Wire
 

I wouldn't even hesitate to say that Pink Flag was the best punk album to come out of '77 and I dare say the most influential if you look at overall impact rather the years immediately afterward. Wonderfully awesome post-punk band that doesn't get enough recognition.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...nter/EGG04.png

I think Chairs Missing just edges out Pink Flag.

Outdoor Miner is one of the greatest pop song ever written

Chairs Missing does have some great pop gems on it, but it lacks the angular intensity of Pink Flag. I don't know, I think some of the songs on Chairs Missing fall a bit flat, whereas all the songs on Pink Flag are immediate, and I think the songs on Chairs Missing sometimes try a bit too hard to come off as "dark."

I was listening to 154 for the first time in ages today

f*ck me, thats one f*cked up album.

Pink Flag is a masterpiece. Mannequin is my favorite song, and fIREHOSE did a sweet ass cover of it too.

I have Chairs Missing, I'm gonna go listen to that soon.

Pink Flag
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xdxlqn

I told ethan I'd up a while ago and well, there it is.

yeah i only have pink flag, love it though.

I'd given up hope.

i agree with urbz, chairs missing is a better album in my opinion. i love this band.

No denying it's an amazing album, I find Pink Flag more appealing because the members were not that instrumentally competent at that time meaning they had to rely more on creativity and cleverness, than just playing well. Ultimately, I found Pink Flag more seminal than Chairs Missing was.

this music has kind of a stoned groove to it, but the lyrics and singing seem incredibly juvenile

are we listening to the same band?

Been listening to Pink Flag again in a while, and it still manages to blow me away.

Pink Flag is one of the best albums ever made.

Chairs Missing is incredible, almost as good.

154 has some amazing moments, but some dull **** as well. Still a great album.

Really awesome band.

Wire are simply an incredible band. It annoys me that they aren't widely recognised for their greatness as well as their influence on a lot of the UK 'indie' rock around today.

Finally found my copy of Pink Flag.

God how i've missed this album.

it's so brilliant, there's not a weak song on there

I love Strange soooo much. This is yet another great band I do not listen to enough.

I can sort of see that about Chairs Missing.

Pink Flag is pretty awesome. I do love the sort of "screaming as we're about to do something movie-worthy like drive off a cliff" in the middle of the titular track.

I've only got Pink Flag myself (which I love, in spite of having not listened to it in an age or two). I've heard many a good word about 154 and Chairs Missing too, which I've been meaning to get for years.

This is a GREAT band. Pink Flag and Chairs Missing are unbelievably good albums, and Chairs Missing is SO ahead of its time that it just ain't fcking funny.

This would be better served in the rock section though, where more people might actually read it and take an interest.

They're not a rock band though, theyre punk/post-punk

Pink flag is superb, each song is a little bundle of energy and aggression bursting at the seams.

Chairs missing is more accomplished and more ambitious, but there really is no choosing between the two.

As I've argued before, broadly speaking, there's no compelling reason why punk should not be categorized as a style of rock music. As for post-punk, then it was post-punk as a movement that ended up becoming what was later known as 'college rock', 'alternative rock', 'new wave', even 'indie rock'. All those notions are rooted in punk music, yet they are called rock. And anyway, punk is often most commonly referred to as 'punk rock'. So to say that punk is NOT rock music is one of the most meaningless statements imaginable. To say that as a style it is not LIKE the other rock music of the mid-late 70s, that is true.

And especially when you start taking the more technically sophisticated 'punk' bands, like Television, the line becomes extremely blurry indeed. The average listener, if played Marquee Moon, would have no means of telling whether or not it should be called 'punk' or 'rock'. Same with Wire. Much of Chairs Missing is so well polished that one wouldn't even know whether it was made in the 70s or the 90s - and they certainly wouldn't be able to tell you if it was 'rock' or 'punk'.

Saying that, I appreciate that punk deserves its own section, but it's a pity that bands like this get practically no attention simply because they're in a quiet and much less visited part of the forum.

Pink Flag is my favorite. I bought all 3 around the same time, and thats the album I come back to most. However for awhile, Chairs Missing was my favorite. The thing to remember for those who aren't into it is, it's a grower. Pink Flag is very immediate, fast. They get the point across in every song, and each is so brief that there is little time for repetition. Chairs Missing tends to take a melody or chord progression and hang on to it much longer, the songs build up to these huge tense moments, rather than blowing past you.

And 154 is unfairly neglected I think. Granted it doesnt come close to the first two, but I think its just that the album isn't as consistent, considering it has more of my favorite songs than any other Wire album.

i think map ref is the only song on that album that really blows me away

I love your summary of Pink Flag. That's exactly what it is. Each song does what it's supposed to do, amazingly well, even if it's just 1 and a half minutes long e..g the second song?

Chairs Missing is a brilliant album which I have only recently been introduced to. It's a mazing how so many great albums slip under the radar. It's an album that will appeal to a wide range of fans and not just Post Punk fans.

My question about Wire:do they play stuff off of pink flag live? They were in my area recently, and I looked up the new stuff they have, and they got more electronic...

i've heard that they tend to stick to new material, which is unfortunate since i didn't really care for their newest album

i don't know the tide of UK 'indie' rock these days seems to have turned, although i think it's still pretty compulsory to name drop the Wires. they certainly had their fingers in the Britpop pie. by-produkt 01 -
YouTube - Elastica - Line Up

post-punk was more of an intellectual movement i think with a variety of sounds, the only reason 'Pink Flag' needed a 'post' tag in the first place was down to how quickly stupid punk fans pigeonholed it's 'principles'. Otherwise it'd be up there with the classic first wave punk albums

If ya take a listen to their more recent stuff i'm sure you'd be pleased as theyve come back from their experimental phase and jumped on the pink flag boat once again. I've been listening to Wire for quite some time and finally got to see them play twice here in this ****ty city, along with Mogwai which is quite something for us out here in pittsville... Ohhhh ya, they're back in form. And the comment about the greatest punk album is dead on, they never sold out or nothing, lets keep it that way but support em simultaneously.

I've decided recently that Pink Flag is probably my favourite album of all time. Everything about it just strikes the perfect chord with me, I could listen to it over and over and I'd always have an awesome time. It's perfect, I couldn't really express how I feel when listening to it, everything is so exciting. Just mindblowing to me.

i guess i started listening to it almost five years ago when i was a sophomore in high school and it's still just as awesome. not a lot of records i can say that for.

I'm with you, Pink Flag takes is the best album by Wire without question!

I have been a fan for years! lowdown, 1,2XU all great stuff!

I always considered "Pink Flag" Wire's punk record. Not a stereotypical punk band and obviously seriously constrained by the simplicity of the genre, Wire quickly evolved out of it during this record. I characterize the music as fast, minimal rhythmic anthemic punk, peppered with indie sounding slower noise rock riffs, and tempo changes. "Strange", one of the longer cuts on the album, draws from "Sister Ray" (the Velvet vibe was apparent in many future indie bands) and redoes it in a more minimal (believe it or not) and slower style. This is brilliant punk/post-punk/rock chit.

Wire
 

This is my first post on this forum so what better band to discuss then Wire? Any way, admittedly I'm a fairly new fan. I've had Send for a few years and have within' the past year finally picked up Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 all of which are the most recent remastered CD's. I bought Pink Flag and Chairs Missing at the same time and love both but am definitely more engaged to Chairs Missing for the obvious reason that it doesn't sound like any other album I can think of. I've only had 154 for a couple of weeks but already I'm tempted to call this my favorite of the four albums that I own. I realize Send isn't generally considered as grand as the first three albums but honestly I think I like it better than Pink Flag at least at this point. Don't get me wrong the debut album is really good but I find the less straight forward approach of the later albums. What are their other albums like? Also if any one can suggest a band with a similar sound it would be most appreciated. I have mixed feelings about the term "alternative" considering how much it was maligned during much of the nineties but this to me is the epitome of an "alternative" band.

It's been several months since I last listened to Pink Flag, but when I listened to it last night... I have to say it is still fantastic.

Pink Flag is OK but their third album "154" from 1979 is their best.

And they're still going strong - saw them live in February and their latest album "Red barked tree" is certainly worth a listen....