The No WTO Combo - Live From The Battle In Seattle

Band: The No WTO Combo
Album: Live From The Battle In Seattle
Country: USA
Release Date: 2000

The No W.T.O Combo celebrate and further the protests that took place against the World Trade Organization in Seattle during late November of 1999. Recorded live at a show amidst the protests' aftermath, he Combo brings elder punk statesman Jello Biafra together with Kim Thayil, Krist Novoselic, and Gina Mainwal. Two new Biafra-penned punk burners, the Dead Kennedys classic "Let's Lynch the Landlord," a Biafra spoken-word piece, and the DOA/Biafra jam "Full Metal Jackoff" comprise the set's material. The recording is musically noteworthy due to the musicians' obvious passion, not to mention that Thayil sounds like an unholy cross between Greg Ginn and East Bay Ray. Most interesting, though, is Biafra's subject matter -- worker rights, NAFTA, downsizing, and the WTO -- and excellent liner notes from Biafra and Novoselic summing up the demonstrations and issues at hand. At the least, Live From the Battle in Seattle is an important historical document; leave it to Biafra to show that rock and social protest don't have to be mutually exclusive, even in the year 2000.

1. "Battle in Seattle" – 15:02
2. "Let's Lynch the Landlord" – 3:41
3. "New Feudalism" – 4:15
4. "Electronic Plantation" – 4:55
5. "Full Metal Jackoff" – 16:28

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Wire - Third Day

Band: Wire
Album: Third Day
Country: UK
Release Date: 2000

These are five songs from the third rehearsal of Wire's recent, stunning comeback, recorded at the Ritz in London, November 29, 1999. And regrettably, The Third Day is only a limited edition, 1000-copies EP the group peddled at its 2000 tour gigs, because frankly, it's jaw dropping. As those who attended the tour could attest, the four original members declined to replicate their 23-year-old versions. Instead, as seen here on a mind-blowing "Pink Flag" (two ashen versions for good measure) and an equally wicked "Mercy," the group hurls a viscous cacophony the old recordings always hinted at -- like on 154's later "A Touching Display." In place of the underground-touchstone scratchy guitars on the Pink Flag and Chairs Missing classics that launched a thousand bands, Bruce Gilbert and Colin Newman are all roaring thrust, all dense wall of sound eruption. Recall, Wire-heads, My Bloody Valentine doing "Only Shallow" on the Loveless tour in 1992, and you're in the fuming, exploding, deafening, needles-screaming-in-the-red ballpark. Right in step, bassist Graham Lewis doubles the solidity into a distorted, crunching slam of a sound. Yikes. Even tap-tap-tap master Robert Gotobed sounds as if his kick drum's a howitzer and his snare's a tommy gun. 154's more gaseous "Blessed State" is similarly reinvigorated (though it had less far to go; sadly, this wasn't subsequently performed live), and "Art of Persistence" is a great find. Speaking of "find," how does one find this surprisingly must-have document? Alas, Wire probably sold all copies by tour's end, but try at www.pinkflag.com.

1.	Pink Flag (r1)	3:56
2.	Blessed State	3:22
3.	Mercy	5:28
4.	Art Of Persistence (1st draft)	4:33
5.	Pink Flag (r2)	3:35

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