HIGH TENSION WIRES:
Midnight Cashier: LP
Ever sat around in your undies and thought, "Huh, I wonder what Mike Wiebe of the Riverboat Gamblers would sound like with Mark, Mike, and Jeff of the Marked Men and Chris of the Reds?" I mean, they all live in the same geographic area. It's not that inconceivable; weirder shit like nanotechnology is afoot nowadays. Still in your underwear, think Buzzcocks and that smattering of non-ass, synthesizer-driven stuff in the '80s (go ahead and cherry pick some Jesus And Mary Chain, some Cure, Echo And The Bunnymen, a whisper of Bauhaus) on top of that, and bang, there you go. On one hand, it's pretty much what you'd expect (in the fact that it's great, tight, and instantly memorable and sounds a lot like the Marked Men), on the other hand—and I'd suspected this all along—that this is a group of folks with many more than one or two bunnies to pull out of their collective hats and they aren't afraid to roll that bunny up and throw the occasional curveball. –Todd Taylor (Dirtnap)

The new record "drops" tommorow.  Get it while its hot (and the vinyl is still clear)

We are giddy little lads awaiting your reactions. 
A few reactions have already come in....

check it out:
http://www.geocities.com/nowwave/records/htw2007.html

The record is availible through Itunes and record stores that are'nt dumb.

from the upcoming album entitled.........actually I'm not sure what the title of the album is gonna be...
but it is done and it will be out in earlyish 07!!!!  On Dirtnap fool!!!!

Hibernate and "They fall apart" are online NOW!!!!

checkit

 

Here are 2 reviews from now-wave...checkitout....

The first review is from a reviewer who originally didnt like the record......after a prompt payment of payola  he WROTE A NEW REVIEW....pretty cool actually.....the album grows like an infection in the minds of the listener.

REVIEW #1

High Tension Wires
Send A Message
(Dirtnap Records)

(REVIEW BY LORD RUTLEDGE)

Awesome debut from members of Marked Men, Reds, and Riverboat Gamblers

Damn, I blow. I am an asshole, an idiot, a moron, a jackass, a peckerhead, a fucknugget, a dickcheese, a scumbucket, a dildo, a dipstick, a dumb-ass, a twat, a bastard, a schmuckball, a shit-eater, a turdlicker, a jerkoff, a retard, a scrotum-face, a dung-cuddler, an uber-prick, a baloney-beating buttbrain, a double-dutch douche bag. I sniff vomit. I suck donkey dick. I sleep with midgets. Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with me? What could have possibly possessed me to pan one of the best punk albums of the year? What in the hell was I THINKING?!!!!

Was I temporarily insane? Was I smoking something? Did I get drunk one night and browbeat my poolboy Javier into writing the review for me? Did a pack of gnomes sneak into my house at 3:00 AM and secretly dub demos from Richard Marx: The Punk Years onto my HTW disc? I hereby renounce my previous assessment of Send A Message and offer in its place a full-on ringing endorsement. I'm here to retract, to repent, to set the record straight.

Fuck...forget everything I said before about the High Tension Wires. Especially that part about there being no great songs on this album. Good god! "Gillette Napoleon" and "Smile and Lie" will both make my year-end list of the best songs of 2005. "Get You" and "I Heart Mao Inhibitors" aren't far behind. And even if Send A Message isn't quite as awesome as either Marked Men album, it's at least in the ballpark. This Austin supergroup does the poppy '77 punk thing with energy and style, busting loose in the manner of previous sub-genre standouts like the FM Knives, Clorox Girls, Briefs, and (Duh!) Marked Men. Buzzcockian leads and Ramones-y riffs abound, and the vocals remind me slightly of the Dickies' Leonard Graves Phillips. Overall, the record radiates an upbeat, invigorating feel. Every tune is fast, catchy, fun, and over before you know what hit ya. Half the songs fail to break the two-minute barrier, and all ten of 'em zip by in just 18 minutes. This is the stuff: no grand ambitions or pretense of musical sophistication---just an amphetamine sprint of buzzing guitars and ringing melodies. It's not rocket science, but then again, the best punk rock never is. The High Tension Wires keep it simple and just let it fly, and I swear I enjoy this album more and more with each repeated listen.

That's my final answer, Regis. ---Lord Rutledge, opinionated asshole
July 6, 2005

REVIEW #2

I love this album. I must say that along with the Real Losers LP, it is my most listened-to album of this year. For a month or so, I’ve been listening to this album around two or three times a day. Why? I don't know, it isn't special... but it is fuckin’ good. Probably the reasons are: it still has a Rip Off punk feelin’, it's very short (just 10 songs…and six or so are just around 1:30 m), it’s very easy to listen to, and the songs are very good.

Probably the second Marked Men album is better, but I prefer this album…easier to listen to and more punk, still has a pop feelin’ but less. It's more ’77 punk. Like a mix between the first Marked Men album and the second. Along with the first Briefs, Exploding Hearts, and Minds albums, this is one of the best Dirtnap releases... and that means that it is one of the best punk albums of the last few years. I love it.

---Raul Reaction
July 26, 2005

I think we got nominated for a Grammy AND and Emmy (which is wierd....but whatever....)

High Tension Wires

By adrian mack

Publish Date: 23-Jun-2005

Send a Message (Dirtnap)

Hiding behind the unprepossessing artwork of Send a Message is one of the best punk records to come out of nowhere since Guitar Romantics by the Exploding Hearts a few years back. High Tension Wires—not much more than a fuck band from Texas—prove that they actually do build them like this anymore, even as the genre charitably called punk has elsewhere become this decade’s hair metal. At worst, you could accuse High Tension Wires of redundancy: its simulation of 1977 is good enough to spook a horse, but redundancy seldom comes with hooks like these. At best, Send a Message apes the sounds of a handful of bands that roamed the Earth 30 years ago, but with stunning aplomb. And at 19 successively impressive minutes, the whole affair is not only fast but also tighter than a bulldog’s nuts on ice. Brings to mind the Briefs? Sure—except those guys have an in-house graphics team that spends millions of dollars a minute on making everything look…um…punk. Send a Message, on the other hand, is illustrated with a single blurry image of a Japanese man sweeping the floor. It would be foolish to suggest that a Japanese man is the difference between a good punk band and a great one, but I ask you to consider it anyway. These boys apparently don’t care to bludgeon us with the obvious, hinting at a more wayward intelligence behind the Dickies impressions and Pistols lifts. Which would explain why this is on Dirtnap. Anyhow, there’s not a single stinky track on Send a Message, and, even better still, no fake English accents.

Here is a review translated from Spanish its from a spanish webzine called "This is Rock n Roll" Computers are dumb at translating.....which makes this review even better.... HIGH TENSION WIRES - SEND To MESSAGE CD/LP (Dirtnap) First they came the Reds to give us to all pataditas in the ass, soon the Marked Men to teach that they are not simple punkarrillas and now the High Wires Tension to teach to us that they are cracks of the life. That uncles! The truth, I believe that this it is my favorite disc of these chavales. I am not safe but I believe yes that (probably the initial flipaera is single). This is punk 77 (as they demonstrate with that versionaza of the Kids) in a line a little Marked Men and passed through the touch of the seal. really milk. This disc has become in a matter of days a classic one my house like everything what they have made these chavales... but the truth, I believe that this disc is better than the second of the Marked Men. And that already is to say! Dirtnap has become to take discazo... And with this few go already! The only thing that I do not like... Single 10 songs! Cago-in-God, leaves with many desire of more. Raul

dagger.com...I think HIGH TENSION WIRES- SEND A MESSAGE- DIRTNAP- If Denton, TX fantastic Marked Men put out one of my fave records last year (ON THE OUTSIDE also, on Dirtnap Records) then they’ve done it again, or just about. HTW’s are led by Jeff Burke and Mark Ryan who both sing and play guitar in The Marked Men and the HTW’s is their side project (but Burke plays drums and Mike Wiebe, from the Riverboat Gamblers, handles main vocals and guitars and does most of the songwriting ) and if my crystal ball is wor! king properly today I’d say that SEND A MESSAGE will be on my top 10 list for 2005. More of that fantastic , relentless garage punk with hooks a plenty and I see no reason why these 10 tunes can’t be total anthems for fist-pumpin’ baldies , Mohawk knuckleheads, or normies like me. So come on, use the brain the monkey gave you , get your butt down to the record store and pick this up. (www.dirtnaprecs.com )

THe record is now out!!!!!! get your grubby hands on it now.....while its HOT!!! Find out what all the kids are talking about!!!! TAke too much of your wellbutrin and freak the fuck out!!!!! Also....... The HTW wanna be friends with more girls....

Its done! Its Mastered!!!!

Coming soon....ask Ken from Dirtnap when.....I think either Feb. or March

We need someone to help us make a for real website......so lemme know if you might could help....and by help I mean do it for us.

You will recieve an old t-shirt of my choosing (from the mike wiebe collection)

Mark has locked himself in his studio and is only shaving the top of his head. He constantly touches different fingertips to the tip of his thumb and mumbles to himself in inaudible tones and randomly breaks out into laughter. He is throwing out all his previous mixes of "Send a Message" and forcing me at gunpoint to listen to the opening chord of the one day hit single "the clear is coast". He says I have to keep listening until I "get it"......and then he just stares at me like he does'nt know who I am.