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	WIRE

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PINK FLAG

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	154
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF13
Price:	$13.00	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	4/3/06
*1979's 154 represented the final tableau in Wire*'s Harvest released 70's Tripych and was the first Wire album to be released to a universal set of 5 star reviews from the British Rock Weeklies thus it represented the point when the British "pop culture establishment" publicly recognised Wire's primacy. "154* makes 95 percent of the competition look feeble" wrote Nick Kent in the NME ", "Wire are achieving a lot of things other-- and more recognised-- names have been striving for" wrote Chris Westwood in Record Mirror (a paper that had slagged off Pink Flag) "The album is a musical Tour de Force" wrote Jon Savage in Melody Maker. Many said it was the album that Bowie and Eno had failed to make with Lodger (as hinted in the RM review), it was on John Lennon's playlist. Without a doubt, even if record sales did not bear it out, Wire had "arrived". However in many ways 154 was getting plaudits accumulated over two years of intense progress. The album itself was more fractured than its predecessor and the band were considerably less united in making it. However, this shouldn't take away from the fact that it boasted moments of an assured originality very few, if any, contemporaries were touching and some very strong tunes! Thus it has remained the most popular 70's album amongst Wire fans (fans of Pink Flag include a lot of people who like no other Wire albums). 30-second MP3 excerpts: I Should Have Known Better Two People In A Room The 15th The Other Window Single K.O. A Touching Display On Returning A Mutual Friend Blessed State Once Is Enough Map Ref. 41 n 93 w Indirect Enquiries 40 Versions

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Chairs Missing
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF12
Price:	$13.00	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	4/3/06
*1978's Chairs Missing represented perhaps the biggest conceptual leap made during this period of Wire** and was widely misunderstood at the time yet it remains, to the band and production crew Wire's favourite 70's album. If Pink Flag proposed an almost cut and paste approach to deconstructing rock history Chairs Missing proposed something more radical, a definite futurism with much less influence from its antecedents. Chairs Missing was at once more stark and more lush than its predecessor and has exerted its own influence on the course of cultural history having laid down one of the earliest (if not the earliest) blueprints for the genuinely post-punk aesthetic. While not every reviewer understood the conceptual jump Wire had taken some did-- Geoff Barton in Sounds noted that the band "calculatedly conjure up an ambience that disturbs, disrupts and distorts" in his 5 star review, while Melody Maker similarly focused glowingly on the visible method "a knuckle fisted sense of construction wherein everything has a point and the point is made with concentrated economy". It is not surprising that such a constructivist approach was latched upon by an upcoming generation of musicians interested in process and new methodologies. As Wire toured in the North of Britain they were heartened to find that the most cutting edge of the new Northern bands, Cabaret Voltaire & Joy Division saw in them inspiration and common cause. Meanwhile the high regard in which the band was held in Düsseldorf's Art punk scene meant that they were a major influence on the German Neue welle scene. As the mid '00's progress and interest in post punk grows the significance of Chairs Missing grows also. The angular guitars of the current crop of post-punkers owe more to "Practice Makes Perfect" and "I am the Fly" than to "12XU" if the oft alluded to "Wire influence" is to be placed. And if a contemporary placement of the songs is sought then having "Outdoor Miner" as the opening track on the opening album of Germany's biggest selling newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung's Diskotek project charting the 1000 songs which built music history. 30-second MP3 excerpts: Practice Makes Perfect French Film Blurred Another The Letter Men 2nd Marooned Sand In My Joints Being Sucked In Again Heartbeat Mercy Outdoor Miner I Am The Fly I Feel Mysterious Today From The Nursery Used To Too Late

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Live At The Roxy, London - April 1st & 2nd 1977 / Live At Cbgb Theatre, New York - July 18th 1978
Format:	2xCD	Catalog Number:	PF9-10
Price:	$21.50	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	11/6/06
*Very few deliberate live recordings of Wire** exist from the '70s. Board recordings and bootlegs aside, only three full live sets were put to tape in the early years with any aim other than archival use. The first, Live At The Roxy, was recorded over two consecutive nights at London's Roxy Club in early April, 1977. The CBGB set was captured at the New York club's auxiliary theater in '78 for a radio broadcast. These recordings were released only once before, on the limited WIRE: 1977-1979 boxset, available mailorder-only from the group's website. A third performance, taped at WDR's Studios in Germany in '79 for the Rockpalast TV show, can be heard as part of the CD+DVD package On The Box: 1979. The '77 shows presented on disc one feature the "classic" four-piece lineup making their debut in front of the world -- or at least the half dozen or so who turned up to see the opening act of a "Punk Festival" in a club that held a hundred people max. The '78 recording on the other hand depicts a band hardened from extensive touring to promote their first album Pink Flag and fresh from the studio, having just finished their second Chairs Missing. Recorded for the now defunct WPIX, the songs on disc two document one of the handful of gigs they played on their first and only trip to the US in 1978. 30-second MP3 excerpts: The Commercial Mary Is A Dyke Too True Just Don't Care Strange Brazil It's So Obvious Three Girl Rumba TV Straight Line Lowdown Feeling Called Love NYC After Midnight 12XU Mr Suit Glad All Over The Commercial Mary Is A Dyke Too True Just Don't Care Strange Brazil It's So Obvious Three Girl Rumba TV Straight Line Lowdown Feeling Called Love NYC After Midnight 12XU Glad All Over Mr Suit Men 2nd Reuters 106 Beats That From The Nursery Dot Dash Another The Letter Practice Makes Perfect Marooned I Am The Fly Lowdown Mercy Outro

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	On The Box
Format:	CD+DVD	Catalog Number:	PF07DVD
Price:	$19.50	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	9/27/04
**Beyond a few seconds of snatched performance, a micro-interview on Tony Wilson's precursor to So It Goes,* and a couple of mime-alongs on Belgian TV, there is no footage of Wire from the '70s beyond one item. Luckily it has been preserved. British viewers never got to see a live performance of Wire on their tellies, but Alan Bangs, who had the late night show on British Forces radio in Germany, crossed over to German-speaking media and by early 1979 was a presenter on RockPalast, an hour-long studio concert slot on WDR, already established as Germany's most important "serious" rock music show. Wire were old sparring partners of Bangs, appearing on his radio show every time they were anywhere near Cologne. Although 15th generation VHS copies of the screened parts of this performance have been making the rounds for many years, this DVD is the first time that the complete performance and the never-screened interview have been brought together. The combination of video digitally cloned from the broadcast master and freshly mastered audio eclipse the rogue dubs completely and permanently. You are now free to record over the nefarious bootlegs. Track listing: 1. Introduction 2. Another the Letter 3. The 15th 4. Practice Makes Perfect 5. Two People in a Room 6. I Feel Mysterious Today 7. Being Sucked in Again 8. Once is Enough 9. Blessed State 10. A Question of Degree 11. Single KO 12. Mercy 13. 40 Versions 14. Former Airline 15. A Touching Display 16. French Film Blurred 17. Men 2nd 18. Map Ref. 41N 93W 19. Heartbeat 20. Pink Flag Wire performing live on German TV, Valentine's Day 1979, definitive, legitimate, essential DVD-- over 77 minutes Audio CD-- 58 and change (same material as DVD minus the interview) All material from the Chairs Missing/154era, recorded right between the two Packaged in a CD-sized double digipack 30-second MP3 excerpts: Introduction Another the Letter The 15th Practice Makes Perfect Two People in a Room I Feel Mysterious Today Being Sucked in Again Once is Enough Blessed State A Question of Degree Single KO Mercy 49 Versions Former Airline A Touching Display French Film Blurred Men 2nd Map Ref. 41 N 93 W Heartbeat Pink Flag

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Pink Flag
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF11
Price:	$13.00	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	4/3/06
*Usually contextualised against a backdrop of 2 years of the growing cultural importance of punk rock-- Wire's debut Pink Flag*, released in December 1977 on EMI's progressive label "Harvest" was in fact was something "other". To the keen cultural commentator the timing and label of its release will register two essential facts about it. Firstly, too late (a year after the Pistol's debut release) to be part of UK punk's first flush and secondly that the band were signalling something beyond punk by their choice of label. Further investigation would reveal 21 tracks, some of them clocking in at well under a minute and covering a range of tempii well beyond the buzzsaw rockabilly that had become, even by the 2nd half of 1977, punk's staple. Wire in fact proposed a form of expression which drew on formal structures taken from historic styles of rock & pop (including punk) but somehow subverted those structures by maintaining a sense of controlled distance from the form. A kind of modernist deconstructed rock made in what seemed at the time to be an almost mechanically precise way . Reviewers were quick to point up the differences between Wire & their contemporaries "Wire strike a marvellous course mechanical vein. No solos, just robot rhythm guitar, robot bass, robot drums and robot singer" wrote the NME in a typical series of back handed compliments which has the reviewer nervous of the "awkwardness" in the styling yet won over by the tunes. In fact some of the UK music press were not slow recognise the album's potential for a longevity the band, even in their wildest fantasies, could not have predicted. "The album has a scale and feel of its own-- totally unique. I can't recommend it enough. It's not like anything you've heard and it'll leave its mark for a long time" write Dave Fudger in Sounds.* As a "new wave" band signed to a major label Wire were one of the very few contemporary Brit bands to see national US release. Whereas a British music fan would be spoiled for choice for new bands to choose from those in the US who did not have access to import stores were very limited in their choices regarding the new sound from the UK. Pink Flag began a process of seeping into US alternative culture through the process of national availability and a sound that was at least somewhat new to US ears compared to its UK contemporaries. It took a while for this to work through but by the early 80's Wire's minimalist approach had been taken up as a major influence on the US hardcore scene in LA, DC and Chicago. It seemed that the innately oppositional nature of Wire's rock deconstruction was more profoundly subversive amongst a nation of Rock Orthodoxy. Whereas the Ramones on their debut had joyously reduced rock history to a kind of 3 chord bubblegum speedcore the aim had been to celebrate and re-enforce rock's history and orthodoxies, Pink Flag had less charitable designs on the body rock and the hardcore guys innately knew it. A wave of influence spread through the US 80's indie scene starting with Black Flag and Mission of Burma and spreading through Big Black and on out to the likes of REM and the Pixies. This took Pink Flag's iconic afterlife well into late 80's. Then the influence shifted back to the UK. While the Americans saw Pink Flag as deconstructed rock a new generation of Brits were to receive it as deconstructed, critical pop. The Britpop boom of the 90's saw Wire in general and Pink Flag in particular held up as an influence and more on bands who were hugely popular. While Blur and Oasis slugged it out in 60's revival territory Menswear and most famously Elastica were mining seams of pure Wire. In the way those things work while the majority didn't know that "Connection" or the theme from Trigger Happy TV were direct steals from Pink Flag's "3 girl rumba" the cogniscenti of another generation could knowingly muse on the Wire connection. Songs from Pink Flag have received covers versions from an impressive list of artists across every musical generation since the mid 70's. The album has been cited by countless artists as an inspiration and source, making many a thoughtful music magazine's all time lists. Amongst other things it has also been the subject of a conceptual prank performance by the Ex-Lion Tamers and stands iconic as the blueprint for art house rock. "a direct expression of the determinedly enquiring, art school sensibility in England" wrote Michael Bracewell in Art Review, May 2005, nearly 28 years after the album's initial release. The magazine simply describing Wire as "the Art world's favourite band" 30-second MP3 excerpts: Reuters Field Day For The Sundays Three Girl Rumba Ex-Lion Tamer Lowdown Start To Move Brazil It's So Obvious Surgeon's Girl Pink Flag The Commercial Straight Line 106 Beats That Mr Suit Strange Fragile Mannequin Different To Me Champs Feeling Called Love 12 X U

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Read & Burn 03
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF16
Price:	$9.50	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	11/5/07
*Read & Burn 03* is the first Wire release featuring entirely new material since 2003's Send. Along with the re-launch of Wire's official website, http://www.pinkflag.com, this 26-minute mini-album signals the stage-by-stage re-activation of the legendary and influential band as a recording and live entity. Read & Burn is the R&D series representing the state of Wire's art right now. Wire continues to evolve and offers here the fresh fruits of its latest development. It should be noted that tracks from Read & Burn 03 will not be included on the next album-- to follow in the later half of 2008. 30-second MP3 excerpts: 23 Years To Late Our Time No Warning Given Desert Diving

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	The Scottish Play
Format:	CD+DVD	Catalog Number:	PF8
Price:	$21.50	Label:	Pink Flag
Release Date:	5/9/05
*Honed to a fine performance edge from their live European forays early in 2004, Wire** present their fierce, high-velocity set based around their successful album Send, their first album in over a decade, which marked a return to their trademark gimlet, shivved, short sharp shocked writing style. Filmed by visual artist Tom Gidley in forensic detail, this document shows the band's complete visceral set at The Triptych Festival in Glasgow, April 30, 2004. The footage deliberately excludes the usual rock music celebration of place and time and instead concentrates on contact with a band often misrepresented as enigmatic, cold and distant. Also included only on the DVD is a bonus selection of four pieces (captured by Observation Camera #1) of the second half of Wire's April 2003 Flag:Burning performance/installation at the Only Connect Festival at The Barbican, London. The set by avant stage designer Es Devlin was specifically commissioned by WIRE for this one-off performance. Based on the same body of work as the performance at Triptych, this is Wire seen from the other end of the telescope, willingly surrendering their personal performance to the service of the machinery of a unique, complex theatrical spectacle in a manner rarely allowed in the rock world. Live DVD / CD set featuring two outstanding festival performances filmed in 2004 Companion piece to 2004's On The Box: 1979 live DVD release 30-second MP3 excerpts: 99.9 Germ Ship Mr. Marx's Table 1st Fast Read & Burn The Agfers Of Kodack Comet In The Art Of Stopping Spent I Don't Understand Strange 106 Beats That Surgeon's Girl Pink Flag 15. 1st Fast* 16. Comet* 17. Spent* 18. I Don't Understand* *DVD only tracks

PINKFLAG

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Object 47
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF17CD
Price:	$13.00	Label:	Pinkflag
Release Date:	7/7/08
**In the five years since the May 2003 release of their last ful-length album, Send,* Wire has expounded, reviewed, contracted, lain dormant, recovered, expanded, and shed an old skin and grown a new one. Wire is not the same as it was before-- but then Wire is never the same as it was before... *Object 47* (the 47th object in their discography) is nonetheless only Wire's eleventh studio album. It is the second product of an arc of work that began in 2006 and has so far yielded the rather well-received EP Read And Burn 03 (from which no tracks appear on Object 47), and stands as a confident statement of where Wire is in 2008-- as ever, looking forward! While retaining Wire's idiosyncratic mix of an avant-garde mindset with classic pop timing, this album boasts "tunes with zoom," a unique formula that somehow manages to sound wholly Wire (in a classic sense) and wholly contemporary. Object 47 is available on CD and vinyl through conventional distribution and in a special vinyl edition via mail-order only. Additionally, Pink Flag is making available, well ahead of the album release, a free download of the track "One of Us" exclusively through pinkflag.com. Wire will play festivals throughout Europe and tour USA in October. Check pinkflag.com for details. "The time is right for Wire, right now. Welcome them again, they've come back to save you." --Charles Inskip, Artrocker "With Wire, it pays to expect the unexpected." --The Wire 30-second MP3 excerpts: One Of Us Circumspect Mekon Headman Perspex Icon Four Long Years Hard Currency Patient Flees Are You Ready? All Fours

Artist:	WIRE	Title:	Send
Format:	CD	Catalog Number:	PF06
Price:	$13.00	Label:	Pinkflag
Release Date:	4/28/03
***The number of groups surviving punk's first blast still able to ply their trade with heads aloft and consciences clear can be counted on the fingers of one hand, with three digits to spare. WIRE is one of them. Send is their first full length album of new music in over a decade, and contains eleven examples of their most caustic and brutally compelling output in twice that time. 2002 saw the four original members return to the shot-blasted immediacy and stylistic minimalism of their very first material with the release of the six-track Read & Burn 01 primer, a critically lauded set received with many effusive verdicts that continues to sell strongly. Roof-raising tours of the UK, Europe and the USA have won over a whole new audience, culminating in a series of strong showings in the end-of-year lists--a Top 25 record on CMJ radio chart; appearances in Mojo's 2002 Top 40, John Peel's Festive 50, The Wire, the L.A. Times Top 10; and a prestigious debut in Artforum (picked twice in music and once in fine art!). Send contains four completely unheard new pieces, four taken from the mailorder-only Read & Burn O2, and three from Read & Burn O1. It will be supported in Europe by Wire's first large-scale performance in London in over three years, headlining the Barbican Art Centre's Only Connect Festival in April (where they plan to play consecutive sets of their seminal Pink Flag album in its entirety followed by Send in track-by-track order), and selected festival appearances and radio sessions for John Peel & XFM. In the USA, Wire will grace All Tomorrow's Parties at UCLA in June, plus further special performances in New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

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