One of the richest veins in Rock history reside from 1975 through 1985. There, music proliferated in a way that the previous times have not experienced. Not to disparage the music of the ‘late 50s, the embryonic ’60s, and the ‘teen years’ of the early ’70s, but when Punk created a dissension among listeners of Rock, you were either in or out, choosing to resist the evolution or to embrace it. After the brief of powerful display of Punk, there were bands who rode he Punk wave capitalizing on it’s cultural popularity. What some called “noise”, others found a new interest that propelled them into the next period, the next phase of actionable Rock and Roll. That new springboard genre was called Post-Punk. Whatever that meant to you, there is no denying that style of Rock was important.
One of those great Post-Punk bands (or Art-Punk, as you may have preferred), is a band known as Wire. With a formation in 1976, they quickly brought a stylistic sound to the hardcore punk, thus helping to create a strong and influential Post-punk landscape.
On May 18, watch for the reissue of three Wire classic albums that will be newly remastered, imbued with bonus tracks, and repackaged for CD, DD, and vinyl LP. The three albums include Pink Flag(1977), Chairs Missing (1978), and 154 (1979). All three sets will provide a grand book-style housing with 80 pages of goodness to attend to the music provided.
Not only will the multi-CD Special Editions be released, but also single CD remasters featuring the original album only. These will be released on June 22, as will the remastered vinyl LPs featuring the original albums. For DD, only the original album remastered will be released. To get the bonus tracks, you will have to get the Special Editions.
Wire’s previous release Silver/Lead, issued in 2017, reveals the band to be as original as ever.
Pink Flag will contain thirty-eight tracks, with the twenty-one originals, and a collection of seventeen B-sides, demos, and previously unreleased cuts:
CD1 (Original Album):
01. Reuters
02. Field Day for the Sundays
03. Three Girl Rhumba
04. Ex Lion Tamer
05. Lowdown
06. Start to Move
07. Brazil
08. It’s So Obvious
09. Surgeon’s Girl
10. Pink Flag
11. The Commercial
12. Straight Line
13. 106 Beats That
14. Mr. Suit
15. Strange
16. Fragile
17. Mannequin
18. Different to Me
19. Champs
20. Feeling Called Love
21. 12 X U
CD2 (Bonus tracks):
01. The Commercial
02. Mr. Suit
03. Pink Flag
04. Surgeon’s Girl
05. Field Day for the Sundays
06. 106 Beats That
07. Fragile
08. Reuters
09. Different to Me
10. Ex Lion Tamer
11. Mannequin
12. Champs
13. Start to Move
14. Ex Lion Tamer
15. 12XU (Mono Mix)
16. Mannequin (Mono Mix)
17. It’s So Obvious
Chairs Missing will be spread out over three CDs with forty-seven tracks. Fifteen originals, and a massive assortment of thirty-two bonus tracks of B-sides, singles, demos, and outtakes:
CD1 (Original Album):
01. Practice Makes Perfect
02. French Film Bleurred
03. Another the Letter
04. Men 2nd
05. Marooned
06. Sand in My Joints
07. Being Sucked in Again
08. Heartbeat
09. Mercy
10. Outdoor Miner
11. I Am the Fly
12. I Feel Mysterious Today
13. From the Nursery
14. Used To
15. Too Late
CD2 (Bonus Tracks: Singles, B-sides, Outtakes):
01. I Am the Fly (Single Version)
02. Dot Dash
03. Options R
04. Outdoor Miner (Single Version)
05. Practice Makes Perfect (Single Version)
06. Underwater Experiences (Advision Version)
CD3 (Demos):
01. Practice Makes Perfect
02. OhNoNotSo
03. Culture Vultures
04. It’s the Motive
05. Love Ain’t Polite
06. French Film Blurred (Version 1)
07. Sand in My Joints
08. Too Late
09. I Am the Fly
10. Heartbeat
11. Underwater Experiences
12. Stalemate
13. I Feel Mysterious Today
14. Dot Dash
15. French Film Blurred (Version 2)
16. Options R
17. Finistaire (Mercy)
18. Marooned
19. From the Nursery
20. Indirect Enquiries (Version 1)
21. Outdoor Miner
22. Chairs Missing (Used To)
23. Being Sucked in Again
24. Men 2nd
25. Another the Letter
26. No Romans
The third Wire release, 154, will be distributed in a 3CD SE that will add twenty-seven bonus tracks to the original’s thirteen tracks. 154 has long been considered the band’s masterpiece and is much darker in musical scope:
CD1 (Original Album):
01. I Should Have Known Better
02. Two People in a Room
03. The 15th
04. The Other Window
05. Single K.O.
06. A Touching Display
07. On Returning
08. A Mutual Friend
09. Blessed State
10. Once Is Enough
11. Map Ref 41°N 93°W
12. Indirect Enquiries
13. 40 Versions
CD2 (Bonus Tracks: Singles, B-sides, Outtakes):
01. A Question of Degree (Single Version)
02. Former Airline (Single Version)
03. Go Ahead (Single Version)
04. Our Swimmer (Single Version)
05. Midnight Bahnhof Café (Single Version)
06. Our Swimmer (2nd Length) [single Version]
07. Catapult 30 (Single Version)
08. Song 1
09. Get Down 1 + 2
10. Let’s Panic Later
11. Small Electric Piece
CD3 (Demos):
01. 40 Versions
02. Ignorance No Plea (I Should Have Known Better)
03. Blessed State
04. A Touching Display
05. The 15th
06. A Mutual Friend
07. Once Is Enough
08. The Other Window