Wire: i just don't get it

what is so awful about their sound?

12XU is FUN!

"Outdoor Miner" is luvly and would have been a hit had a nervous EMI not tried to fix the charts!

agreed - but i think the read & burn EPs are pretty key, too. i had a major wire epiphany a few months ago; i'd thought they were ok when i'd given pink flag/154 a listen each when i was 17, but then seeing them live + buying chairs missing (now one of my fave albums ever) showed me the way.

i think chairs missing is prob the way into wire, btw; it gets the pop/experimental balance just right.

(actually i think the *real* way into wire = via fischerspooner's cover of "the 15th" and the revulva cover of "i am the fly". seriously.)

Mannequin / 12XU; I Am The Fly; Dot Dash; Outdoor Miner; A Question Of Degree; Map Ref 41N 93W: there aren't many acts to rival that run.

I really like the first 3 LPs too, though, even if I do think of Wire as better over 2-10 minutes than over 20-40. And I've always thought of the re-formed Wire as a different band in whom I'm not much interested.

Now, it's the 00's, and every Wire album I've heard is appealing to me in some manner. Even the somewhat splotchy and repetitive Read & Burn eps...

Hasn't it been said that Newman's A-Z was essentially the fourth Wire album, but without the rest of the band? It sure sounds that way.

That said, despite many fervent hopes and willing listens, I find everything they've done since ultimately disposable. A lot of it's pretty good and very interesting, but I can live without it.

Hey, you're right, making unsubstantiated comments is a lot easier than making thoughtful and useful points.

So what yr saying is Elastica > Wire?

(By the way, hstencil, when are we ever going to get around to that Trivial Pursuit match I challenged you to a year ago? That's right -- guess who I am.)

That's one of the many things I love about that album. Listen to "Field Day for the Sundays." It's 28 seconds long, but has a bridge, hook, and chorus, and sticks in your head like peanut butter sticks to your teeth. It is precisely as long as it needs to be. It takes something special, I think, some deep insight, to be able to understand that a song only needs to be 28 seconds long.

As for you, Joel, I know you're in NYC. But I don't want to give you home-field advantage. Meet in Cleveland?

Also, I won't use your real name if you won't use mine. Thanks.

P.S. kinda surprised you don't like Wire.

Oh, and I don't think you'd be so surprised if you knew me a little better. Punk in general ain't my thang and never was.

Because hstencil doesn't like punk, but he likes Wire.

Past Pink Flag there's some stuff that isn't doctrinaire-by-the-books-musical-punk (i.e. three chords and shouting). This is a good thing! And I love Pink Flag too.

not this again.

that's punk? a subset maybe . . .

also, julio, yes THAT again.

ps: jack cole, please sign in to the new league, pretty pretty please!

I actually picked up Pink Flag by Wire a few weeks ago. I really like it.

I really like the '87 - '90 period albums: the one track I've heard from Read & Burn I was very disappointed by.

Or am I taking things to seriously - or are you?

is this still in print?? amazon seems to think not. it sounds absolutely key, anyway.

i listened to the read & burn eps on the tube earlier and stand by my claim that they're essential too.

Albums? Surely Wire are best understood as a singles band?
Mannequin / 12XU; I Am The Fly; Dot Dash; Outdoor Miner; A Question Of Degree; Map Ref 41N 93W: there aren't many acts to rival that run.

tim's v otm; this probably is the way to get into them.

I love his compositions and was a big He Said fan, but man sometimes his voice on certain songs is just one big bad idea... i.e. "Ambitious"

I can't imagine Colin Newman singing "Ambitious."

I think Lewis's vocals works better ovreall with 80s Wire.. like with "It's Beginning To And Back Again", and He Said, obviously. But I agree "Should Have Known Better" and "A Touching Display" are great.

*sniff* I wouldn't be happy!

I love "Should Have Known Better," his voice is great on that.

Hahaha, Pin Group! Love that Siltbreeze CD. Roy Montgomery sounds more like late M. Gira to me on it, but it's close enough to Graham too. Have you heard his Wire cover?

Some of the lyrics on the first three recs are exceptional - 'Ex-Lion Tamer', 'Single K.o.' etc etc.

Unfortunately, no. I listened to Roy Montgomery a lot when every underground rock band needed to do an "Outdoor Miner" cover, so maybe I did, and it got lost along all the other Wire covers lobbed at me at the time.. heh.

Why don't people talk about these other projects more? It strikes me as odd that Wire is so revered (rightly) and yet most people can't be arsed to even mention this stuff most of the time, especially since a lot of it is of a piece with the more experimental Wire material.

Right, never mind all that..

Here is a crowd funder for a Wire documentary, one day left and close to the ummmm wire.

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/wirefilm

Have a butchers, see what happens!

Christ, early ILM was insufferable...

I threw em some greenbacks. So close!

I like Wire in the most clichéd way (first 3 and Read/Burn/Send) but people really need to be discouraged from making music documentaries.

yeesh at ppl upthread saying elastica was better

They got there, anyway.

who are all these upthread losers

... Belle & Sebastian fans - enough said?

people really need to be discouraged from making music documentaries.

OTM. I would hope Wire might do some different with this one though.