BCB 100 - Wire

Threads and discussion dedicated to major acts.
User avatar
geoffcowgill
exceptionally nondescript
Posts: 3380
Joined: 23 Oct 2003, 23:43

BCB 100 - Wire

Postby geoffcowgill » 27 Aug 2006, 18:35

Just got my first Wire album (Chairs Missing) over the summer, and I will certainly get the other two essentials at some point. I shouldn't put my choices in at this point, but I must point out for the deaf among you, that "From The Nursery" is one of the flat-out coolest damn things ever committed to tape.

User avatar
toomanyhatz
Power-mad king of the WCC
Posts: 29992
Joined: 07 Apr 2005, 00:01
Location: Just east of where Charlie Parker went to do some relaxin'

Postby toomanyhatz » 30 Aug 2006, 01:14

I don't hate the later stuff, but the first three records are overwhelmingly better and more original.

Album - Pink Flag, with Chairs Missing pretty close behind

Song - A Touching Display. Their most impressive sonic assault, no less so for being easily the longest song on those first three.
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?

Sneelock

Postby Sneelock » 30 Aug 2006, 01:20

Album - 154
song - A Seriousness of Snakes

User avatar
My name is Spaulding
Pancake Expert
Posts: 24074
Joined: 18 Jul 2003, 19:04
Location: Somewhere else

Postby My name is Spaulding » 30 Aug 2006, 09:24

BUMP!
Walk In My Shadow wrote:If Spaulding buys it, I'll buy it too.

User avatar
The Red Heifer
Fucking Crackers
Posts: 15048
Joined: 31 Aug 2003, 01:28
Location: South Penriff
Contact:

Postby The Red Heifer » 30 Aug 2006, 09:35

They're growing on me. I bought the first 3 albums in a 3 pack thing. I like them, but I think I'll like them more.

Album - Chairs Missing

Song - Map Ref 41N 93W
Wadesmith wrote:Why is it that when there's a 'What do you think of this?' post, it's always absolute cobblers?

User avatar
The Write Profile
2017 BCB Cup Champ
Posts: 14755
Joined: 15 Sep 2003, 10:55
Location: Today, Tomorrow, Timaru
Contact:

Postby The Write Profile » 30 Aug 2006, 09:43

I wrote parts of this on another thread, but hopefully it's coherent enough to continue here:

The thing I like about Pink Flag is how there's absolutely no extraneous material on it. It's an incredible achievement as a debut, to subtract and subtract until you're left with just the sheer sound- brittle, staccato and-yes!-angular that pretty much (for better or worse) invented a whole new language for guitar rock. And Newman sings like they play, lots of jagged harshness, but with a melodic sensibility nonetheless intact. It's pretty exhausting, and it's all over in only 35 minutes, too!

These days, it's everywhere as a signifier. Actually, I'm amazed at some of the wierd moments that pop up on that album- how the hell did they get the sound for "Feeling Called Love," or that strum that's held on for a note too long on "Champs," or even the way they turn their lyrics, essentially a series of cutup slogans and observations, into full stories: making an ominous catchcry out of "Looting, Burning, Rape!" is quite an achievement

Yes, and it's got their best tunes, and the most wit out of all their LPs. Completely realised and formed in that regard.

Chairs Missing I like a lot, too. "Outdoor Miner," of course, but even the droning, unrelenting "Heartbeat" or the buzzing, clawing, "I Am the Fly." It seems at once beautiful, beguiling and studied all at once. They were into deconstruction.

Actually, perhaps I'm barking out of the wrong tree, but does anyone else hear any similaraties between the guitarsounds employed on Pink Flag and Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets- both have a really claustrophobic, clanging feel to them- I wouldn't be surprised if Wire listened to that record. Chairs Missing is obviously more Barett-y in its approach, but there's still the dissection that's at the heart of the debut's best moments.

154 I like, but it does seem a bit lost at times, certainly the least immediate of the three. Certainly, it's the most beguiling out of all them, the sense that the direct, almost abrasive approach of the first LP had subsided into a more introspective and selfconscious style. You can hear them trying to move even further away from the template they established on Chairs Missing- the melodies are fragmented or at least allusive. How else can you describe an LP where the most obvious tune is shouldered with the title "Map Ref 41N 93W"? And yet for all its inconsistencies, it's at times, wonderfully enigmatic.

But I must admit Pink Flag is the one I return to the most, maybe it's the odd simplicity of the riffs, the completely compact nature of it. It's not surprising that it became the most copied of all the Wire LPs, as it's certainly the most distinctive, soundwise (to my ears anyway).
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

User avatar
Penk!
Midnight to Six Man
Posts: 35784
Joined: 07 Aug 2004, 20:12
Location: Stockholm

Postby Penk! » 30 Aug 2006, 13:47

They're a band I admire more than love, and considering I like them a hell of a lot that doesn't mean they're not brilliant. They were one of the most intelligent and bands of their era but were never sterile, never lacked passion or excitement, and recognised that a cracking tune could be just as valid as ten minutes of arty noise - in fact, their '80s stuff was some of most accessible music to come from the 'industrial' scene and their more recent work, while less essential, shows they still have it: check out the riff to In the Art of Stopping. As punk as anything, that.

Album: Pink Flag
Song: Marooned
fange wrote:One of the things i really dislike in this life is people raising their voices in German.

User avatar
Andrew Lou Goldman
Footy gives me a boner
Posts: 5389
Joined: 28 Feb 2004, 01:32
Location: Titty City

Postby Andrew Lou Goldman » 30 Aug 2006, 13:49

Perfection.

Album: Chairs Missing
Song: "Madman's Honey"
Image

User avatar
Prograstinator
Posts: 1668
Joined: 29 Mar 2006, 22:38

Postby Prograstinator » 30 Aug 2006, 14:50

I tried them out once and they didn't grab my attention, although sometimes that can take a while. Not sure about their inclusion into the BCB100 but I guess a lot of you are from that era so it is no small wonder.

Is it true the song 'I am the Fly' inspired Irvine Welsh to write that short story in the Acid House when God turns some poor waster into a fly?
...

User avatar
Carlisle Wheeling
Posts: 1640
Joined: 25 Aug 2003, 23:26
Location: out on the time-coast..... Manchester

Postby Carlisle Wheeling » 30 Aug 2006, 15:50

Album: Chairs Missing

Song: I Am The Fly

As has already been said, a band it's easier to admire rather than like. I got this album when it was released but didn't get the debut until much later. Still prefer this, though that's often the case with albums you've lived with for a long time.

User avatar
copehead
BCB Cup Stalinist
Posts: 24763
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 18:51
Location: at sea

Postby copehead » 30 Aug 2006, 16:58

Pink Flag

Outdoor Miner

One of the top 10 songs ever written by anyone let alone Wire
Dancing in the streets of Hyannis

Image

Bear baiting & dog fights a speciality.

User avatar
Six String
Posts: 23075
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 20:22

Postby Six String » 30 Aug 2006, 17:52

All I have is Pink Flag and I've listened to it so little that I can't remember any of the songs. :oops: Not that I don't like it, but I don't listen to that type of music enough to keep it in rotation. The last time I played it was maybe four years or so ago and I was shocked when Mrs. 6String said she liked it.

Album - Pink Flag
song ?
Everything is broken
B. Dylan

User avatar
Jimbly
Posts: 21957
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 23:17
Location: ????

Postby Jimbly » 30 Aug 2006, 17:56

Song - A Touching Display

Album - 154

I love how this song always seems to be on the point of collapse but just keeps going
So Long Kid, Take A Bow.

User avatar
king feeb
He's the consultant of swing
Posts: 26243
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 00:42
Location: Soon Over Babaluma
Contact:

Postby king feeb » 30 Aug 2006, 18:24

Classic Wire-
Song "Our Swimmer"
Album Chairs Missing

Reformed Wire-
Song "Cheeking Tongues"
Album Send
You'd pay big bucks to know what you really think.

User avatar
Beno
Posts: 6582
Joined: 04 Nov 2004, 22:05
Location: Gasoline Alley

Postby Beno » 30 Aug 2006, 21:25

In the world of punk I always see Wire and The Clash at opposite sides of the spectrum and I've always been a Wire man.

Album: Chairs Missing

Somg: Ahead

User avatar
Penk!
Midnight to Six Man
Posts: 35784
Joined: 07 Aug 2004, 20:12
Location: Stockholm

Postby Penk! » 30 Aug 2006, 21:28

Beno wrote:In the world of punk I always see Wire and The Clash at opposite sides of the spectrum


Where are Eater then?
fange wrote:One of the things i really dislike in this life is people raising their voices in German.

User avatar
Beno
Posts: 6582
Joined: 04 Nov 2004, 22:05
Location: Gasoline Alley

Postby Beno » 30 Aug 2006, 21:31

penk wrote:
Beno wrote:In the world of punk I always see Wire and The Clash at opposite sides of the spectrum


Where are Eater then?

They're in a separate "stuff I've never heard of" category.

Stirling Moss

Postby Stirling Moss » 30 Aug 2006, 21:36

LP: Chairs Missing
Track: TOO LATE

User avatar
Prograstinator
Posts: 1668
Joined: 29 Mar 2006, 22:38

Postby Prograstinator » 30 Aug 2006, 21:53

Beno wrote:
penk wrote:
Beno wrote:In the world of punk I always see Wire and The Clash at opposite sides of the spectrum


Where are Eater then?

They're in a separate "stuff I've never heard of" category.


That's a big catagory!
...


Return to “BCB 100”