You probably don’t need me to tell you twice to go see Wire if they come to your town. No, Bruce Gilbert won’t be with them. On the plus side, Margaret Fiedler (Moonshake, Laika) will be filling in.
Laika appear to be dormant at the moment, sadly. But I always keep an ear peeled for any project that Margaret’s involved in, because they’re always worthwhile. (Not that Wire is an unknown quantity, mind you.) I wish this show weren’t on a weeknight, because I’d love to be there. (I’m missing Stereolab tonight for the same reason. Meh.)
I interviewed Margaret and Guy (Fixsen) of Laika for Warped Reality back in 1995. A soundbite:
Margaret: “I think lo-fi can cover up for a lack of ideas. Some people are really good —it really doesn’t matter if it was recorded in a tin can or a studio; the song and the idea transcends the medium.
“But some people are all ‘feel’ and there’s nothing else there. I’m kind-of reactionary against it, because I really don’t understand ghettoizing anything. I’ve always made music to communicate and I think anybody who actually goes to the effort of releasing a record is trying to communicate. I don’t really buy it when people want to be obscure.”
“I went to a Tricky show [recently] and met his video director Mark Lipscombe. He’s not a frustrated filmmaker like a lot of video directors are. He doesn’t want to make feature-length films. He wants to make pop videos, but he wants to bring all these fucking weird cinema ideas into it. I completely understand it, because that’s the way I feel about music. I don’t want to sprawl out. I don’t want to do some magnum opus. I’d rather do pop music but with fucked-up ideas.”
Upcoming Wire gigs
Oct 06: Barrymore’s, Ottawa,
Oct 07: Lee’s Palace, Toronto, Canada
Oct 08: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA
Oct 09: The Fillmore at Irving Plaza, New York, NY, USA [WFMU Free Music Show]
Oct 10: Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Oct 11: 9:30 Club, Washington DC, USA
Oct 12: Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, USA
Oct 14: The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Oct 15: The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, USA
Oct 16: The Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Oct 17: First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Oct 18: Metro, Chicago, IL, USA
Laika, “Looking for the Jackalope”
Laika, “Spider Happy Hour” [from Silver Apples on the Moon, 1994]
Moonshake, “Girly Loop” [from Big Good Angel, 1993]
“STRELKA & LITTLE ARROW,” RUSSIAN MATCHBOOK COVER, 1960s