High Tension Wires - Midnight Cashier LP/CD

Dirtnap's official Texas all-star band returns with 11 more tracks of dark, tight, punchy pop!!

Featuring Mike Wiebe (Riverboat Gamblers), Mark Ryan and Mike Throneberry (both of The Marked Men) and Chris Pulliam (The Reds), High Tension Wires 2nd album for Dirtnap finds the band moving in a slightly darker, weirder direction, sounding at once familiar and unlike anything the band members' have ever done.

clear vinyl out of print, black still available.

REVIEWS:

410 Media I'll admit the first time I listened to this I didn't really like it. Everything seemed rushed and I really didn't have time to get into anything. It all seemed like it was just getting started when just past the 20 minute mark (22 minutes 27 seconds, to be exact) it all suddenly ended.I know coming to someone who listens to hardcore that doesn't make sense, but hey, I am just telling you what happened.

After a few times through, I began to really like this. I appreciated the frantic Buzzcocks in a garage style guitar work. The odd background chanting (whoo ha or something like that) in Tokyo is Burning Down, the noisy breakdown in "Not Enough For Me" and the no nonsense, we haven't got time to do intros and bridges and all that nonsense style.

I think the problem is with a name like High Tension Wires, I kinda expected a snotty Dead Boys style band and didn't get it. What I got was a band that sounded like a sped up version of the better new wave bands that always kept one foot in punk rock. All of this sounds like it is recorded in a shoe box on a 4 track that was picked up at a garage sale. This of course is meant as a great compliment. The muddy recording perfectly fits the music.

For those who don't know this band is made up of one member of The Riverboat Gamblers and three members of The Marked Men. If this sounds like either bands it is much more Marked Men than Riverboat Gamblers. But they out numbered him, so what do you expect? I would recommend this to fans of either of these bands or folks looking for a rocking new album that doesn't have time for any nonsense.

BIG TAKEOVER Punk as fuck and loving every damn minute of it, the High Tension Wires feature Marked Men and Riverboat Gamblers alumnus Mark Ryan and Mike Wiebe respectively, and boy do they kick up some dirt! How a band like this can sustain a rolling boil over the course of an album, even one as brief as this 22-minute barnburner, is lost on me. Envision Buzzcocks if they shifted into New Bomb Turks mode, and you’ve got something pretty irresistible on your hands (or better yet, in your ears). One trick ponies? Redundant? High Tension Wires may be doubly guilty, but when you’re craving this particular strain of punk/garage rock, nothing else will suffice.

THE CHOIR CROAKS They just released the record Midnight Cashier on Dirtnap Records, the Portland record label that gushes quality garage rock and pop like blood from Jesus' wrists. If you dig around My Space for garage rock that's linked to Dirtnap, you'll find that these guys, like a number of others, are actually a Texas-based group. A worthy find if you're into their label mate Beat Beat Beat, who released a record last October, or the Marked Men, who I mentioned in an old post.

DAGGER: Straight outta Denton, TX comes record #2 from the High Tension Wires. One of the guys is the vocalist from the Riverboat Gamblers (vocalist Mike Wiebe) one of the other guys are from The Marked Men (guitarist Mark Ryan) and a 3rd one id from The Reds (bassist Chris Pullian) and this a nice mix of all those bands. They knock it out with lots of energy and plenty of melody as well and most of these songs are memorable. The zippy "Tokyo is Burning Down", the choppy "They Fall Apart" and the anthemic "Old Enough to be Home Alone" are all top rank punk burners in the tradition of all good that has come out of the state of Texas (one of these days I swear I'm gonna buy a "Don't Mess with Texas' shirt and wear it proudly ). Maybe not quite in the same league as their "real" bands but it's close....damn close.

ELPEE Mike Wiebe, zanger van The Riverboat Gamblers, en diverse leden van The Marked Men met de derde plaat die ze als High Tension Wires maakten. Hi energy rock & roll punkrock van hoog niveau. Lekker fel en snel en vele killer hooks. Derde keer raak

GEARHEAD If the fact that the High Tension Wires are a true garage punk supergroup (made up of key members of The Riverboat Gamblers and The Marked Men no less) doesn't already have you running to the local record store waving a fistful of crumpled bills in your sweaty little fist, then maybe this review will. Records that are flawless from start to finish really are becoming harder to come by, but this 11-track masterpiece will have your ears glued to the stereo, just as bands like the New Bomb Turks and Devil Dogs did in the early 90's. So many hooks, so much melody, but never too poppy (or primitive for that matter) the songs seem to straddle several genres, but they're all ones you'd be OK with them falling intoŠ but they never do. Yeah, this is something new, but familiar at the same time. At this point in my life I have a word for that: perfect. (Mike LaVella)

GEORGIA STRAIGHT Let's be grateful for this second adventure into whip-smart punk and new wave from High Tension Wires. The group is little more than a side project for its four members–Mike Wiebe of the Riverboat Gamblers, Chris Pulliam from the Reds, and Mark Ryan and Mike Throneberry, who both play in the Marked Men–but it's probably the band's wobbly existence that gives both Midnight Cashier and 2005's Send a Message such vitality. This is an album of three-chord throwaways with just enough casual brilliance to snare the listener on the first play. As on the previous disc, High Tension Wires remains suspended somewhere between the U.S. and overseas punk traditions, like the Undertones covering the Dickies, or the Ramones taking on the Buzzcocks songbook. It's all delivered with the controlled momentum of a bullet train. Guitars are furiously downstroked, in lock step with drums that rarely jump the rails into anything so frivolous as a fill. If most of the tracks here are indistinguishable from those on the first album (and that's not a complaint), the aptly titled "The Strange One" does present a more sideways version of the band, aiming for something like the Diodes scoring a cheap slasher movie. - Adrian Mack

JERSEY BEAT High Tension Wires is an all-star punk rock line up hailing from Texas. Featuring Mike Weib (Riverboat Gamblers), Mark Ryan (Marked Men), Chris Pulliam (The Reds), and Mike Thorneberry (Marked Men.) This foursome puts out a sophomore effort that combines the sounds of their primary bands into one kick ass record. Midnight Cashier is a bit of a weirder and more diverse album than their first record titled Take A Message, but HTW still sticks close to their raw and punchy sound. Even though it isn't by any means a bad thing, this band sticks a little too close to the sound of the Marked Men (understandably so) and makes me wish they'd branch out just a bit further. Nonetheless, this record hasn't left my stereo in weeks and it had me singing along after the first listen. Get on this before the summer's over. - All Ages Dave

LEFT OF THE DIAL No doubt these frenetic boys, an amalgam of other bands like Marked Men and Riverboat Gamblers, pay homage to forbearers from the Buzzcocks (all hail the Steve Diggle-esque little guitar ditty “They Fall Apart”) and The Boys to the Real Kids in dizzying crescendos of popping punk devotion, without being by-the-book dull or cookie cutter whores. Now, I’m not saying that the band is single-handedly novel, or that they don’t echo other Dirty bands like the Returnables, but no one can say that their diecast tunefulness isn’t similar enough to fill jukeboxes galore, plus it is also lone-gun enough to mark it as fresh. For instance, I dig the slight askew production on “Outsider” (no, not the Ramones classic), with its stop on a dime tautness, bubbly guitar lines, and a penchant for total horsepower insouciance. The sizzle just does not let up, since bratty “Can’t Focus” screams and shouts like a sacred stab at Dickies land. Hmm, and there’s a hint of British postured aloofness and wry sensibility too. The robot neo-wave charm of “The Strange One” is a little more deadpan but unspoiled by posture or pretense. The rhythmic suss is thicker too, embroiled in quick blasting drums and crash’n’burn Casio keyboard whiffs.
Just in case you needed a bigger ephedrine rush and riffage, they unharness the messy onslaught “Wax Lips and Blood on the Telephone,” which jets down your ear canal at 131 MPH, like quickness incarnate, rushed and radiant, though not as pitch perfect as the rest. To end on a triumphant, ardent pop swagger, they offer their last potent stab on “Hallowed Ground” (no, not the Violent Femmes pious punk song!), with biting, driving guitar, well-placed keyboard padding, and hook-pile vocals. Their actual finale, “Glasses for the Blind,” is more garagey in defending its turf, the vocals more cranium exploding and arty, the bass surefooted and fleet, but it does lack the terrible delicious melody making of the earlier tracks. Not bad, though it just doesn’t surf your skin like their most prized obsession: their inclination to put bubblegum and tension in the whacked wired pummeling of two minute rock’n’roll sexy seizures.

LMNOP High Tension Wires features members of Riverboat Gamblers, Marked Men, and The Reds. The sound and style of the songs on Midnight Cashier remind us very much of Wire's Pink Flag album. Perhaps the band name itself is a dead giveaway of their influences...? In any event, this short album clocks in at just over 22 minutes...and yet these guys manage to revive the spirit of punk past with surprisingly genuine energy. By keeping things stripped down and simple, the fellows in this band manage to sound believable and credible...despite the fact that they are playing a style of music that was popular three decades ago. The band crams eleven songs onto this short disc...and they're all keepers. Driving, persistent, pulsing tracks include "Hibernate," "Not Enough For Me," "Outsider," and "Glasses For the Blind." Cool stuff.

MAXIMUM ROCK N ROLL My adoration of the Marked Men is no secret, and while I hate to think my giddy schoolgirl like mooning over that band ecplises any other project the members do I can't help but compare. Now I battered the first High Tension Wires LP.....but this one destroys. Sure the Mark Ryan songwriting is evident on a couple of tracks (hell, Not Enough For Me could almost have been lifted off the last Marked Men disc) nd the recording sounds just like Fix My Brain, but it;s the Pulliam/Wiebe songwriting combo that is really the backbone of this band. Much more diverse and sophisticated than the last record, this disc is dripping with hooks and songwriting finesse; how can you go wrong with members of The Riverboat Gamblers, Reds, and Marked Men? It's almost the perfect combination of power pop and buzzsaw punk rock. This has been in constant rotation around my place, and while I would never cheat on the Marked Men....how about a one night stand, fellas? Essential. (TB)

NOW WAVE Okay, I'll say it: the High Tension Wires have surpassed the Marked Men. Take that for what it's worth, considering my dubious history in reviewing this band. I panned their first album back in '05, only to recant several weeks later and hail it as one of the best releases of the year. I'm determined to get it right from the start this time. I can't afford to be rewriting reviews, ya know. I've resolved to start making better use of my time. I might try to learn Spanish or take dancing lessons.

Anyway...You put this new HTW album up against the last Marked Men album, and I think it kinda creams it. Or at least beats it decisively. I don't think it's that the Marked Men are getting less awesome so much as it's that the Wires are coming on like a wildfire. Midnight Cashier manages to kick up a similarly dizzying pace to the rapid-fire jolt of Send a Message, but everything's just a little better this time. Better songs, sharper hooks, more variety, more sophistication in the writing. If you crave straight-up melodic punk hits, songs like "Hibernate", "Old Enough to be Home Alone", "Wax Lips and Blood on the Telephone", and "Can't Focus" are as catchy, electric, and instantly satisfying as anything off the first LP. The Mike Wiebe/Chris Pulliam songwriting tandem, responsible for the majority of these songs, has become a bona fide force in the punk world. Just when you thought that the superfast pop/punk thing was completely played, along come these songs and this band to make it all feel new again. It makes you wish for ten more albums just like this one! Meanwhile, songs like "Not Enough for Me" and "They Fall Apart" (both Mark Ryan co-writes) show a clear progression forward from the previous record without abandoning the group's trademark catchiness and energy. "The Strange One" has the perfect title. It's strange - but in a entirely good way.

As good as Send a Message was, maybe the breakneck velocity of the thing obscured the hooks a little. Midnight Cashier is not exactly elevator music. 11 songs tear by in less than 23 minutes, and seven songs fail to eclipse the two-minute mark. But somehow it feels like the songs have more room to breathe this time. And the handful of tracks that sound a little "different" make the fast songs all the more effective. Without diluting the fury or sizzle of their attack, these guys have demonstrated a bolder vision and a more refined sense of craft. Forget the "side project" pigeonhole - High Tension Wires are an elite punk band in their own right. For sure, they've moved into my personal top ten!

RAZORCAKE Ever sat around in your undies and thought, "Huh, I wonder what Mike Wiebe of the Riverboat Gamblers would sound like with Mark, Mike, and Jeff of the Marked Men and Chris of the Reds?" I mean, they all live in the same geographic area. It's not that inconceivable; weirder shit like nanotechnology is afoot nowadays. Still in your underwear, think Buzzcocks and that smattering of non-ass, synthesizer-driven stuff in the '80s (go ahead and cherry pick some Jesus And Mary Chain, some Cure, Echo And The Bunnymen, a whisper of Bauhaus) on top of that, and bang, there you go. On one hand, it's pretty much what you'd expect (in the fact that it's great, tight, and instantly memorable and sounds a lot like the Marked Men), on the other hand—and I'd suspected this all along—that this is a group of folks with many more than one or two bunnies to pull out of their collective hats and they aren't afraid to roll that bunny up and throw the occasional curveball. –Todd Taylor

SAVAGE What always seemed to me a one off project from some old buddies from the Marked Men, Riverboat Gamblers and Reds a few years ago is now a showing itself to be a real band. This is their second album and it’s a more mature band this time. Sounds a little boring but it’s not. Their punkrock on the first record was great but here they’ve found a little more of their soul I think. More soulsearching, more touching. They either sound like a lot of other bands or nothing else at all. More is varied, there’s new wave, punkrock, catchiness abounds and loads of feelings. Me and my best friend were driving around Texas listening to this and we didn’t understand a thing at first. It seemed slower, boring, nice.. after giving it a few shots it started growing on us and it just kept on growing. This is the record of the summer. It should terminate all radiostations with constant rotation in a more perfect world but it’s not likely to happen so just go out and fucking buy it already.

SUBURBAN VOICE Pretty nifty ‘n nervy punk/garage/pop. I think that covers it. It’s not bash-over-the-skull fodder but the songs have presence and inherent catchiness and taut, concise arrangements. The drive of a song such as “Wax Lips and Blood On The Telephone” is irresistible. And I could be crazy but, once in awhile, there’s a guitar/keyboards jab along the lines of Stereolab that’s more punk, less Velvets, such as “Not Enough For Me.” That song has a cool semi-freakout bridge, as well. It’s funny—I was about to say some of the songs also remind me of the Marked Men and, lo ‘n behold, some of these guys play in that band. How perceptive! In fact, I like it better than the most recent Marked Men album in that it’s rougher around the edges.

customer review INTERPUNK Picked this up back in July. This is better than their first record. No kidding. Their first record was great, but the 2nd side just didn't hold up to side A. Midnight Cashier feels less like a side project, and is much more consistent. My favourite record of the year so far....Perhaps the Busy Signals debut in October will give it a run for its money.

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