Wire -- Change Becomes Us

Oh did I mention there's a new Wire album coming out of recordings of previously unrecorded/unreleased tracks?

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/14759-doubles-trebles/

Cool, I saw them last month and they were awesome...in a bold bit of futurism Newman was singing not from a lyric but an iPad

Bought the 'special edition' with a new book of the 'true story of Wire' over the years.

There *is* a good book about Wire, but a few issues were swerved around quite clearly.. "A serious of Snakes" was likened to a pub landlord kicking out punters at the end of the night "OK, you tulips, you pea braned earwigs..." which seemed to avoid the lines about somebody's "new god"...

Anyways, as part of the sale, I get entered into a draw to be part of the "Wire Guitar Orchestra" for some album premiere event, will let you know if anything happens there.,

Good luck on that one.

There's a lot of special editions of this new album, including a version for £1100 with a guitar. I wonder how many people will buy that.

Apparently, it's a limited edition of 1.

So, one. Or less...

But the guitar being sold isn't the guitar that Colin plays which is an Ovation Breadwinner. So is it just some random guitar that Colin has strummed "Outdoor miner" on and then handed over? Fair enough there being only one - I didn't see that on the website. Too busy laughing at a Wire cushion for £25.

That's a cushion with a Wire logo - not a cushion made of wire. That would be silly, it would be like a giant brillo pad.

OK, that album cover is definitely the Red Room in the Seattle Central Library via Koolhaas

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/tracks/14759/homepage_large.1959e7fe.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zQS6nfUbZ0E/R_O6nL1m5jI/AAAAAAAAABw/nZt8xEkiYyw/s320/Seattle+Library+red+room.jpg

I know someone who would proudly walk around with a Wire totebag.

They were selling Pink Flag ornaments when they first started the website

But no Wire menorah!

More info about the album, gigs and the guitar orchestra.

http://thequietus.com/articles/11145-wire-new-album-doubles-trebles

Anyway new interview

http://thequietus.com/articles/11686-wire-interview-strange-world

The Chuck Berry story = A+

Also, the album is great.

("Dot Dash Ding-A-Ling...")

"Route 154"

I'd say this is maybe my favourite Wire record since A Bell Is A Cup.

I like this but so far not gripping me like Red Barked Tree did.

I've yet to hear the new album but very excited by it, I loved "Red barked tree" and felt it was their best since "A bell is a cup" too,

On a Wire side-note, I was watching a show on Sky Arts called "London Calling", a four part series about the influence of different things on British rock - such as fashion, managers and art schools. The first show is about art schools and there are your typical talking heads on there - Morley, Savage, Reynolds - but also Colin Newman, discussing their disastrous Roxy Music support tour and other things. There's clips from their "Wire on the TV" Rockpalast show and also a more recent live show which seems to be a multi-camera 'recorded for TV' job - also shows Colin playing the Airline guitar that was on offer as a special edition of the new CD. Anyway, just a heads up if anyone is interested.

Anyone else going tonight?

only gave it one listen, but so far it's my favorite nu-wire release

I'm almost shocked by how 'commercial' "Love Bends" is: It could have been written by ALWebber for "Aspects of Love", put it that way...

It boasts the prettiest Lewis song since the...eighties?

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

how were they tonight, imago? (and you too, mark?) i saw them do a short collaborative set with teeth of the sea at cafe oto last night, and indeed someone's put a video of almost all of it online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIfnuPP8tfs

they were good. pink flag brancafest was fair astonishing. the album is a total tease - the art of stopping has never been so delicious. some really lovely mellower numbers, lewis' basslines are getting if anything even busier or 'metal' if you will. he has a wonderful stage presence. was wondering why for some songs he took off his sunglasses. mrs imago reckoned that he took them off for the more manic ones, which was probably true.

two songs in a row they pulled the same trick which was to sound like U2 in the verse and then obliterate all before them in the chorus - track 3 I think sounded grindcore if anything

last two songs very lovely indeed

was that Thighpaulsandra on keys? if so I am fucking stoked. gonna check that now

support act wasn't for me. sorry doran/team quietus.

i was the one heavily limping in a cardiacs shirt being heroically supported by his wife btw. bloody football. I DAMAGED A KNEE FFS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ0Cif1W_cM

No apology necessary! Glad you enjoyed the main event. I was working up in Manchester and missed every single event and a chance to play with them... gutted...

nice video, was that everything they did with the guitar orchestra? (i initially thought that to my great surprise they were doing the full album, don't look back style - p much the last band i'd expect to go down that route.)

(btw doran, did i see you in cafe oto on thursday afternoon?)

Who is that behind Lewis and is that Colin's white Ovation guitar he's playing?

You did indeed! Meeting up with the chaps from Incubate... they have a stellar line up for Tiburg this year.

this album is underrated

but the reviews are good!

professional reviews maybe.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/wire

but imo it's a better record than the previous two and as good as Send, but no one seems to notice.

it is nowhere even close to being as good as send

the opening track and reinventing yr 2nd wheel are brilliant (maybe time lock fog too) but the rest is merely good. penultimate track stands best chance of joining the above

doubles & trebles is pretty extraordinary, one of the songs of the year

It's a fine record but perhaps a bit too long. Doesn't hold a candle to "Red Barked Tree" however.

ok, the record is shit,sorry

Hey now.

lol

lol Send is my least favorite of the last four, a disappointment after the first R&B EP.

I'd say this one is as excellent as Red Barked Tree

Send is possibly one of my ten favourite albums of all time, dunno why but its cyberpunk onslaught entirely rides my groove

R&B 3 is just as good as Send, of course - since then it's been a case of equally good band, less consistency (or intensity) IMO

this is pretty incredible actually

"Art of Stopping" is incredible imo

art of stopping is one of my favorite songs to blast before going to play hockey fwiw

why did nobody else think of art of stopping first? it just seems like someone should have. but nobody did.

"I Don't Understand" is my favorite song from that era though.

The "Read and Burn" book and the deluxebook edition of "Change become us" has just arrived.

The book was advertised as "the truth about wire", as opposed to the previous Wire book which was fine but glossed over a few things the band obviously didn't want to talk about (also it's way out of date now).

And, of course, the first thing I looked up was the whole "Robert Grey" / "Gotobed" thing.

It Is Explained.

(The album is still great, btw. I might even say I like it more than the mbv album, but either way it's been a great year so far for albums)

I don't know whether or not I like it more than the MBV album, but I do like this album a lot. I agree that it's been a great year for albums so far... and we're still only in April! Definitely got stuck into more music this year than last.

Is anyone reading this book?

Slightly shocked at how much unresolved baggage there is between some of the members. It's good that the author doesn't pass over the gnarlier aspects of their inter band dynamics, the main beef seems to Newman and Gilbert, pop vs experimental.

They're both coming across kinda badly, Newman as a surly revisionist (similar to that Paul McCartney biog with his 'that song was 70% me and 30% John' assertions) and Gilbert as some self-reflexive avant kamikaze.

I am, literally, have it right here and am halfway through.

Basically, Wire = Gilbert and George and Paul McCartney.

boy this album is holding up well

"Love Unbends" is the latest earworm to burrow its way in.

*Love Bends

XXXXP - I'm just reaching the slightly depressing late 80's bit.

Great that Robert Gotobed is his *actual* name too right?

XXXXP - Also OTFM!

No, "Grey" is.

"Gotobed" is his family's historical original name, etc.

Still his family name though, not a punky affectation, is what I meant.

yes.

http://youtu.be/WrpVS7m3tX0

Pretty sure this is my favorite Wire since A Bell Is A Cup too

Loved the original material on Document and Eyewitness and Turns and Strokes, and they've done right by it here, digesting it through all of their approaches in the intervening time. "Zegk Hoqp" ->"Re-invent Your Second Wheel" in particular is a pretty amazing self-baton pass.

Creamy production too.

boy this is one of the year's best

Mark, how's the book? I saw it at the store today.

Yeah, still listening to this one Soto!

Book is pretty damn great.

Time Lock Fog is so goddamn amazing. That and the opener would threaten any Wire CD-80 I could make

The opener, well, for me it's "Ally in Exile" and alway has been and always will be.

Apart from that, hey yeah!

Should I see them live?
Who saw them recently and can report?

I saw them last month in Cambridge, MA. They were terrific, in the best mood I've ever seen, played a few new live cuts and all the new material sounded better in the live context. Go go go!

I will.
Thanks.

Seeing Wire on Friday so thought I'd play catchup as I hadnt heard anything post "Send". Wow, this album is a bit unexpected. I'm getting weird MBV/Ulrich Schnauss vibes in some songs, out of the strange, woozy way they've approached the production (esp on the vocals).

be curious to know what they end up playing! I saw them last year (I think) and they played a great cross-section of their 80s and latterday stuff (which all my pink flag devotee friends hated, but I was so happy to hear).

Yeah in 2011 they did a lot of old songs, much to my delight - I have a video of "Kidney Bingos" I filmed up on my YT channel.

But this production! I cant put my finger on what it is, but I like it. Very chorus/flangey?

This might just be ny favourite Wire LP. Yes, including the first three.

It's not far off/behind, no.

Got this on now and 'Time Lock Fog' sounds incredible to me right now - as does the whole album, really.

I love the way the intro to '& Much Besides' is dragged out to such a point where it lulls you into a relaxed state with its two dreamlike chords, before the vocals come in and rudely snap you out of it.