

07.09 - Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art
07.12 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair
07.13 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
07.14 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
07.16 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
07.17 - Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
07.19 - Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival

Should I see 'em in Philly at this late date?

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Tuesday, 26 March 2013 20:39 (eleven years ago) link

Wire -- Change Becomes Us

fit and working again, Tuesday, 26 March 2013 21:02 (eleven years ago) link

one year passes...

Okay and we've got a new self-titled Wire album any week now. But in the meantime, this amazing story from Alexis Petridis on Facebook just now:

True story: when I had an office in Brighton, Wire were supposed to come up and record an interview with me for the Music Weekly podcast. Alotted time arrives, no Wire. After about twenty minutes, I went downstairs to check they weren't outside and found Colin Newman and Graham Lewis being ferociously interrogated by the owner of the accountancy firm that had an office downstairs. They'd turned up, found the door open, walked in and immediately been apprehended as potential burglars, by a man who'd clearly never heard of Wire and thus wasn't buying their story at all.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:40 (nine years ago) link

If Lewis sported his eighties mullet, I might have stopped him too.

guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:42 (nine years ago) link

Hahah

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:42 (nine years ago) link

Upcoming US tour as well. It's interesting that they don't seem to be bothering with much of the midwest. That Pitchfork show last time around probably got the best of them.

May 26: Dantes, Portland OR, USA Book tickets
May 27: Neumos, Seattle WA, USA Book tickets
May 29: Slim's, San Francisco CA, USA
May 30: The Echoplex, Los Angeles CA, USA
Jun 02: The Sinclair, Cambridge MA, USA
Jun 03: Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY, USA
Jun 04: Bowery Ballroom, New York NY, USA
Jun 05: Union Transfer, Philadelphia PA, USA
Jun 06: Black Cat, Washington DC, USA
Jun 07: Mr. Smalls Theatre, Millvale PA, USA
Jun 08: Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland OH, USA
Jun 09: Majestic Theatre, Detroit MI, USA
Jun 10: Headliners, Louisville KY, USA

kwhitehead, Wednesday, 18 March 2015 15:46 (nine years ago) link

New album is great providing you liked the last two. Hell of a run at this stage of their career.

Minaj moron (Re-Make/Re-Model), Wednesday, 18 March 2015 18:11 (nine years ago) link

So this summer I can see again Wire, Mission of Burma and the Buzzcocks.

curmudgeon, Thursday, 19 March 2015 13:39 (nine years ago) link

Great!

Also, I didn't know they'd set up a wire chatroom! (t'is ruptured)

Mark G, Friday, 20 March 2015 07:51 (nine years ago) link

two weeks pass...

The new album is very good. That may sound obvious or pat, but really, nobody else can be them, and they just have it down still. Couple of real standouts on this one.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 5 April 2015 16:37 (nine years ago) link

And you can prove it to yourself -- here's the stream:

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/05/396571143/first-listen-wire-wire

Ned Raggett, Monday, 6 April 2015 14:21 (nine years ago) link

♫♪ three of these kids belong together
three of these kids are kind of the same
but one of these kids is doing his own thing ♪♫

erry red flag (f. hazel), Tuesday, 7 April 2015 01:26 (nine years ago) link

Then there's this:
http://drillfestival.com/chicago/

kwhitehead, Tuesday, 7 April 2015 13:02 (nine years ago) link

silliness aside, this sounds pretty good.

erry red flag (f. hazel), Tuesday, 7 April 2015 15:44 (nine years ago) link

one year passes...

Man these guys are just pretty much not ever going to stop. (And credit to them.) New album announced, plus new track to hear:

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/01/23/510954969/wire-set-to-release-new-album-hear-short-elevated-period

Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 January 2017 18:17 (seven years ago) link

Excellent news!

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Monday, 23 January 2017 19:02 (seven years ago) link

Very consistent with the sound of the self-titled and "Nocturnal Koreans" albums. They've purged the oddness that Bruce Gilbert brought, which I'm of two minds about.

Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 23 January 2017 19:25 (seven years ago) link

They've not done anything worldbeating since Read & Burn 03, the last thing Gilbert was involved with. Plenty of good,but no amazing. Maybe this is different

left hand hierarchy (imago), Monday, 23 January 2017 19:27 (seven years ago) link

My sense with Gilbert via the Read and Burn book was that he was always on his own creative wavelength and that his path and that of Wire's no longer needed to cross. Which I think is a healthy viewpoint, really.

Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 January 2017 19:33 (seven years ago) link

Also he hates Colin Newman's guts.

Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 23 January 2017 19:35 (seven years ago) link

Minor details!

Ned Raggett, Monday, 23 January 2017 19:35 (seven years ago) link

I was joking... or was I?

Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 23 January 2017 19:36 (seven years ago) link

Their actual website hasn't been updated, and the 'greed bag' shop is down at the moment.

Mark G, Monday, 23 January 2017 20:19 (seven years ago) link

Details on the hate!

The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 23 January 2017 20:23 (seven years ago) link

one month passes...

Short Elevated Period is great! This could be the best in a while

an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Friday, 3 March 2017 21:46 (seven years ago) link

I am enjoying it, yes.

Mark G, Friday, 3 March 2017 22:55 (seven years ago) link

I had no idea there was a new one!

Josh in Chicago, Friday, 3 March 2017 23:17 (seven years ago) link


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