The Wire Magazine --- New Issue

I'm guilty of skimming the "Critical Beats" then putting it back on the shelf most of the time...

nothing unreasonable there!

Are white people who say "I don't like hip hop" yet listen to it when white people make it really saying "i don't like black people"?

That's the one still probably hanging around in some shops now. It's not one of his best pieces.

Perhaps it's time to revoke the canonical status of persistent underachievers such as Callahan and Will Oldham (don't even get me started on Iron & Wine and Bright Eyes) and banish them to ILX for good, diverting our attention more fulsomely towards artists with genuinely inquisitive approaches to traditional songform, whether this means James Blake and Jamie Woon or Alex Tucker and Richard Youngs.

^ weird thing in a Bill Callahan review in the new issue

Whoa that is weird. Who wrote that?

Joseph Stannard

What does ILX mean to the average Wire reader?

Is the general perception of ILX that it's the place that old indie guys go to to die?

lol Bright Eyes?

tf? doesn't this cunt realize shit like

James Blake and Jamie Woon or Alex Tucker and Richard Youngs.

is far more popular on ilx than his placeholder indie bros

Hahaha, I am going to kick his ass. Especially as most of those guys are shit (Youngs a notable exception). Much love for Joe, though.

lol 'inquisitive approaches to songform' - what they mean, of course, is 'can't write a real song' (Youngs excepted). I love how the brits still think that effects pedal demonstrations are somehow cutting edge, and the practitioners of this insufferable trend (umm, pretty much everyone after Roy Montgomery) are more worthy of attention than artists who can, you know, write a decent tune. Any asshole can buy a Memory Man. Nobody but Callahan could have written "Sometimes I Feel Like The Mother Of The World." What a dipshit.

Actually, I highly doubt that's what he means at all, and I can vouch for JS being pretty kick-ass knowledgeable about 'inquisitive approaches to songform', I'm just not sure why he chose those people, particularly in a publication like the Wire where you should be given carte blanche to name-check much more interesting artists. The main thing I boggle at is his very odd perception of ILx. I'm also uncertain about why 'classic' songwriting has to be discarded at the same time as the 'new' is embraced, but I'm guessing he intends it more as a charge of being boring rather than necessarily being retrogressive, which is his right as a reviewer, even if he may be wrong in certain instances.

Well put. I just can't get behind a dude who probably thinks Willie Nelson is 'boring' and jams Grouper albums on road trips.

Ha, I know you meant that to agree with me, but I am the kind of dude who thinks Willie Nelson is boring and jams Grouper albums on road trips. (Actually nothing against Nelson but man, I adore Grouper.)

LOL. Grouper was the first example I could think of.

I hope I'm never forced into a Sophie's Choice moment between Willie Nelson and Grouper.

The weird thing about it (besides the ILX reference) is that Bill and Will simply aren't making the same kind of music as those other people, so I don't know why you'd bother bringing it up in a review. I like Joe's writing lots but this seems like a bit of a 'why isn't X more like Y' refusal to engage with something in its own terms, which is rarely productive or fun.

Maybe someone should post the whole review. I'm assuming it's for Apocalypse and I'm assuming it's pretty negative?

In what sense do Callahan and Oldham 'underachieve'? I quite liked either of them at various points, but the wire's job is to cover people who didn't quite achieve (in a very clear 'at the wrong place and time' sense).

Surprised the editor didn't ask about ILX (he/she probably knew but really do the readership know.) Liked the way the mention was dropped in so casually, as if there is no distinction between print and what goes on in the web.

Joe is a good dude iirc but yeah something that would make sense to a maximum of one human being living on the planet earth should maybe have been caught by a subeditor

(ha I wrote that before reading the post above)

Jamie Woon? For fuck's sake...

"The Brits"? What in Criven's name are you talking about?

Trying not to be a dick but the above quote only makes sense as a dig at the Mountain Goats

(By which I mean, maybe he thinks Oldham and Callahan should take a break from music and become ILM regulars)(I know that's not what J0hn did, but...)

aside from the fact that even that reading only takes it a ball-hair way from meaninglessness, that basically splits the prospective readership of the review into two camps, one who won't understand it at all and one who'll understand it but find it annoying

Critical wtfs aside, the guy doesn't know what the word "fulsomely" means, I think he means "fully".

Usage Note: Fulsome is often used to mean "offensively flattering or insincere." But the word is also used, particularly in the expression fulsome praise, to mean simply "abundant," without any implication of excess or insincerity. This usage is etymologically justified but may invite misunderstandings in contexts in which a deprecatory interpretation could be made. The sentence I offer you my most fulsome apologies may raise an eyebrow, where the use of an adjective like full or abundant would leave no room for doubt as to the sincerity of the speaker's intentions.

what a spiteful review that is.

xp okay looks like I was being a bit pedantic, no doubt an internet first!

If only Bill Callahan had the sense to go glitch years ago! At this point, his only future clearly lies in embracing UK funky.

Can't believe I didn't notice this - kind of hilarious that ILX is understood as any kind of common reference in the Wireverse and that it's completely off the mark wrt what goes on here.

Rest of the review isn't any more fairminded btw - one paragraph focuses on how Bill Callahan is a "charmless tranquilised version" of Howe Gelb ("the comparion bears analysis" is a representatively vacuous statement).

Love The Wire anyway.

that basically splits the prospective readership of the review into two camps, one who won't understand it at all and one who'll understand it but find it annoying

not sure about that, I understand it and pretty much agree with it fwiw

Jesus Christ. Can someone post this review in full? Sounds like the most lol 0_O review ever.

Howe Gelb? Come on. I love Giant Sand, but...come on. Howe's written some great songs, but...

xp you think Bill Callahan should be forced to post to ILX?

I have enjoyed his music on occasion but I don't get the impression he'd bring much to our table

Ah, you don't know about the secret I Love Bill Callahan board?

when will this billcallahanisation of ILX end

Ok, here's the rest of the review:

What a comfortable rut Smog's Bill Callahan has settled into. Roundly acclaimed as a master songwriter despite having done his best work (Wild Love) 11 years ago, all that's required of him nowadays is to strum out a few minimal chord sequences, free-associate in his lugubrious baritone and await the paycheck. Ain't life grand?

Throughout this solo effort - his fourth, for what it's worth - Callahan mumbles ever onward like a charmless, tranquilised version of Giant Sand's Howe Gelb. The comparison bears analysis: Callahan sets his acoustic muse to work in the service of his precious authorial ego, whereas Gelb's various projects demonstrate his playfulness and versatility. Profundity cannot be faked, neither can subtlety, and when Callahan attempts a breezy wistfulness, it's plain embarrassing. "I watch David Letterman in Australia! Or America!" he exclaims on "America!" Forgive the vulgarity, but who gives a shit? Really?

If Apocalypse really did constitute the high watermark of songwriting in 2011, we should be sounding the alarm. Thankfully, this is most definitely not the case.

The review concludes with the ILX shoutout posted above...

how much of a paycheck does the smog guy get? does anyone still listen to him? other than everyone on ilx.

OMG. Of course this guy thinks Wild Love is his best work, it was Kaputt before Kaputt. This review is so needlessly aggressive, in the way a lot of reviews are nowadays, but frankly I'm surprised to see this kid of garbage in The Wire. If I was Callahan I'd punch this hipster bozo right in the nose.

Yeah also lol at the 'paycheck' line

Wild Love was 16 years ago. I think he's done some of the best work of his career in the last five or six years and I do think he's a great songwriter, but I can also understand why people might find him boring. And this review speaks to that crowd I guess.

paycheck = joanna newsom

one of my friends bought a book of Bill's sketches

he is really really bad at drawing vaginas fyi

Callahan attempts a breezy wistfulness, it's plain embarrassing. "I watch David Letterman in Australia! Or America!" he exclaims on "America!" Forgive the vulgarity, but who gives a shit? Really?

obviously i haven't heard the record yet but complaining about this lyric seems to suggest a misreading of bill c's intent unless he's become a completely different artist in the last 18 months.

alternately "who gives a shit?" may well be the response he was after when he wrote that.

it's easy to cherrypick a release, its lyrics particularly, to support your takedown, but it seems extra-hilarious to use that one line in a review in which you mention literally nothing else about the record. like jesus, he's singing about LETTERMAN ffs. the coupling of fanboyishly preferring wild love (c'mon now, why not his true meisterwerk sewn to the sky), & fawning at the feet of innovative cd-r-slinging songstrels, is pretty damning.

pretty sure Eagle was on par w/ his best stuff ever

on a slight sideline here i bought a digital subscription the other day, how the hell does it work? I cant figure it out and feel like a flat out thicko

You should get an email from exacteditions.com with the details I think. I get one whenever a new issue is up.

I think I prefer every album released since Wild Love over Wild Love!

I just had a quite devastating thought, to be honest. Why the fuck is THE WIRE reviewing a Bill Callahan record anyway? Further proof of descent into the poptimist vortex.

oh god

genuinely inquisitive approaches to traditional songform, whether this means James Blake

haha i wish there was an emoticon that adequately captured the face that i am making, reading this

the whole thing is p pseud-ish & adjectival but i mean it is the wire so...

bright eyes is fukken game tho srsly

I know you were semi-joking but I'm pretty sure they've always just reviewed stuff they figure their readership would be interested in (which BC probably qualifies as), rather than applying some reverse-Hongro litmus test of avant-garde authenticity

xp to emily

i have the wire gonna go find this

they've always reviewed all kinds of stuff and they've had a fondness for beardo-type alt singersongwriters in the past, no?

yup

yeah the first wire tappers were lol 90s like yo la tengo & the pastels & shit so

Why don't you all go and post to ILX about this

<3 pastels

love the pastels too. plus wire broke the big story about freak folk. hold the presses!

i liked terrorizer when stannard was editing it, but he didn't last long there

yeah the first wire tappers were lol 90s like yo la tengo & the pastels & shit so

lol wtf, didn't know this!

anyone here buy the wire when it was a jazz only mag? Because wasnt it a jazz only mag til early-mid 90s? I dont think i bought it until about 95 and i didnt get it every month til about 97/98 (lol wire were on the cover when i started buying it regularly)

Heh, was indeed semi-joking. Have noticed a disturbing trend towards covering Pfork type bands, though. When I started reading it definitely felt like those were exceptions in a much more concentrated avant-garde magazine, now they're the main bulk of it.

I love the Pastels, too, btw.

maybe pitchfork are trending towards covering wire bands?

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/new_order/COVER115.jpg

what year is that?

2008

That one is 1993. I started buying it cos it started having Steve Albini and Nick Cave and Sonic Youth in it.

lol Lamp A+

That is not a 2008 sweater btw.

i literally lol'd really loud @ work here re: "2008" & that pic of sumner's sweater, turned some heads iirc

1993 is early to mid 90s i suppose so i did have a good guess at wire goes rock

music: out of the shadows

Yea and Hooky hasn't yet started to resemble the Baron Harkonnen

Good god, that can't really be the Wire, can it? Maybe I just hit it at a golden age of obscurantism.

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/massive_attack/COVER127.jpg

that NO cover kinda reminds me of when RAW changed from a metal mag to NME Britpop

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/bjork/COVER114.jpg

MUSIC: WOMEN FIGHT BACK

Wow @ En Vogue btw

mica paris? en vogue? was the lex editor? oh wait i bet sinkah was

first Wire I bought was

http://www.tubafrenzy.org/weblog/archives/TheWireIssue251.jpg

always been sellouts.

Sinkah was responsible for
http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/weller_paul/COVER116.jpg

is that tom delonge? xp

I think that just made emil.y cry btw

Good god, that can't really be the Wire, can it? Maybe I just hit it at a golden age of obscurantism.

well theyve always covered mnstrm or RING THREE or w/e shit like the new weird america wasnt exactly stegosaurus rex

I started reading in the late '90s, when it was all this sort of single portrait close-up of V SERIOUS ARTISTES:
http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/nurse_with_wound/originals/COVER160.jpg

And I actually thought it was too pop even then! How little I knew.

did you shudder when you saw paul weller and en vogue?

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/sigur_ros/COVER203.jpg

i liked sigur ros back then. I'll still rep for the 1st 3 releases or so

hahaha omg

SIGUR ROS

Exploring Coldplay's newest incarnation

i shuddered at ... guitar abusers: hendrix, zappa, clapton, (xhuxk) eddy.

xps

Yeah, Paul Weller almost made me do a cry. En Vogue made me go 'wow' but sort of in a good way, actually? Not sure why.

With stuff like Sigur Ros I can at least see *why* they would appeal to the Wire, even if I don't like them and they're not really very avant-garde at all.

that's what i like about the wire though, they will cover lots of different stuff. even the drone metal stuff that some of their readers got uptight about

the wire is not a magazine of/for the avant-garde tho really thats dwell magazine & tumblr

Terrorizer readers apparently complained when Sunn 0))) got a front cover and the letters page was deluged.
The Wire readers apparently complained when Sunn 0))) got a front cover and the letters page was deluged.

Who knew they had so much in common?

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/sunn_o/302cover.jpg

First one I bought was http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/main/COVER137.jpg

On The Cover: Sunn O))): Stephen O'Malley & Greg Anderson's drone project opens Heavy Metal to the realms of cosmic jazz, experimental rock and spectral music. Joseph Stannard meets the meta-Metal masters.

xp Because it had something about Zappa in it iirc

would read all these wire backissues.

still one of the best music mags out there. not that there's a ton of competition.

the terms of investigation towards serious beard people, & towards indie types, have both changed

i actually think the '92-'94 stuff (at its most 'pop', i guess) was pretty good, and the early '00s, when i was in school and SERIOUS MUSIC BROS were reading it, was pretty awful -- they'd talk about, say, sonic youth in '93. but never with fawning adulation.

Now, Sunn o))) are a good Wire band. They do interesting things with their form. Thumbs up from the arbiter of the avant-garde over here.

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/issues/issue2/covers/originals/COVER002.jpg

^ would definitely buy this

they made the swing back to SERIOUS ARTISTS but then their own definition of what it took for the wire to give you the SERIOUS ARTIST PROFILE or SERIOUS ARTIST REVIEW kind of swung further and further towards the pitchfork-friendly

'adventures in modern music'. ughghghsghlh

xps haha THAT LOOKS GREAT

"jazz, improvised music and ..." --- rip, rig & panic aren't exactly a jazzbos-only proposition

Maybe I should take it to the marketplace board but I have a bunch of them that I don't want going back randomly through the last 12 years or so (I think) if somebody wants to come and get them

gratis, I should add

ooooh! want

i mean really, i should just shell out for a back-issue subscription online. can subscribers access past content?

I have every issue from this one forward (Aug. 98 I believe).

http://www.johnfahey.com/wirecov.jpg

I didn't know Simon Pegg was in Nurse With Wound.

I threw out a few dozen in the cleanup after a tree fell through my old office -- they were undamaged, I was just disgusted at the prospect of cleaning up and finding room for so much crap, so into the dumpster they went. Kinda wish I had them back now.

Trying and failing to find a picture of the Savage Pencil turntablism primer print that I have. Certainly not always a fan of SP's art, but this one is hella sexy.

"Exiled on Main Street" "Black monk time"

the cover sub-titles always make me cringe

The Wire are far more restrained than most other publications. I like silly sub-editor jokes, though.

rip, rig & panic aren't exactly a jazzbos-only proposition

― thomp, Monday, 21 March 2011 17:58 (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

tho I bet the whole hook for featuring them was "hey Don Cherry's kid is in a band, what's up with that"

i once sold thurston moore a copy of the wire no1!

the late richard cook was the first editor to significantly broaden the wire remit beyond jazz, then mark s took that a step further - during mark's tenure there was a notorious article abt teenage fanclub by ben thompson, arguing that tfc were avant-garde precisely because they were SO traditional

lol thats so old-ILM

sinker 10 years ahead of his time imo (though I'm as much a sucker as the next 'head)

"The conventional is now experimental, and is in no way noble"

I have every issue from this one forward (Aug. 98 I believe).

Whoa - I also have every issue starting with the John Fahey cover. I only have one issue from before that (the one with the P-Funk primer).

I remember reading (possibly in #200?) that this was the watershed cover that alienated the jazz purists and set the path to the New Order loving magazine we treasure today:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/artists/jackson_michael/COVER088.jpg

massive lol at "Michael Jackson for Grown-Ups"

Wolfgang Mozart

wolfie to his mates

"Wolfgang Mozart" is also weird. Feels like you gotta go the whole hog and stick an Amadeus in there or just go with Mozart.

godammit

CD grades

...or is it CD guides?

guides

http://www.thewire.co.uk/images/issues/issue99/covers/COVER099.jpg

The Wire Magazine --- Old Issues

considering From The Futurists To Fabolous as a DN

From The Futurists To Fabio Capello is even better imo

are they ever gonna let the "hypnagogic" thing die?

I don't mind it, I think it's a pretty neat idea

let's face it anyone who has ever come up w/ a name for a genre of music and then gone 'oh yeah if everyone could start calling it this now that'd be cool thx' is a self-centred fuck, but it doesn't stop you using a bunch of other ones every day

if its by keenan then its not a good idea. its just designed for his shop to sell this stuff to gullible mugs!

i think it's totally useless, and it just doesn't really work as a genre name, in terms of what tends to catch on as genre names. Besides being overly vague and non-descriptive, it seems tone deaf to how people use language.

I have pretty much every issue from around 1989 onwards mouldering in a couple of boxes under my bed, last time I looked a family of spiders had taken up residence in there with them. Will I ever read any of them again?

That was a rhetorical question, yes?

Should be a poll imo.

So, that new Bill Callahan album is great, turns out.

He still can't draw vaginas.

an alternate version of the April issue -

http://www.blrrecords.com/img/wire.jpg

.....about time Fuckstep is back in vogue.

First WIRE I bought had DJ Shadow on the cover IIRC. And its relatively peerless in terms of music magazines with re-read value... the number of times I've been digging something that they've written about a year/years ago = numerous.

haw

lol letters page

what's in it?

ilx honour defended

Who by? Could you please type it out? The Wire's not out until thursday.

someone called Nilmar Da Silva? just a jokey letter about that Bill Callahan review.

tbh a cursory look at site new answers right now would probably support the idea that ilx is a den of drag city guy worship

when was it ever not?

i liked that famous funeral song by smog. that's about it. that was worthy enough to be a country song. like, i could imagine tom t. hall writing it.

May I object to Joseph Stannard's characterisation of internet forum ILX in his review of Bill Callahan's Apocalypse as a haven for over-aged singer-songwriters and fans of confessional indie types. ILX is a broad and agreeably heterodox church, open even to Burzum ans, but we really hate that shit.
Nilmar Da Silva, London

Anyone willing to own up?

Uh, "Burzum fans" obv.

l0u1s jagg3r

didn't tom d used to write to the wire years and years ago?

not that i'm saying he wrote that, but lols at the letter

haha

A+

not actually true that "we really hate that shit" though is it, as sclump says there is far more love on ILM for those types than there is for Richard Youngs. as such Stannard has a point

"Nilmar da Silva". I'd look to the I Love Football board for the culprit. Either that or he is Brazilian.

there's far more love everywhere for Bill C than for Richard Youngs so i don't really see his point.

I am guessing that it was Xyzzz who wrote that.

there's far more love everywhere for Bill C than for Richard Youngs

Not at the Wire obviously, Richard Youngs seems to have replaced Derek Bailey in their affections

not actually true that "we really hate that shit" though is it, as sclump says there is far more love on ILM for those types than there is for Richard Youngs. as such Stannard has a point

yeah i don't know, i think the objectionable part wasn't ilxors-like-smog, like they are bland, mojo-reading nostalgists, but the idea that such whitebread staples were worthless on account of their mundane traditional songforms, that paying attention to guys who release boring solo guitar cd-rs is intellectually more worthwhile & daring

I don't really have much to say about Richard Youngs other than I saw him live once, supporting the Pastels possibly (could that be true?) and he so annoyed me I've avoided him and his works ever since, and that's a rare experience

Wait, what was the OG review?

My guess is nakh.

Football reference points that way

nakh doesn't read the wire iirc

I like Richard Youngs a lot but I've never seen him live. Could imagine him being pretty annoying if the setting wasn't right.

juli0 des0uza

nilmar dasilva

hmmmm

Vandalism Liar
Admiral Anvils
Similar Vandal
Drama Villains
Disarm Vanilla
Invalid Alarms

'disarm vanilla' is p good

dont suppose there is a scan/archive copy of the interview with mark fell in the july issue this year going about

many thanks to a certain scottish ilm poster

touch of the noodle vagues about that fell cover

nah

he's smiling for a start!

Derek Walmsley is stepping down as editor. Also, the new issue is a double, covering January and February. I’ve been subscribing since the turn of the millennium and it’s always been a monthly. No mention of the publishing schedule in the editor’s note.

My subscribers copy came with a sheet saying we would get our next issue Feb 24th

2nd Feb 2024, I meant

Ah, I’m a digital subscriber.

Is the new issue an end of the year charts one?

It is.

yes, this is the front cover

The Wire 2023 Rewind issue is out now! https://t.co/LeGoOooML6

This special bumper issue inc Releases of the Year, Critics’ Reflections, Columnists’ Charts, Essays & Analyses. Plus: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Fred Frith, Laetitia Sadier, Mariam Rezaei, pages of reviews and much more. pic.twitter.com/eoraNt0sx3

— The Wire Magazine (@thewiremagazine) December 5, 2023

I guess it was inevitable in these economic times but I liked that they powered ahead with monthly issues for so long.

Seems like the next one is a regular one-month issue? Perhaps they needed a buffer month to sort out who’ll be steering the ship from here on out, as I didn’t see a ’new editor’ announcement.

The February issue is always just a bunch of playing catchup with late 2023 stuff + also trying to figure out what to even write about because release schedules don't even ramp up until March. It's a smart move on their part.

interviews for editor start at the end of next week

wire routinely ran with a dec/jan double issue up till the mid-90s

wire routinely ran with a dec/jan double issue up till the mid-90s

I was thinking this wasn't the first time they'd done it, but I only went back a few years in the online archive so didn't see the most recent one before now.

Very curious who the new editor will be. Derek was promoted from within (he'd been reviews editor) but I guess Joe Stannard (current reviews editor) and/or Emily Bick (current front-of-book and website editor) don't want to move up the ladder?