I came to enjoy Wire relatively late. For some reason WDRE had started playing a single off their album A Bell Is A Cup Until It Is Struck, and I dug on it so much that I went out and bought the cassette from St. Mark's Sound in Greenwich Village. That was during a period in my life when I was spending almost all of my free time in a patch of land stretching from St. Mark's Place to Houston, from Second to Eighth Avenue. I still vividly remember some of the places I hung out in, almost all of them gone--the original Pluck U. Chicken Restaurant; the Horror and Science Fiction Video Store right next door; the Ritz (now Webster Hall...)
(Pluck U. was something of a local success story for a while--two NYU students who decided to start a fast food place next to their dorm. The food, specializing in very hot buffalo wings, was so good that they expanded to include several places throughout New York--only for the whole chain to implode save for one sad little remnant around 2005. The same thing happened to another place I love, Sabena's Sandwich Shops)I also remember being thrilled when Wire showed up in an issue of Savage Henry, Matt Howath's bizarre science fiction comic that kinda sorta can be seen as a precursor of Cowboy BeBop, with its storylines being informed by the music styles creator Howath loved. It was like, at least for this band, that Howath approved....
I know I haven't said anything about the song itself, and the reason is because it's unremarkable for Wire. I find it much more interesting in its purpose as a time machine for me--evoking its name has brought all these memories up, and that's more precious to me that a cool song....
But I'm sure tomorrow will bring a new musical rumination....
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