Wire Train

 ( American New Wave Musical Groups ) 

Wire Train was a San Francisco-based alternative rock band, who released six albums in the 1980s and 1990s.

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History The band was formed in 1982 as the Renegades by two students from San Francisco State University, Kevin Hunter and Kurt Herr. Their rhythm section eventually stabilized with fellow students Federico Gil Solá (from Argentina) and Anders Rundblad (from Sweden). When they had to change their name, the band became Wire Train in 1983. The band's first album features Anders Rundblad (bass guitar, vocals), Federico Gil Solá (drums), Kevin Hunter (vocals, guitar), and Kurt Herr (vocals, guitar). Rundblad had previously played with the Swedish bands Motvind and Gary T'To Band.

In June 1983, Wire Train signed to the local 415 Records label, also home to acts like Translator, Red Rockers and Romeo Void, all of which found themselves with national distribution when 415 entered into a deal with Columbia Records.

Wire Train's debut, In a Chamber, produced by David Kahne at The Automatt in San Francisco, was released late in 1983. It achieved success on the U.S. college charts during 1984, and the band toured as openers for Big Country.

Brian MacLeod replaced Gil Solá prior to their second album, Between Two Words, and Herr left during its recording, replaced by Jeff Trott (ex-the Lifers). The album, produced in Vienna by Peter Maunu, was released in 1985. The band's third album, Ten Women, was recorded by Tim Palmer at Utopia studios in London and released in 1987. Ten Women featured a guest appearance by the Alarm guitarist Dave Sharp on "Breakwater Days" and had its first single "She Comes On" banned by the BBC.

After a 1987 European tour, the band went on a two-year hiatus, extricating themselves from their contract with Columbia. Trott played with World Party. and McLeod with Toy Matinee.

Wire Train (1990) and No Soul No Strain (1992) were issued by MCA Records. The latter, produced by Bill Bottrell, was their fourth album to chart, peaking at No. 43 on the Billboard 200.

In 1993, MCA rejected their next effort, Snug, as "too weird". It was released digitally in April 2009.

In 1996, Columbia released a compilation CD, Last Perfect Thing... A Retrospective. The first pressings mistakenly included an uncredited "Half a Lifetime", substituted on later pressings with the correct track, "Last Perfect Thing".

In 2003, the band reunited for an episode of VH1's Band Reunited, but it was never aired.

In 2009, Hunter, MacLeod, Trott and Rundblad reunited again for a three-gig tour in California, in part, to commemorate the digital release of Snug. According to Hunter another collection of songs was recorded concurrently with Snug under the working title of Electric. No new album has been released at this time.

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Band Members Most recent members

• Kevin Hunter – vocals, guitar (1983–1993, 2003, 2009)
• Anders Rundblad – bass guitar, vocals (1983–1993, 2003, 2009)
• Jeff Trott – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1993, 2003, 2009)
• Brian MacLeod – drums (1985–1992, 2003, 2009)

Former members

• Kurt Herr – vocals, guitar (1983–1985)
• Federico Gil Solá – drums (1983–1985)

Timeline ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:120 bottom:100 top:0 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1983 till:30/06/2010 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy

Colors =

 id:Vocals    value:red     legend:Vocals
 id:Guitar    value:green   legend:Guitar
 id:Bass      value:blue    legend:Bass
 id:Drums     value:orange  legend:Drums
     

Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = increment:3 start:1983 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1983

BarData =

 bar:Kevin      text:"Kevin Hunter"
 bar:Kurt       text:"Kurt Herr"
 bar:Jeff       text:"Jeff Trott"
 bar:Anders     text:"Anders Rundblad"
 bar:Federico   text:"Federico Gil Solá"
 bar:Brian      text:"Brian MacLeod"
     

PlotData=

width:11
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1994   color:Vocals
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004   color:Vocals
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010   color:Vocals
 bar:Kurt       from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1985   color:Vocals
 bar:Federico   from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1985   color:Drums
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1994          color:Bass
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004          color:Bass
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010          color:Bass
 bar:Jeff       from:01/01/1985   till:01/01/1994          color:Guitar
 bar:Jeff       from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004          color:Guitar
 bar:Jeff       from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010          color:Guitar
 bar:Brian      from:01/01/1985   till:01/01/1994   color:Drums
 bar:Brian      from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004   color:Drums
 bar:Brian      from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010   color:Drums
width:3
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1994          color:Guitar
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004          color:Guitar
 bar:Kevin      from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010          color:Guitar
 bar:Kurt       from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1985   color:Guitar
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/1983   till:01/01/1994          color:Vocals
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/2003   till:01/01/2004          color:Vocals
 bar:Anders     from:01/01/2009   till:01/01/2010          color:Vocals
     

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Other projects McLeod, Trott and Rundblad all later played with Sheryl Crow.

After leaving Wire Train, Gil Solá returned to his native Argentina, where he was a member of Divididos from 1990 to 1995.

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In popular culture "I Will Not Fall" appeared on the soundtrack for the film Point Break (1991), "I'll Do You" appeared in the game (2006) and "Chamber of Hellos" appeared in the episode "Limbo" (2015) of Halt and Catch Fire.

The band the Action Design covered two Wire Train songs ("I'll Do You" and "Chamber of Hellos") for the soundtrack to Endless Bummer (2009).

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Discography

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Studio albums

1984	In a Chamber	150	415 / Columbia Records
1985	Between Two Words	-	415 / Columbia
1987	Ten Women	181	415 / Columbia
1990	Wire Train	-	MCA Records
1992	No Soul No Strain	-	MCA
2009	Snug	-	Wire Train

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Compilation albums

• In a Chamber / Between Two Words (1995, Oglio Records)
• Last Perfect Thing... A Retrospective (1996, 415/Columbia/Legacy)
• In a Chamber / Between Two Words / Ten Women (2020, BGO Records)

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Singles

• "Chamber of Hellos" (1983)
• "I'll Do You" (1984)
• "Last Perfect Thing" (1985)
• "Skills of Summer" (1985)
• "She Comes On" (1987)
• "Diving" (1987)
• "Should She Cry?" (1990)
• "Stone Me" (1992) - US Modern Rock #23

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External links

• Wire Train on Facebook

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