Wire Of The Tastiest Kind
Colin Newman and Graham Lewis, of the nearly living legendary beat combo Wire, are amiable, approachable guys who nonetheless make no attempt to hide their art-school backgrounds, throwing around aesthetic theories and references to Duchamp and who-knows-who-else with abandon.
Wire Of The Tastiest Kind
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Richard Grabel
Colin Newman and Graham Lewis, of the nearly living legendary beat combo Wire, are amiable, approachable guys who nonetheless make no attempt to hide their art-school backgrounds, throwing around aesthetic theories and references to Duchamp and who-knows-who-else with abandon.
And why not? Wire’s first three albums comprise a kind Of Holy Trinity of Art/ Punk. Pink Flag (1977), their first, took the rough and tumble rawness of Brit punk and opened it up with a cool, detached irony to create a brilliant and vicious new music.
Time and time again, on meeting and talking with the leaders of my favorite post-punk bands, I’ve found that they share my passion for this record. Bob Mould and the late, lamented D. Boon, for example, have both mentioned Pink Flag as a record that helped change their minds and their lives. Add in the members of R.E.M., the Feelies, Sonic Youth and just about any other bunch of thinking-man’s guitar-bashers into the list of those who cite Wire as a formative influence.
Colin Newman looks back at it this way: