Reviews
Gomez
Split The Difference
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Add to del.ico.us.Review Date: 2004-12-06
When I think of the bands that really started the punk revolution, and the bands that are often cited as influencing so much music in today's modern day era. I genereally think of two bands The Clash, and The Sex Pistols. The Sex Pistols inlfuenced the more loud, rebellious, fuck authority type punk that you hear, and the Clash are the most obvious influence with the more melodic, groove filled, ska sounding punk. If you think about almost all punk bands can be traced in one direction. But, after having an opportunity to listen to "Pink Flag" by Wire. I have had to rethink my whole train of thought on this, I mean when I listen to Wire it seems to me that a lot of the bands I thought were influenced by the Clash might have been influenced just as much by Wire. The timeline makes sense, and the bands were debuting albums at around the same time. Wire never really reached the popularity, and have since faded away and generally aren't mentioned when talking punk music history. I found out about them the other day when I was reading a review for a DVD they had recently released, and so I got my hands on their debut album. And gave it a spin.
What I found was a band that kinda had the best of both worlds. The lyrics were grimey and the vocals were snarly and kinda reminded me of the Sex Pistols, but the backgrounds were catchy and had reggae and ska influences a lot of the time which was reminiscient of The Clash. It really sounds like the pre-cursor to the modern sound of a band like Rancid. Which up until hearing this album I usually traced back to The Clash. The songs are super short, like I am talking most of them in the range of a 1 minute to 2 and a half minutes at most. But then there is 22 songs on the album, which keeps going at a frenetic pace all the way through. Its a fun album, the kinda thing you could play at a party to get the energy up. But its also the kinda punk you can sing along too.
One of the highlights of the album and a cool conversation piece is the track "Three Girl Rhumba." Why is it a good conversation piece? Because throughout the entire song they use the exact guitar riff that drove Elastica's song "Connection". Download this song you'll know what I am talking about. So I googled it and turns out Wire successfully sued Elastica for big bucks for blatantly ripping off this riff. But guess what? The riff works well in this song as well. The vocals are really grungey, really reminds me of the vocals on Rancid or The Transplants. Grimey but still with able to carry a nice tune. The song lasts about 1:22 seconds, and is absolutely addictive for the entire time. That is the best part of these songs, there isn't much to them but there doesn't have to be because before they get old your onto to something new and fresh again.
One of the more aggressive punk tracks and one of the better tracks is "Mr Suit". This song finds the singer screaming, with some trademark background "oi oi oi oi" like background vocals. COmbine that with a power chord filled guitar part, and I challenge you to listen to this song without bobbing your head up and down and bouncing around. This is punk at its finest, a good punk song gets your head moving and pumps you up. It is that energy that drives the entire genre.
The title track "Pink Flag" is the only song of normal length on the album. Thus its the only one that has an elaborate introduction, and extended guitar solos. I like its inlcusion on the album though because without it neighsayers could hate on the length of the songs. Call it gimmicky or something. But with this song they prove they can do it both way. The catch line of the chorus of "How many dead or alive?" Is a great line for a punk song, and it fits the mood of the song which is intense. Around the 2 and a half minute mark the lead singer just keeps repeating "How many" again and again as the guitar reaches a fever pitch, and the back up vocalists start grunting and just bellowing out noise and the drum roll is pounding just as fast and furious and then everything quiets down to just the pitter patter of the drums and the track ends.
"Reuters" opens with an airy sounding guitar which brings to mind something you might expect to find in an U2 song. It picks up it pace as it repeats the riff over and over again before the rest of the band joins in. This song is just another example of a well crafted punk song. Bitching progressive guitar, and some awesome off key shouting vocals. I'm not really sure what type of accent the guy singing has, but I always find accents just add to the uniqueness of punk vocalists, and it really works for these guys. Dwayne hated it, and I am sure some people might find the accent annoying. But for me it makes the vocalist more unique and recognizable.
This album has definitely inspired me to investigate the Wire catalogue a bit more thoroughly. ANd it has educated me as well on my punk history. Maybe its a bit less cut and dry than the Clash and Sex Pistols followed up by the Ramones into the current punk era. I'm sure there are plenty more cool old punk bands like Wire. But for now I am going to add Wire to that list, and strongly recommend enrolling in a lesson in punk history and getting your hand on "Pink Flag". Its less than forty minutes of your life, trust me on this one and give the album a shot. You won't regret it.
Songs that you should download: "Reuters", "Three Girl Rhumba", "Ex Lion Tamer", "Start To MOve", "Surgeon's Girl", "Pink Flag", "Mr. Suit"
Score: 8.4
- Dan