[2] Wire are considered a definitive and highly influential art punk and post-punk band, due to their richly detailed and atmospheric sound and obscure lyrical themes.

[citation needed] They steadily developed from an early noise rock style to a more complex, structured sound involving increased use of guitar effects and synthesizers (1978's Chairs Missing and 1979's 154).

Their second album, Chairs Missing (1978), marked a retreat from the stark minimalism of Pink Flag, with longer, more atmospheric songs and synthesizer parts added by producer Mike Thorne.

[10] In June 1988, Wire were part of a lineup that included Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Thomas Dolby supporting Depeche Mode at the Pasadena Rose Bowl where they played to over 60,000 people.

[11][12] In 1989, Wire released IBTABA, a "live" album of mostly reworked versions of songs from The Ideal Copy and A Bell Is a Cup, heavily rearranged, edited, and remixed.

There followed a further period of solo recordings, during which Newman founded the swim ~ label, and later Githead with his wife (ex-Minimal Compact bassist Malka Spigel), while Wire remained an occasional collaboration.

Wire's reception during a short tour in early May of the US, and a number of UK gigs, convinced the band to continue.

Send Ultimate collected all the tracks from the first two Read and Burn EPs along with other unreleased material and both sides of the "Twelve Times You" single.

In January 2011, Wire released Red Barked Tree, which according to the band's press release "rekindles a lyricism sometimes absent from Wire's previous work and reconnects with the live energy of performance, harnessed and channelled from extensive touring over the past few years".

The following year, in April 2016, the band's 15th studio album, entitled Nocturnal Koreans, was released on their label Pinkflag.

[17] In 2017 Wire celebrated 40 years since their debut gig on 1 April 1977 by releasing their 16th studio album, Silver/Lead, and headlining the Los Angeles edition of their DRILL : FESTIVAL.

The three releases collected non-LP singles and the demo sessions from this era along with remastered versions of the original albums.

[21] Side one of the vinyl LP consists of four tracks that were originally released as the limited edition Strays EP, which was given away with mail ordered copies of Red Barked Trees.

[22] In June 2021, in conjunction with Record Store Day, Wire released PF456 Deluxe an 18-song vinyl-only compilation of the first two Read and Burn EPs, the "Twelve Times You" single, and the four unreleased tracks from Send.

"[23] In addition to the Ramones, the band have also cited Neu!, Can, early Roxy Music, Captain Beefheart, Patti Smith, and Television as influences.

"It was like that NYC band Richard Hell and the Voidoids without the studio gimmickry, but Wire was way more 'econo' with the instrumentation and the radical approach to song structure.

Rollins, as Henrietta Collins & The Wife-Beating Childhaters, covered "Ex Lion Tamer" on the EP Drive by Shooting.

"[31] Numerous other bands and artists have cited Wire as an influence, including Soundgarden,[32] Manic Street Preachers,[33] Hüsker Dü,[34] Quicksand,[35] Mary Timony,[36] and Mission of Burma.

The slowcore band Low included an early, previously unreleased cover of "Heartbeat" on their career-spanning box set in 2007.

[citation needed] The Smiths' Johnny Marr has confirmed that he is a fan of the band and has acknowledged that seeing Wire live helped give him the confidence to release his first solo album in 2013.