IT'S SO OBVIOUS

Apr 21

So the last post was the first post with a CD copy of Pink Flag. This blog is not original pressing vinyl centric snobbery. It is personal physical copies of Pink Flag centric (I haven’t decided one way or the other about the snobbery yet).

Did you first experience Pink Flag through a dubbed cassette someone gave you with some other album on the other side? If you’ve still got it, take a picture of yourself with it, I would love to have something like that on the site.

Got a beat to shit burned copy with artwork you made yourself in mspaint, with the tracklisting sharpie’d on the face of the CD itself, that’s scratched to shit from you playing it so many times and getting it lost under the seat of your car? Take a picture with it.

This is Walt Gorecki. I first met him when he asked to put my photos in an art show he was putting together about the southern california DIY underground music scene (duh). He continually puts on rad shit like gallery installations, zines, and whathaveyou under the name Walt! Productions. He claims that “Pink Flag is one of the best albums ever made. That’s not opinion, that is fact.” I back him 100%. His copy is a recent(ish) CD version.

Apr 7

nuclearpizza:

Wire - Pink Flag. 1st pressing. Hellz yeah.

today, some reblogs of shit that I find while searching for “Pink Flag”. I don’t know who these people are, but they’re holding copies of Pink Flag, so fuck it.

Apr 4

This is Andy from the band Brain Handle. I don’t know a whole lot about him other than we post on the same Internet message board where nerds talk about their records. Oh, and I bought a used Brain Handle 12” on No Way Records a while back, and it was pretty ok.

Oct 21

This is Jim Smith. Maybe you’ve heard of him? Maybe you’ve been to The Smell? One of the most important all ages music spaces in the country? Well Jim owns and runs that. Beyond that, he has killer taste in music, and an awesome record collection. This picture was taken at Pehrspace, where upon my walking into the room, Mr. Suit immediately started playing. Jim Smith was DJing, and I was able to snap this shot of him and his Pink Flag. His is an early Harvest Records pressing, no warning on the cover.

Aug 8

This is Nina Tarr. The first and only time I’ve met her, she was DJing a party in Long Beach that my friend Bryan invited me to this past weekend. The bands were OK, but she was playing some really killer records. If memory serves me, there was some TSOL, Black Randy and the Metro Squad, and the Spitz that were played. I was doing the record nerd hovering over the turntables scoping out what was going to be played next type stuff, and I saw she threw on side B of Pink Flag. For those interested, 12XU was the track that was played. Judging from the labels, I believe this is the 4 Men with Beards pressing.

May 10

James Fella

This is James Fella. He runs a label, Gilgongo Records, who have been consistently putting out killer records since 2004. He’s played music/”sound-art” with/as James Fella, Soft Shoulder, Tent City, and probably some others I haven’t heard of. He writes a lot of lists, lives in Tempe, Arizona, and is probably one of my favorite people on the planet. I got in contact with him through carrying copies of his first release (The Reindeer Tiger Team 7”, which is sadly out of print now), then later through an Internet message board where nerds talk about their records. This picture was taken in his bedroom in Tempe, on a short visit I made late last month to check out his new band’s first show. His copy of Pink Flag is the 4 Men with Beards pressing.

May 5

Matthew Gray

This is Matthew Gray. He plays (played? I’m not sure anymore) weird catchy lo-fi acoustic music as Mycroft Holmes, and booked shows in Long Beach under the now defunct Outsider Folk. This photo was taken in his kitchen in Long Beach, where most of his record collection was kept (he has since moved into a lovely apartment in another part of Long Beach). You may have noticed that there is a stamp on the cover, which was an early parental advisory-ish warning about some bad language in Mr. Suit. From what I can tell, a lot of the Harvest Records pressings of Pink Flag have this warning.

An Introduction

The basic idea for this blog started several years ago. I noticed that several very different bands had covered songs off of Wire’s album Pink Flag, and that this was one of those albums that many people from different backgrounds cite as influential. From my travels as well as being a record nerd and snooping through people’s collections, I noticed it popping up in collections I wouldn’t have expected. I thought it would be a fun project to photographically document these people with their personal copy of Pink Flag. Ideally, taken as a whole, these photos will show the diversity of owners of Pink Flag. After some nudging from some friends as well as some stressing over the name, I am stoked to say that this project is finally (sort of) off the ground.

If you’re unfamiliar with Pink Flag (though I doubt you are, if you’re reading this), I first and foremost suggest that you purchase the album.

Or, I guess you could read about it. On the Internet. Either from Wire’s official site, the very informative Wikipedia article, or this page if you’re feeling particularly nostalgic for late-mid-90’s geocities web design.

IT'S SO OBVIOUS

A Blog concerning Wire's Pink Flag

James Fella

Matthew Gray

An Introduction