Wire's "Map Ref 41°N 93°W,"
performed by My Bloody Valentine

With its hallmark 1991 album Loveless, My Bloody Valentine helped lay the blueprint for what would become known shortly thereafter as "alternative rock." Loveless' washed-out guitars; androgynous, breathy vocals; blend of live and programmed drums; and engineering virtuosity influenced countless artists. Those who've credited MBV as an inspiration range from Nine Inch Nails and Garbage to Smashing Pumpkins and Bob Mould's band, Sugar, whose "Your Favourite Thing" bears so strong a resemblance to MBV's "Blown a Wish" it's practically a cover itself.

It was truly puzzling to fans, then, when at the peak of its power, MBV vanished. Though the band never formally broke up, it has yet to release another album. As for why, there have been rumors upon rumors: Bankrupt band members were driving cab to feed themselves; more than 60 hours worth of material had been finished, then destroyed; frontman Kevin Shields had collapsed under pressure to produce a follow-up worthy of Loveless; heavy pot smoking combined with perfectionism slowed the release of the next MBV album; and so on and so forth.

Then, after hipster record store employees and music critics — the only ones who follow a band so long after its last album — had long since forsaken the band, MBV resurfaced on the 1996 tribute album Whore: Various Artists Play Wire.

MBV's spin on "Map Ref 41°N 93°W" wildly spins off in directions never intimated on Wire's 1979 post-punk original, which appeared on the album 154.

Wire's crackling, slightly reverbed new wave guitar is reinvented as MBV's sensuous, blurred-out melodic feedback. Whereas the vocals, probably some of the not-very-musical Wire's finest, are greatly improved, with heavily produced singing from both Shields and the group's main vocalist, Belinda Butcher. Layers upon layers of Shields gorgeous guitar work — the upper limit of which spirals and throbs almost like a keyboard vibrato — sound as if they'd drift away, carrying Shields and Butcher's beautiful voices along with them were it not for the anchoring force of Colm O'Ciosoig's drumming.

Perhaps it's most fitting, then, after what seems to be MBV's demise, that O'Ciosoig has gone on to be its most productive ex-member, having produced and engineered a number of projects, as well as fronting his own projects, a band called Clear Spot and a late-2000 collaboration with Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval.

Bassist Debbie Googe formally declared independence from the group and formed her own band, Snowpony, with ex-Stereolab member Katherine Gifford and the original drummer of Quickspace Supersport.

As for Shields, he's cropped up on the occasional remix by the likes of Yo La Tengo, The Pastels and Primal Scream, as well as having joined them on tour in the U.K. and Australia. He still talks of putting together another MBV album, but don't hold your breath.

Undoubtedly, Wire played a large role in carrying punk, post-punk and new wave music outside of narrow genre constructs and into the music of the future, in much the way MBV would help reinvent guitar noise as something other than music for angry teenagers.

— Eric Wittmershaus (ericw at flakmag dot com)