Tension Wire – Rips, Punctures, Tears & Fractures

Tension Wire – Rips, Punctures, Tears & Fractures / 2005 Self-Released / 12 Tracks /http://www.tensionwire.com / [email protected] / Reviewed 26 March 2005

I really wasn’t expecting Tension Wire to be so upbeat and punky when I first put on “Rips, Punctures…”, but lo and behind the opening track “Wet Blanket” is a tremendous track in the vein of Osker and mid-nineties Unwritten Law. The typical guitar distortion that opens up a track like “Goodbyes” is a hallmark of punk rock but really is a stylistic feature common to more rockabilly-esque bands like X and Hotrod Boogie. Each track is incredibly short, and avoids problems common to more Ramones-punk like bands (The Huntingtons, Darlington, The Lillingtons) by only using the same three chords over two instead of four minutes. The energy that Tension Wire brings to each and every track really cuts through the fuzzy recording and is timeless in style. I can honestly imagine putting this album on after a Descendents album in 1982 or early Operation Ivy in 1989, and Tension Wire sounds fresh and vital to a proper punk education in all eras.

Each track on “Rips, Punctures…” is forced through the same filter that energizes and speeds up even slower tracks like “Bring It Up!”. Anthems like “Those Times” mix together the Sex Pistols with 1039-era Green Day to create the concentrate to the apples and oranges of different eras of punk rock. What really boggles my mind is the sheer lack of vision that other reviewers in my position (listening to Tension Wire for the first time) have exhibited when they’ve reviewed the band – many are content with giving the band a mediocre review and moving along. While one of the reviewer’s criticisms is true, that the mixing of this disc is more than a little rough, I must point out that the pre-Candy Apple Grey Husker Du and GI-era Germs albums had much the same problems, and were essential in forming punk (and post-punk).

Tension Wire should by all stretches of the imagination be signed to a bastion of good punk rock, a place like SOS or TKO. Now, whether that happens is up to the labels in question, but the solid performance of the band (a good indicator of their length as a band) really should be experienced by more individuals. The screeching guitar solo in tracks like “Goodbyes” is just a small drop in the tremendous bucket of talent that Tension Wire has, and “Rips, Punctures…” is an album that has very few in the ways of weaknesses.

Top Tracks: Those Times, Anylitical

Rating: 8.6/10