Vancouver

Wire: Pink Flag (Pink Flag 11/ Revolver); Chairs Missing (Pink Flag 12/Revolver); 154 (Pink Flag 13/Revolver)

by Matt Goody

?In a hilarious scene from Michael Winterbottom’s recent film A Cock and Bull Story, actor Steve Coogan states that Laurence Stern’s novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, was post-modern “before there was anything to be post about.”

The same can be said about British “post-punk” band Wire. With Pink Flag, and their two follow up LPs, Wire was moving beyond punk just as punk was hitting big in 1977. Now, after years without a CD release, we finally have all three recordings re-mastered and repackaged, giving them the proper consideration they have deserved.

Few debut records had been more ambitious and powerful as Pink Flag was when it was released in December 1977, just months after the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks and the Clash’s first self-titled release. The album’s concise songs, with machine-like precision in percussion and intense driving guitars, signalled that the art school quartet wanted to both challenge traditional rock sounds and distance themselves from the supposed anti-pop principle of punk.

Wire clearly saw that beneath the supposed rebellious anti-commercial veneer of the Pistols lay a band that was assembled to sell records, yet they also were willing to show that they weren’t afraid to infuse pop into their music. With songs like “The Commercial,” the band coyly hints at the conspicuous consumption dominant in late-’70s culture by creating a 40-second snippet of a song. However, throughout the record, there is also a willingness to provide catchy hooks and danceable rhythms.

With Chairs Missing and 154, Wire branches off in several directions instead of sticking to what brought them success on their first record. As Sam Bloch of Stylus recently noted, Wire “have to move to stay alive,” infusing Brian Eno synths and vocal loops to break out of the one-minute punk song mode, while keeping the lyrical cynicism and mockery that dominated Pink Flag. The end of the ’70s was hard for some; some bands didn’t change and couldn’t survive. While Johnny Rotten was getting the feeling he’d been cheated, Wire already knew that’s how things work, strapping their guitars on their backs and surging forward in brave new directions.

Billy Bragg: Volume 1 Boxset (Yep Roc Records)

“Sometimes it takes a grown man a long time to learn just what it might take a child a night to learn.” And with those lyrics on “The Passion,” Billy Bragg asserts himself as a writer of some of the most heartfelt, reflective, and romantic lyrics of any musician in the ’80s. Yeah, yeah, I know, he penned some great political material as well.

Yet, with every band sporting a hit single to their name getting the “best-of” treatment these days, it has only been in the last two years that Billy Bragg finally had his music put together in a proper compendium. We had the greatest hits CD, Must I Paint You a Picture, just over a year ago, and now we have the boxset for die-hard Bragg aficionados. Included in this nine-disc set are “Talking with the Taxman about Poetry,” “Spy vs Spy,” “Life’s a Riot,” and “Brewing up with Billy Bragg,” plus discs of rare B-sides and two DVDs containing rare live performances and interviews. Roc Records has given Bragg the all-star treatment on this set, but you can also purchase the individual CDs on their own (no DVDS though).

The boxset calls for reflection of Bragg’s writing and musical output. Over the years, he has developed a reputation as a left-wing activist, giving voice to the labour, human rights, and anti-war movements. These interests clearly come through in some of his more well-known songs like “There is Power in the Union” and “Between the Wars.”

Yet the songs with strong political conviction have often obscured the truly tender and passionate side of Bragg’s songwriting, which more often than not produced the best compositions. (Hear the amazing “Warmest Room” for evidence.) The songs about strength in the union and the idiocy of nuclear conflict are powerful, but pretty straightforward and not much of a step beyond Bragg’s idols, Guthrie, Seeger, and Ochs. Yet with the romantic ballads, the blunt and hard-nosed punk styling of the protest songs is stripped away to expose the tender excitement, fear, and awkwardness a young man experiences when he is in love or has his heart broken. Take “The Marriage,” where Bragg states, “Love is just a moment of giving, and marriage is when we admit our parents were right.” Too right Billy, too right.

This is not to say there is a wide gulf between the two main themes on the records. There is an overarching theme of conflict that pervades, centering on the difficult learning experiences of youth. At the most intimate moments, politics is still there, as in “The Warmest Room,” where he sits naked with a woman “with thoughts of lust and thoughts of power, thoughts of love and thoughts of Chairman Mao.” Finally, Volume I is a reminder of when musicians had a political conscience to fight for what they believed in. The fact that music veterans like Bragg and Neil Young have been the most vocal critics of the war in Iraq is a sign that maybe young musicians should use this boxset as a study guide on how to fight for what they believe in.

Black Heart Procession: The Spell (Touch & Go)

Clichéd as it sounds, Black Heart Procession has put a spell on me with this album, a dark and brooding release that achieves what the band has only hinted at on their previous records. While hailing from the sunny oceanside city of San Diego, BHP’s fifth release descends into dark seas to dwell on loss and unease. Depressing as it sounds—and I won’t shy away from the fact that there’s a real gloom that surrounds this release—there is a forcefulness and drive to the music that provides backgrounds to the lyrics to make it more atmospherically appealing and just keeps you from rummaging for the razor blades.

The stand-out track is clearly the first single of the record, “Not Just Words.” The piano and drums drive this track as it ruminates on a relationship gone wrong, where words and memories cannot be erased or cast aside. Singer Pall Jenkins laments the days’ passing as echoes persist, singing “days peel off and pass away, life souvenirs from a distant day.” While not a new topic in rock, the song has a genuineness to it that causes it to rise above the other lamenting break-up songs. Heart on its sleeve to be sure, but transfixing at the same time, The Spell marks the BHP’s most interesting release to date, finding beauty amongst the loss. Try this one.