Wire have shared the second single lifted from their new album, ‘Mind Hive,’ which will be out on January 24th via the band’s own label pinkflag (pre-order).
“The lyric/text for this song could be read as a series of questions, set in 2017,” comments the band’s Graham Lewis. “Who could have known the answers would be, in no particular order…Liverpool FC, me, Boris the Spider, 67, Lieutenant Colonel.”
Colin Newman adds, “Primed & Ready was the easiest song to write on the album, written in less time than it takes to play it. There’s nothing remotely clever about the chord sequence / structure and there’s only three chords, two in the verse & one in the chorus. As in all things Wire less is more”.
Listen to Primed & Ready via YouTube below.
The band’s seventeenth studio album sees the definitive post-punk group continue a run of stellar releases, showcasing a band on peak form 40 years into their hugely influential career.
Wire have maintained a reputation for creating music that stretches the rock form while also editing it down to its essence. Yet they exhibit little inclination to look back or trade on past glories, rather they remain focused on producing music that is smart, vital and defiantly modern.
‘Mind Hive’ is the group’s first newly recorded material since 2017’s amazing ‘Silver/Lead’ which garnered rave reviews and career best sales. Yet, if ‘Silver/Lead’ set the bar very high, ‘Mind Hive‘ seems to have no problem vaulting over it – it’s a confident album featuring some of the band’s most upbeat moments of recent years. Wire’s back catalogue is of course studded with influential epoch defining works. Last year saw the reissue of their ground-breaking first three albums: ‘Pink Flag,’ ‘Chairs Missing’ and ‘154’. And now ‘Mind Hive’ comes out at a time when Wire are being cited as an influence by yet another generation of bands. They are also the subjects of a career spanning feature documentary called ‘People in a Film’ due for release late 2020 (details here).
‘Mind Hive‘ track list
1. Be Like Them
2. Cactused
3. Primed and Ready
4. Off The Beach
5. Unrepentant
6. Shadows
7. Oklahoma
8. Hung
9. Humming
Tour dates
January 27 – Bristol, UK @ The Fleece
January 28 – Manchester, UK @ Band on the Wall
January 29 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
January 30 – Glasgow, UK @ G2 (The Garage)
January 31 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
February 1- Brighton, UK @ Chalk
March 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ Fine Line
March 4 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
March 6 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge
March 7 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
March 9 – Washington, DC @ Union Stage
March 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
March 11 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
March 12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall Of Williamsburg
March 13 – Boston, MA @ Sinclair
March 14 – Ottawa, ON @ Bronson Centre
March 16 – Toronto, ON @ Great Hall
March 17 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
May 21 – London, UK @ Islington Assembly Hall
