Piano Wire might be a relatively new name to most of the general public, but most will be familiar with singer Sym Gharial and guitarist Andy Huxley’s former band 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster.
They’ve been playing low-key shows for the past 18 months or so, getting their lean garage punk sound into the best of shape. ‘Get A Life’ is the proof that they’re ready to go overground.
Part of that has to be down to producer Gil Norton. He’s brought much of the atmosphere and tension of his classic work with the Pixies to ‘Get A Life’ so that every note hums and throbs with an intimacy and intensity that makes you feel you’re sat right next to the speaker as they record it.
But the rest is down to Piano Wire themselves, who’ve managed to corral their influences into something genuinely new and interesting. You’ll hear a touch of the Pixies, sure, especially in the searing guitar lines. But this track probably owes more to the careering, sludge-laden abandon of their contemporaries Mudhoney, interspersed with the hungry maraca-shaking grooviness of Iggy & The Stooges.
The video for the track was shot by esteemed music press snapper turned director Steve Gullick, and its combination of kaleidoscopic psychedelic visions, stark black and white graininess, and blood red goriness is the perfect accompaniment to the song’s choppy charms and lurid decadence.
