'When Tomorrow Hits' - Wire 'Lowdown'

[Smallstone]

Got my hands recently on the 3 x recent Wire re-issues.
'Pink Flag', 'Chairs Missing' and '154'. Great albums all. Wire. Great band. Far too young to have noticed them 1st time round. They were making albums 1977-80. Then in late '80s (when I first heard them) and later in the 90s. Still sort of going now I think.
'Pink Flag' especially is a great record. Sure some of you here will have heard it. Lots of great tracks like 'Reuters', '12 x U' (Minor Threat used to cover that tune). Elastica nicked the riff (well song really) off of 'Three Girl Rhumba' for their hit 'Connection'. Wire were art school dudes from London who were sort of 2nd generation punks.... 77 and all that. But without the classic rock licks (like the Pistols and Clash etc).

Track 5 on 'Pink Flag' though. 'Lowdown'. Basically Mudhoney re-wrote it for 'When Tomorrow Hits' on 'Mudhoney' album (still my favourite Mudhoneyalbum I think...). Kinda a Spacemen 3 version. With extra fuzzzz It's great! I love that track. Folks should check out the song on Soulseek or whatever free sites y'all look at. Right at the end when Mr Arm sings 'thats a lowdown...'.
Have listen - then listen to 'When Tomorrow Hits'.
Not knocking 'em! Sorry just been listening to both records again and it makes me laugh ;D

[yoodooright]

i think mark said somewhere that they had never heard of that pink flag song when they wrote "when tomorrow hits". true or not, WTH fuckin rocks, and they totally made that riff their own. the wth/dead love is still one of the best record finales ever!!

oh yeah... i've probably said this before but--what's the deal with these reissues? digipacks and new liner notes but apparently the bonus tracks that graced earlier cd versions are now gone?? the band says they're happier this way, since now people can listen to their records as they had intended them to be... wtf?? sorry dudes, but i'll stick to my old cd's and i'll keep enjoying those extra tunes....

[Smallstone]

I didn't know the song when it first came out - but an older Wire-fan friend pointed it out to me at a show May 1989 - Portsmouth Polytechnic.....what a night!!).
You're right the WTH/Dead Love finale is pretty damn incredible - I'd love to see them do that again live. I will request it for ATP I think!
As for re-issues - yeah you get the original crap CD vesion with extra tracks, then 10 years later the deluxe digipack with no extra tracks. Ho hum.

Ok - here's a quote from Mark taken from an old Sounds interview - Nov 1989 re: When Tomorrow Hits.
"Its a sort of a Spacemen 3/ Wire/Stooges song. You see that bridge was the only thing in writing the song was intentional, had to be someone else's. Then as the song came in where we just hit the chords really hard, it was like, Oh man, it's Lowdown by Wire!!'

Genius!

[thorn]

who are they?? what do they sound like??

[Smallstone]

Like I said. Art school punk rock types signed to EMI in 1977. They sound..... well like Wire!!
Notorious for short songs. No flashy guitar breaks. Punks used to be getting up a head of steam pogoing then BANG song would stop.....
BIG influence on 'hardcore' - i.e. Minor Threat and the DC sound/bands.
As they 'progressed' sounded more - angular and dare I say it 'indie'.....
Brilliant band.

[brandnewface]

I would like to get more stuff from Wire, they sure rocked !