subscriptions to the wire - is it worth it?

Here in New York it's prominently displayed in places like Kim's and Other Music. The Wire's sensibility is much more a New York sensibility than a London one anyway. It's sadly an anomaly amongst the very middlebrow UK music press, but fits right into the really healthy laptop / electronica / improv / avant scenes that thrive in places like Tonic in NYC.

Being written about in the Wire doesn't necessarily up your profile in NYC, though. I recently went to a place called Openair where, every Sunday, people come with laptops and process each others' signals, jamming drones. The Wire had made it sound like a burgeoning scene, but when I visited there were precisely five people in the whole club, all friends of the organisers.

As mentioned above, subscribers get extra free CDs (with most issues, actually) and, when the time comes to renew, it's 16 issues for the price of 12, working out at £2.25 per mag (now £3.30 off the shelf). Delivery is usually pretty good, though I do get occasionally vexed when I see the thing in Borders, Smiths, etc a week or so before mine turns up; on only one occasion has the thing failed to appear completely (rang them up - sent me a replacement copy immediately).

They missed a trick this month by not giving cover status to Joelle Leandre and her shopping bag.

Also The Wire is reliable in supplying information when the next edition is due out in it's current edition.

(p.s. the article DG mentions was actually a Delia Derbyshire obit, not about the RW generally - a small but important distinction!)

Because I've really nothing better to do, I've raided my shelves and found:

Single label comps from Staubgold (Alexander Balanescu, Groenland Orchestra, To Rococo Rot, Schlammpeitziger), Tamizdat (lots of Eastern Europeans I've never heard of - Auktyon, Iva Bittova, Jablkon - and one I have have - Plastic People of the Universe), Rune Grammofon (Supersilent, Phonophani, Deathprod), DiN (Ian Carter, Chris Boddy, Dub Atomica), Matador (Matmos, Techno Animal, Solex, Yo La Tengo, Bardo Pond), Brainwashed (Panacea, Legendary Pink Dots, Fridge, Current 93).

Various things entitled Exploratory Music From Portugal (pretty good this one, actually), Elektrotehnika Slavenika (E Eur electro - dead good in parts), Live and Direct: Nottinghamshire (some improv nonsense).

All eight volumes of The Wire Tapper - some of which were given away free with newsstand copies of the mag, and some which weren't. Full listings of these comps are in the back of the current issue (p91).

It's worth noting that if you live in the UK there seems to be no benefit to subscribing as only the United States is exempted from receiving the free CDs due to licensing difficulties. As those CDs and a small discount are the only reason I can think not to buy the magazine at a shop, if you live in the UK I would wager that you'd be better off either finding some place in your town that you can convince to order some copies or possibly order copies from a music store's website (after checking the magazine's contents on Wire's website). Then you can pick and choose your issues and thus avoid articles on Jim O'Rourke (or whomever your not interested in).

Wire is one of the better print music magazines around (damning with faint praise, I suppose) and when they have good articles they are really good articles. Unfortunately when they're not good or the subject is painfully uninteresting, well then yawwwwwn.

**IS IT WORTH IT?**

I say no, cos I need to save coins to spend on chips, opal fruits (starbust), crisps (chicken), whiskey, halal fried chicken, tuna (ocean friendly), etc, in the street, at random.

Bit confused here, Alex. I was under the impression that most of the CDs I described above were only available to subscribers - i.e you wouldn't get them at all if you picked a copy up in a newsagents. I know this wasn't the case with the first couple of Wire Tappers, and perhaps the policy has changed again.

I've just realised quite how unbelievably awful I am. I subscribe to The Wire, have all the Tappers, have a Wire T-shirt, and a Wire poster (Savage Pencil's turntablism) hanging on my wall. AAAAAGH.

Hmmn. The CD given away with the current issue is apparently only for subscribers regardless of location (at least that's what Wire's website seems to imply). For the last couple of years though, the opposite has been true and almost every issue with a CD(that I can remember anyway, although I'm not at home to check my back issues) has come with a disclaimer for US customers stating that due to "licensing difficulties" the CDs available to newstand customers in the UK were unavailable to newstand customers stateside. I'm thinking Emily is right. Some are, some aren't.

Of the 17 CDs mentioned above, seven were definitely only available to subscribers (including Tapper 4, 5 & 7), another five probably were (no text regarding this on the sleeves), and the remaining five were given away with newsagent copies too (including Tapper 1, 2, 3, 6 & 8).

Heck, I'm glad we sorted that out.

has anyone in the US seen the July 2010 issue on newsstands? I checked last week or so, but no dice

Who's on the cover?

The Bug
http://thewire.co.uk/issues/current/

Even in New York it can take weeks for it to hit newsstands. I got mine in the mail last week. Plus when you subscribe you get access to the digital version, which is available basically the day they send it to the printer, it seems like - two weeks or more before I get the print version in the mail.

I don't think any bookstores around here carry it anymore, having probably given up on a lot of UK periodicals after the distribution networks had issues in the last couple years.

I pretty much pick up an issue if I'm ordering from an online record store, or if I get lucky like I did at Mutek and there was a table of recent issues to choose from.

How much does a subscription to the U.S. run? If its any savings at all off the oftentimes (for me anyway) prohibitive cover price, I might have to really consider it.

xpost: thanks Phil!

well, at least one Newbury Comics in my area usually stocks it, but the issue(s) they had were old last time I checked. i've occasionally seen The Wire in Barnes and Noble, iirc. might go look around again later today just to see

jon, I think it's ~$90

Amazon: $88.74 ($7.40/issue)

Thanks, so it is a little cheaper. My only concern is that 80% of magazines that get sent to our house get absolutely destroyed in delivery. I'd say about 1 out of every 8 issues is rendered near unreadable either because it was jammed and forced into our mailbox so that the pages are ripped to shit, or because the mail-person leaves the box open during a rainstorm and it gets soaked. Not such a huge deal with a $15 subscription, but gives me pause for that much money.

uh yeah, that should give you pause! wow

The Wire comes in a plastic bag, fwiw.

Borders Books sometimes carries it. I forget how much it costs there. Glanced and skimmed a mostly nice article on Konono No. 1 in a recent issue where the author went to the Congo. Only drawback of the piece was the way the writer described popular Congolese rumba sounds. He seemed kinda clueless regarding them.

Yeah, when I do grab an issue that looks good, its usually at Borders. A local newsstand carries it as well, but copies don't stick around for long.

Hearing that it comes in a plastic bag does make me feel a lot better about subscribing.

Subscribing gets you CDs that aren't available otherwise with occasional issues as well.

Man, that's cheaper than I remember, I was thinking it was over $10 an issue to have it delivered in the US.

As a side note, I kind of giggle when I read stuff by a few writers now after hearing them speak/interview artists and can hear the British faux-pretentious inflection in the writing, too.

$89 ain't bad. Beats the heck out of The Word at $125, more than newstand price!

Many thanks to David Keenan for his insightful and thought-provoking review of four new releases on the Another Timbre label (Soundcheck, The Wire 316). Not since the halcyon days of Ben Watson have so many reasonable, unbiased and yet revolutionary points been made in the space of one single article. I am sure that I speak for all of us who spend much of their time playing free improvisation when I say a big ‘thank you’ to Mr Keenan for pointing out that we have been completely wasting our time. However, with his wise guidance (is he the Kim Il-Sung of Improv?) perhaps we can ensure that the music will finally have value. I have set out some proposals based on Mr Keenan’s excellent suggestions.

Firstly, I pledge to always think of penises when I play. I realise, after reading his review, that I have been guilty of non-phallic performances and I bitterly regret this. I renounce myself and all other non-sexual revisionist improvisors. With Mr Keenan as an inspiration, I will from now on perform in a pair of see-through trousers like Iggy Pop’s and even perhaps a pointy Gaultier bra like Madonna’s. I promise at all times to aggressively thrust my instrument in all directions, regaining the sexual authenticity that prissy humanist improvisors have drained from the genre.

Historians who claim that the guitar was based on an idealised form of the female body are, as Keenan proves conclusively, quite simply wrong. It is clearly a penis, as he (the Otto Muehl of Improv?) states several times in his incisive article. In fact, I propose, in the spirit of his article, that we should really re-phallicise all instruments: not only those (like clarinets) that look more like penises than guitars, but also instruments (like pianos) which do not look like penises at all.

I further promise that, in the light of Mr Keenan’s article, every improvisation that I perform will only consist of brand-new sounds and ideas and that I will never repeat anything ever again. This is the least improvisors should be doing. Why, in the last show I saw at London’s Cafe Oto, a pianist unashamedly played the note of E several times in the same piece: shockingly uncreative! From now on our music will always use newly-invented notes – a fresh set for every performance.

Some of his ideas are so profound and advanced that some musicians – clearly deficient in carnality and guilty of playing with timid ‘extended’ techniques – will struggle to understand them. They badly need guidance from a higher authority, and Keenan (the Marinetti of Improv?) is the man to lead us.

Might I suggest that The Wire publish a small book entitled The Thoughts Of David Keenan, perhaps bound in an attractive red cover? Those musicians who are overtly disconnected from their bodies will then be able to consult this collection of sagacious thoughts before they play. They will soon understand “the feminising effect of the saturation use of FX” and also truly appreciate Mr Keenan’s immaculate performances, luckily easily accessible on YouTube.

Thank you again, The Wire, for giving this astute writer a platform for his exquisitely crafted views. Perhaps he should become your editor? Steve Beresford London, UK

hahaha

https://twitter.com/WireFacesHidden

lots of 'em from over the years

I've gone from being an avid reader of the Wire to being one of those twats that only buys the end of year edition (more or less - pre-Covid, I'd pick up the odd issue from the WHSmiths local to work ... but I'm no longer near anywhere where I see a physical copy).

What are the good bits of the Rewind issue?

I've gone from being an avid reader of the Wire to being one of those twats that only buys the end of year edition (more or less - pre-Covid, I'd pick up the odd issue from the WHSmiths local to work ... but I'm no longer near anywhere where I see a physical copy).

What are the good bits of the Rewind issue?

A letter from Ben Watson in a recent issue reminded me why I’ve enjoyed the magazine especially since he’s gone.

Big changes coming with the next issue:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmH1WfNWYAAgDfm.jpg

lol i ran into ben watson randomly in the street where i live a week or so back, when i was taking a large box of old glass gü containers to the bottle recycling station: i shd have told him ppl were calling him maoist on the internet, it wd have enraged him immensely lol

It was probably time for a refresh/redress, but I'm not very keen on that new logo - too business to business - and I'm sorry they're abandoning that nice chunky page size (he says as a reader who last bought an issue when Milford Graves was on the front cover).

Being a maoist is better than being a Zappa fan

The logo makes the word "The" look bigger than the word "Wire" - I know that's an optical illusion, but it still matters. If it was a completely blank white cover I'd honestly be kinda thrilled but there's no chance of that.

not sure if this is widely known but the founder of the magazine -- who sadly died a couple of years back -- totally pinched the logo* from an existing british magazine of the exact same name, the magazine of the royal signals corp: https://www.royalsignalsmuseum.co.uk/wp-content/wire/Wire1979.pdf

*not the very first version of the logo, which was hand-drawn and comically terrible, but the first to look professionally designed (which it was, by the british signals corp

anyway all through its switched from having the "the" to not having the "the" on the cover, i guess they finally went back to it but FULL SIZE

typing like i'm drunk tonight when actually i'm not

My uni lecturer (won't name him) once laughed in puzzlement when he heard me call it The Wire.

I was living in the past/on the spine/in the website url/THE FUTURE

sugaRAPE

Whoa, that is wild that it's been just WIRE on the cover and THE WIRE on the spine since 2006

schrodinger's article

I have the current/outgoing logo printed in black on a black shirt and I'm not trading in for this new logo.

a lot of questions already answered by yr shirt

Pardon my ignorance, but A4 is...bigger?

taller but not so wide

I hope the fonts are readable inside

Definitely didn't know about the Royal Signals Corp mag! Wld totally read a full history of the music Wire with all feuds and fallings out properly recounted.

Had to remind myself of what the first issue logo looked like - they should go back to that for the relaunch!

I once sold a copy of the first issue to Thurston Moore when I was working at the Notting Hill Exchange. I charged him a fiver.

...fonts will be black on black too...

I re-upped a digital subscription last year and I'm still catching up on my lax reading. I'd consider going back to the print one because it's nice to just throw a magazine down on the table with my coffee and get to reading, but the US subscription prices are kind of prohibitive

I hate reading on the app on my phone. The US subscription rate for the paper magazine used to be around $100 so not bad, and I used to get it in a reasonable amount of time but during the pandemic US magazine mail from abroad slowed down incredibly and postal rates went up so much that I had to switch to Exact Editions.

Yeah, it's been blech since my iPad broke

tablet good, phone bad

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FmH1WfNWYAAgDfm.jpg

The identity of the font on this has been haunting me since it was originally posted. It looks like Helvetica, but it isn't - Helvetica Ws don't look like that. It dawned on me this evening that it's Haas Unica, a short-lived revision of Helvetica by the same foundry. It was released in 1980 and never really took off. The K and W are the most distinctively different letters. New Helvetica was released a few years later in 1983 and is much closer to the original.

That's all, font fans!

Thanks for the ID on that font. It was bothering me too!

According to the editorial in the issue, it’s a customised version of Unica77. Superb font knowledge!

What's the beef with the L'Rain cover feature?

just reading this issue now. please do enlighten on this.

ah, i see -

The Wire: I’d NEVER say or believe any of the dangerous conclusions about race, gender, or anything else. There are factual errors seemingly lifted from Wikipedia. There are even factual errors about other artists! Not proofread. More care about a deadline than about me. Livid.

— 🪨🦴 Taja / L’Rain (@lrain0000) September 5, 2023

From Twitter: "The Wire: I’d NEVER say or believe any of the dangerous conclusions about race, gender, or anything else. There are factual errors seemingly lifted from Wikipedia. There are even factual errors about other artists! Not proofread. More care about a deadline than about me. Livid."

Haven't seen the article and don't actually know anything about L'Rain, so partially just intrigued ... but I've also read a few Tweets (or similar) where other people have appeared to have suggested that articles should be run by the people they are about first.

There are a lot of contextual and contemporary news bits in the article interspersed with L'Rain's responses to questions but I don't think that it implies the views of her work are her personal views.

idk I'm not that familiar overall but I'm lagging behind on my new music listening

I've also read a few Tweets (or similar) where other people have appeared to have suggested that articles should be run by the people they are about first.

Those people are stupid and should be ignored. Once you put art into the world you have no say in how it gets interpreted.

There are apparently a few small errors of fact in the piece, and the solution to that is you publish a correction in the next issue. But most of L'Rain's objections have to do with tone/phrasing and/or the writer's theories, with which she disagrees. And the solution to that is...oh, well!

"Once you put art into the world you have no say in how it gets interpreted."

Yes, this is what struck me. I can't remember the other thing I'd read (saying "interviewees should be able to pre-read") but it definitely made me notice the L'Rain Tweets.

xp to unperson what's funny is she's an art museum curator, she should know that (NB I enjoy her music)

reading through the annotation of the wire article on l'rain's instagram, her role as an art museum curator is probably why she objected so much to the article. she says that the errors in the Kara Walker section as a put her curator career in jeopardy. (i don't actually know enough to state whether they are indeed factual errors). a lot of the rest of the annotation is taking issue with specific word choices or quotes ("I wouldn't have said this")

I’m loathe to agree with an artist who thinks she should be able to edit a piece about herself but the piece does kind of stink

I don’t think it’s just factual errors or *creative* interpretation either — some of it is making ideological points ie that certain phrasings are gentrifier language

And I *dont* particularly care for her music

Something to consider...

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/an-urgent-message-from-the-wire-magazine

👍🏽

Eugene Robinson has an entertaining substack

This month's issue is a winner to me, good feature articles about artists I was vaguey aware of (David van Tieghem) and unaware of (Quinton Barnes) that immediately made me check them out. I feel like The Wire has gotten a lot more "readable" in the last decade or so, as opposed to the crew of aging Maoists in the early 2000s wre trying to shoehorn in their latest Theory reading into every article.

Raymond, if Boring and I made an experimental album called Latest Theory by Aging Maoists would you write it up?

Felt sad reading that msg :-(

boring, if thats the one with cosey fanni tutti on it, you can read one of my closest friends' writeup on smiqra (metal musician from china)

Oh, will go back—usually skip metal artcles

No wait I read it, it’s about the guy who sings in Ancient Greek?