Gone too soon but not to be forgotten, San Francisco guitar pop supergroup TRIP WIRE has left an impressive legacy. Big Stir Records is proud to celebrate the band's career with the release of TRIP WIRE – a limited edition vinyl LP and extended digital collection that stands as the definitive anthology of Trip Wire's recorded catalog, available now at www.bigstirrecords.com/store and everywhere music is sold or streamed. The LP culls the twelve greatest tracks from Trip Wire's first three CDs, now on wax for the first time. The extended digital version (included with the LP purchase) includes all 12 cuts and adds highlights from the bands's fourth album Once & Always, both sides of the two singles issued on Big Stir Records, and the entirety of the final EP Spite House, issued after the band's retirement for a comprehensive view of the band's all too brief lifespan.

The release is a fitting tribute to a group destined to be recalled throughout the Bay Area as one of the hardest-gigging, hardest-hitting guitar pop outfits in recent memory. Formed by and centered around singer-songwriter-guitarist MARTY SCHNEIDER, TRIP WIRE always had room for multiple voices: the definitive lineup anchored by powerhouse drummer STU SHADER also included power pop legend JEFF SHELTON (The Well Wishers, Spinning Jennies), several of whose tunes are included here. Always melodic, the band's guitar sound tapped into roots beyond the power pop pantheon: there was just as much of the Stones as The Beatles in their DNA, and echoes of college rock greats from The Replacements to R.E.M. to the Pixies were a big part of the brew. There was Americana twang, too, evoking The Band and Uncle Tupelo, and more than anything else, there were just some damned fine songs.

The Trip Wire ethos coalesced quickly across their first two albums, Get In & Get Out (2015) and Seizureville (2016). In 2017, Cold Gas Giants, released on Kool Kat Music, saw the lineup stabilize with Schneider, Shader, Shelton, and Bill Hunt (who would also contribute songs to the band's oeuvre). The dozen songs on this LP are drawn from those first thee records, with “Long Days Gone” from Cold Gas Giants kicking off Side A. The digital bonus section commences with the single “Act Fast”, which, along with its non-album B-side version of “Golden Gloves”, saw the group make the move to Big Stir Records in preparation for what would be their final and perhaps finest album, Once & Always, amply represented here. One more single for BSR, “Katie Says”, demonstrated there was still plenty of electricity in the Wire, but Schneider's move out of state brought an end to the band, with the farewell EP Spite House serving as a fitting coda. All of the single and EP tracks are anthologized here.

Schneider is already forming a new band and writing new material in Georgia, and of course Shelton remains a prime mover in the power pop world with The Well Wishers. But the music collected here attests to the fact that Trip Wire was a unique musical force of its own. So blast off one more time for a self-titled spin of the best the band had to offer... they will be missed!