High Tension Wires - Welcome New Machine

The third album from Dirtnap Records North Texas super-group! The current lineup of HIGH TENSION WIRES features MIKE WIEBE (RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS), MARK RYAN (MARKED MEN, MIND SPIDERS), CHRIS PULLIAM (THE REDS), plus DANIEL FRIED and GREG RUTHERFORD (both of the just-signed-to-Dirtnap THE BAD SPORTS, the live incarnation of the Mind Spiders). High Tension Wires originally started as an on-again-off-again recording project. Welcome New Machine is a perfect synthesis of their previous two albums. Rocks as hard as Send a Message, while incorporating the nuances they began developing on Midnight Cashier. A fair amount of ground is covered here, from the Marked Men's trademark choppy pop sound to straightforward punk, to darker-edged postpunk, some new-wavey bits, and an absolutely stunning Teengenerate-style garagepunk ripper sung by Mark Ryan, all capped off by Mike Wiebe's seemingly endless font of unusual, interesting lyrics.