10:20

After being without a turntable for approximately eighteen years, I fixed that problem.

The first few days with the new turntable were spent listening to old albums. The Lords of the New Church. Still Falling. Devo. Depeche Mode. Motörhead. Run DMC. Black Flag.

The first vinyl album I bought in twenty-four years was 10:20 by Wire.

—

10:20 is a beautiful piece of art.

It was originally intended as a Record Store Day release, but then a global pandemic got in the way. The band decided to release it as a "regular" album rather than a limited edition RSD offering.

Side one (10) consists of four tracks recorded in 2010 with then new guitarist Matthew Simms and touring guitarist Margaret Fiedler McGinnis. 

Side two (20) consists of four tracks recorded in 2020. 

All of the tracks are studio versions of favorite live tracks of the band members. Reimaginings of reimaginings.

—

10

Track 1 > "Boiling Boy"
Originally appearing on A Bell Is a Cup...Until It Is Struck (1988) the tempo of this track is faster here. Robert Gotobed's metronomic drumming on cymbals for the first half, joined later by snares, as well as the bass line really propel this song. Gritty guitar noodling in the latter half replaces vocals for a wonderful mirroring effect.

Track 2 > "German Shepherds"
This is my favorite version of "German Shepherds," which had its first proper album appearance on It's Beginning to and Back Again (1989). I'm in love with the interplay of voices between Colin and Margaret.

Track 3 > "He Knows"
One of Wire's "quieter" tracks, the lyrics are so surreal that I'm not quite sure what's going on. And that's okay, because Colin's delivery over the ever-increasing-in-volume instrumentation, until it mostly drops out into some beautiful sound washes and shifts to Graham's voice leave us, as they sing over and over, "hypnotized."

Track 4 > "Underwater Experiences"
The most punk-leaning track of the album, this is a bit more discordant than the first recording as found on live album Document and Eyewitness (1981).

— 

20

Track 5 > "The Art of Persistence"
A "soft" and lilting pop track that could have easily found its way onto Mind Hive (2020), this is the first proper recording of it, with the exception of it's "demo" appearance on the rare The Third Day EP which was only sold at one particular tour.

Track 6 > "Small Black Reptile"
The original track appeared on Manscape (1990) in a "squishy" and slow mechanical rendering. With this reinvention of the song, Wire have managed to humanize it and make it more relatable and accessible.

Track 7 > "Wolf Collides"
This is the first appearance of "Wolf Collides." Once again, this feels like something akin to tracks on either Silver/Lead (2017) or Mind Hive (2020). It's a pop tune that has enough meddling with minor chords to pull us in and then push us back. And I'm okay with that ebb and flow of music and lyrics. It's a really beautiful track.

Track 8 > "Over Theirs"
There is a drone that anchors this track, credited to guitarist Matthew Simms. It reminds me a bit of the guitar squall that Helmet guitarist Page Hamilton created for the Wire track "All Fours" on Object 47 (2008). It originally appeared on The Ideal Copy (1987) and then in a fairly similar version on IBTABA (1989). There's an extra tinge of paranoia in this new version. They also play it at a much slower tempo. I like it a lot!

MIND HIVE

Mind Hive, Wire's seventeenth studio album was released on 1/24/2020. My copy arrived in the mail today, so I settled in with my stereo after work to listen to it and take some initial notes.

---

Track 1 > "Be Like Them" I'm surprised by the opening since it defies my expectations of Wire. It has an Asian flavor countered by growling guitars.

Track 2 > "Cactused"
First single. What I think of as the classic sound of Wire when I consider all of the albums after Send. There's a perfectly wiggly guitar riff that anchors this track, as well as Colin's robotic delivery on vocals. A bit of menace lurks in the lyrics.

Track 3 > "Primed and Ready"
Second single. I hear an echo of "Being Sucked in Again" from Chairs Missing, which then gives way to a beast all its own. Drums and bass really propel this forward.

Track 4 > "Off the Beach"
Jangly guitar. Upbeat music. Driving beat. And then the lyrics sink in because they don't fit the mood of the music. They are paranoid, somber, sad in their "embrace" of modern capitalistic society.

Track 5 > "Unrepentant"
Slow. Dreamy. Something that feels like it came from one of Colin's early solo albums. Percussive bass and guitar as cymbals mix with keyboard washes. Strangely beautiful in its electronic waves. Is this what it's like to be swallowed whole by some strange beast? Nice electronic noodling at the end.

Track 6 > "Shadows"
This album's ballad? Sparse and sprawling instrumentation allows the semi-whispered lyrics to standout. Simple and haunting.

Track 7 > "Oklahoma"
The odd hurdy gurdy leading into the shout of "Oklahoma!" throws me off-kilter. The throb of bass, guitar, and drums interrupted by the synthesizer chirps keeps me there. In its three-minute run I couldn't count how many times the song shifts in tone. Yet it doesn't really. Intriguing. Funky, thrilling, and threatening.

Track 8 > "Hung"
Car alarm dirge. This song feels like a sneer. It scares me a bit. "In a moment of doubt, the damage was done." Indeed. (Cousin to "Sleep-Walking" and "Harpooned" on Wire?) Feedback and drone for the finish. At the end: Are those vocals? Machinery? Blend of both?

Track 9 > "Humming"
Off to church we go. Another ballad? A song about memory that seems to mirror what it's grasping at with the tone of the music. The shift from Colin's vocals to Graham's brief vocals at the end is slightly jarring but it works.

---

Overall, Mind Hive is a much quieter album than I expected. It also feels like a(nother) "leap forward" in what a Wire album can encompass. The current lineup has really caught their stride here. Brilliantly familiar even as it isn't. Perfect.

WIRE at NEUMO'S

Early in the concert.

[1] "Blogging" • Wire
[2] "Joust & Jostle" • Wire
[3] "Silk Skin Paws" • A Bell Is a Cup Until It Is Struck
[4] "Boiling Boy" • A Bell Is a Cup Until It Is Struck
[5] "Mekon Headman" • Object 47

---


Graham Lewis and Colin Newman both on the mic.

[6] "Burning Bridges" • Wire
[7] "High" • Wire
[8] "In Manchester" • Wire
[9] "Sleep-walking" • Wire
[10] "Shifting" • Wire

---


Playing "Stealth of a Stork. The bass and guitar attack rattles the camera!

[11] "Stealth of a Stork" • Change Becomes Us
[12] "Split Your Ends" • Wire
[13] "Octopus" • Wire
[14] "Blessed State" • 154
[15] "Swallow" • Wire

---


Playing "Harpooned."

[16] "Harpooned" • Wire
encore
[17] "Brazil" • Pink Flag
[18] "Adore Your Island" • Change Becomes Us
[19] "Used To" • Chairs Missing

---

Wednesday 27 May 2015. Wire at Neumo's of Seattle. 1 hour, 35 minutes of pure art-punk sonic assault. Founding members Colin Newman (vocals, rhythm guitar); Graham Lewis (bass, vocals); and Robert Grey (drums) were joined on stage by new lead guitarist Matthew Simms.

---

Having seen Wire in concert twice before, in May 2000 and September 2002, both at the Showbox, and both with original lead guitarist Bruce Gilbert, I was really intrigued for what the band would bring to this venue. First, they owned the room. Second, I was glad I brought earplugs with me. I needed them on quite a few of the songs to help limit the blast my ears took. Third, Matthew Simms is a completely different guitarist from Bruce Gilbert, even though he can get similar sounds out of his instrument. Bruce was insular and tended to turn away from the crowd and almost meditate on his guitar. Matthew faced the audience, was almost manic at times, and occasionally "threw" his guitar around to achieve some of the dissonant whale song and squall that the songs required. It was beautiful to watch.

On top of that, Robert, Graham, and Colin were in the finest form that I've seen them. They were loose and focused, confident and carefree, and they played with fervor and abandon. Robert is a human metronome; he kept the beat and kept the band together as they ran over the crowd. Colin obviously enjoys his role as lead vocalist; he is the showman of the group. Graham revels in the songs he gets to sing lead vocals on; and "Mekon Headman" and "Blessed State" made that clear.

---

Since Matthew Simms is now a full-fledged member of the group, and Wire's fourteenth studio album (the eponymously-named Wire) sees him included in the songwriting rather than as touring guitarist or hired hand, it made sense that the show was heavily weighted toward the new album. I was surprised that they played the entire album, however. It was a pleasant surprise.

---

The other surprise was when they started in with "Silk Skin Paws." Many of the twenty-somethings, who had been bobbing their heads along to the Wire material, seemed unfamiliar with it and fellow A Bell Is a Cup track "Boiling Boy," which were staples of my early twenties.

---

All in all, it was a wonderful evening with my all-time favorite band. I almost didn't go. I am really glad that I did.

OBJECT 47

"One of us will live to rue the day we met each other."
—from "One of Us" by Wire, as found on the album Object 47.

---

For the record, I must state that I am a Wire fan.

---

My first listen to material from Wire's Object 47 album was the free download of "One of Us." I knew that Bruce Gilbert, Wire's guitarist had left the band after more than thirty years with the band. I tried to keep that from influencing how I felt about the song, but couldn't. It felt like something was missing, although I wasn't sure if it really was or if I was grieving a loss.

---

When I went out to seek the album, no local brick-and-mortar store had it in stock. Wall of Sound in Seattle told me that they would order some and have them in a few days. That worked out perfectly since I would be back in a week for another session of my writing group.

When I returned I didn't see Object 47 anywhere, so I inquired about it. The clerk told me that he had already sold out of the few he had ordered and that "you wouldn't want it anyway because it sounds like all of their '80s stuff." What? You turned down a guaranteed sale due to your aesthetic judgment of the album. Needless to say, I will never shop at Wall of Sound again.

So I trudged up to Everyday Music on Broadway with the help of my trusty cane. They had three copies in stock and no objections to my buying it. In fact, their clerks seemed generally happy that I was buying an album, and one of them even asked me my general opinion of Wire.

---

There are Wire fans, of which I am one, and there are Wire snobs, one of which the Wall of Sound clerk was.

Wire fans like all of the periods of Wire's creative output—Mach I: 1976-1980, mostly punk and post-punk; Mach II: 1985-1992, pop and dance-floor tracks, along with a lot of experimentation; Mach III: 1999-2004, a return to their punk roots, very loud and abrasive; and Mach IV: 2006 to present, a mature sound that encompasses everything that went before, including the myriad of offshoots and solo projects. Wire snobs are stuck in the Mach I period and seem to have disdain for anything else. Some of them will also admit to liking Mach III period Wire, while others will not.

The Wire snobs are really the ones that lose, especially since Wire themselves is always trying to change their sound, challenge themselves, remain dynamic and vital. Wire snobs are static, stagnant.

Object 47 is definitely not for them.

---

Track 1 > "One of Us"
If there were still such a beast in existence, this would have been the first single of the album. Wire released it as such on their own Pink Flag website, as well as their MySpace page. The bass guitar and drums really drive this pop track with dark lyrics. This is classic Wire, even with the absence of Bruce Gilbert.

Track 2 > "Circumspect"
This is a slow Beatlesque track that shows the influence of the Beatles upon Wire. It slows the tempo down before it takes off again in the next track.

Track 3 > "Mekon Headman"
This track either samples from or lifts a riff from "Outdoor Miner" on Wire's second album Chairs Missing, which seems appropriate since "Outdoor Miner" is probably one of the most covered Wire songs. The echo is more sophisticated than that, but the borrow is completely in keeping with the games that Wire plays with both its lyrics and instruments. Another great game in "Mekon Headman" is the backward sampled guitar lines. The vocals may also be backward samples, although it is difficult to tell. It could just be Graham Lewis's delivery on this particular song is affected to sound as though backward. Some wild stuff.

Track 4 > "Perspex Icon"
Echoes of Colin Newman's solo album A-Z, which contains much of the material that would have been Wire's fourth album of the Mach I period, if the members of the band hadn't driven each other crazy. At first listen, I thought that Colin's wife, and oftentimes collaborator, Malka Spigel, was singing with him, but it appears not. Colin is just singing toward the upper reaches of his vocal range.

Track 5 > "Four Long Years"
Another song that sounds as though stolen from session tapes of a Colin Newman solo album, this time Or So It Seems. That is, until you really listen to it. Graham Lewis's filtered background vocals playing against Colin's lead vocals playing against Colin's background vocals, and all of it corralled by the cymbals of Robert Grey's drum kit, show it to be much more mature and complex than an album of twenty years ago.

Track 6 > "Hard Currency"
This is ready for remixing and then the dance floor. It is hypnotic. There is some kind of wild sound collage buried deep in the mix below drums, bass, guitar, and vocals. It rises up ever so briefly in the middle of the song. Try to catch Graham's quiet chanting, which may or not be part of the same murky layer.

Track 7 > "Patient Flees"
I think of this as the "drunken Western soundtrack." It takes slow, plodding, anxious steps as it approaches hangover at High Noon. Colin's "quiet" and "sung" verse vocals rub against his "loud" and "spoken" refrain vocals, which amplifies the tension that the band is trying to achieve with the music itself.

Track 8 > "Are You Ready?"
This is the requisite song of "questions" that seem to appear on most Wire albums, and are usually sung by Graham. This one is no different. It's pop sensibility and dance-friendly grooves would make it a likely candidate for remixing for the dance floor, the album's second single, or both. If some of the other tracks feel like they could have easily fit on Colin solo albums, then this is the one that could have easily been found on a Graham/He Said album.

Track 9 > "All Fours"
I get goosebumps every time I hear this track. It is loud and abrasive. The pulsing drone of guitar and bass and drum anchor the sound. Colin and Graham play off of one another's vocals. Page Hamilton (of Helmet fame) provides a feedback storm of guitar that is very similar to that of departed guitarist Bruce Gilbert's similar feedback storm on "Spent" from Read & Burn 01. This is the huge, over-the-top send-off for the album, shooting us skyward, taking us into orbit, as the layers and noise and controlled chaos increase. And then the brief, quiet beauty of breaking free of gravity's grasp hovers before us for a few seconds, until we are absolutely certain of our freedom and left floating in absolute silence.

---

Object 47 stands on its own as one of Wire's best albums, even with the absence of Bruce Gilbert. I would assume that my early fears were more grief than anything else.