Perpetually armed with a wily mouth and artfully spare riffs,
Wire has a rep as one of postpunk's most respected names. There's no challenging the 1977 debut
Pink Flag as the band's definitive document, but January's
Red Barked Tree is no shabby addition to its hefty discography. On their 12th record, the irrepressibly clever Englishmen tinker with several concepts, getting reacquainted with a distorted jangle on "Adapt," constructing worrisome metaphors on "Bad Worn Thing," spewing venom in "Two Minutes," and sounding positively machinelike on the ominous "Moreover."
Sun., April 17, 8 p.m., 2011
