01/09/2026
mike watt on The Wire: Adventures In Modern Music
The Wire 512 is out now!
Copies are available to buy from our webshop and the magazine has been published online at Exact Editions.
NB: Due to the collapse last week of The Wire's printers, Precision Colour Printing, the print edition of the magazine's October issue has been delayed by one week. The October issue will now be delivered to our mailing house for posting to subscribers and readers on Friday 7 September. The issue should appear on newsstands from next week.
Mike Watt: From Minutemen to fIREHOSE, the San Pedro bass man has charted an unclassifiable career through the heart of US punk and improv scenes. By Alan Licht
Mike Watt Eight Pack: Eight places to start with the bassist’s back catalogue. By Byron Coley
The Primer: Aphex Twin: A user’s guide to the music of the shapeshifting, mercurial mainstay of the UK electronic underground. By Derek Walmsley
You and Me Festival: The Beijing free festival offers a place for experimental performance in the shadow of the connected society. By Drew Daniel
Kaja Draksler: The Slovenian pianist’s chafing against jazz orthodoxy leads to thrilling innovations. By Peter Margasak
Invisible Jukebox: Pamela Z: Will the US vocalist and composer breeze to the end of The Wire’s mystery record selection? Tested by Marc Weidenbaum
Truck Violence: Montreal four-piece drive masculinity in new directions. By Miloš Hroch
Finn Loxbo: The Swedish guitarist’s fingerpicking figures. By Stewart Smith
Global Ear: New music by the lake at Slovenia’s Bled Contemporary Music Week. By Keith Potter
Unlimited Editions: Belgium’s Aspen Edities’ unique brand of Northern European pastoralism. By Peter Margasak
The Inner Sleeve: Yuko Mohri on Yuming’s Pearl Pierce
Against The Grain: Listening in the shadow of Palantir. By Stephen Roddy
Secret History of Film Music: Philip Brophy’s column returns to the pages of The Wire appraising Jon Brion’s work for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and more
Epiphanies: Corey Mwamba on threading his vibraphone with washing line.
