The cover to Wire’s new album.

Wire is another one of those kind of bands; the kind of band who have had tons of critical success, but nobody knows who they are, and, for anyone who read my article on the Jam, yes, I checked the chart positions to make sure that they weren’t just obscure to Yanks.

At any rate, they recorded three albums, Pink Flag, Chairs Missing, and 154 which utterly broke the mold for punk music, expanding it out into new genres even before the Clash thought about it, before they finally broke up in 1980. They then reunited five years later, recording five new albums of varying quality, and then broke up again in 1992. Seven years later, they reunited and they haven’t broken up since.

And now, they have  recorded their fourth album since their second reuinion, and, it seems like the band are going back to their roots for it. The album, entitled Change Becomes Us, will be released on March 25, 2013, and according to frontman Colin Newman, the songs on the album will actually have come from material that the band had worked on during their early, groundbreaking, days, but never committed to disc.

Quoth Newman: “Some of this material had only ever existed as quickly prepared sketches for one-off performance. However, subjected to the rigour of a Wire working process of both touring and studio, it evolved organically into what we think is a fascinating hybrid. Liberated from its historic roots, it simply took off!”

The night before the album’s release, they will perform a concert at London nightclub Heaven, where they will perform the new record in its entirety, and then perform their 1977 debut, “Pink Flag,” also in its entirety.

The track listing for “Change Becomes Us” is:

‘Doubles & Trebles’
‘Keep Exhaling’
‘Adore Your Island’
‘Re-invent Your Second Wheel’
‘Stealth Of A Stork’
‘B/W Silence
‘Time Lock Fog’
‘Magic Bullet’
‘Eels Sang’
‘Love Bends’
‘As We Go’
‘& Much Besides’
‘Attractive Space’

And, as has become my custom, for those of you who want to know what the band was like, here’s a song from Pink Flag called “Strange,” that Michael Stipe of R.E.M. liked so much that, when recording Document, he put a cover of it right before a little song called “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.”

And, unlike Kevin Shields, the lads of Wire seem perfectly willing to allow fans a sneak peak of their new material, so, here’s a Soundcloud page for “Doubles & Trebles.”