Now that My Bloody Valentine’s back catalog is for the most part officially back in print – the Domino-branded reissues of their last three albums came out last week (although my own order is still back-ordered till whenever) and their EPs 1988-1991 has finally made it to streaming services in its entirety, albeit retconned into a seven-track EP alongside standalone releases Feed Me With Your Kiss, You Made Me Realise, Glider, and Tremolo – almost everything the band has officially released is now easily available to hear, wherever you are.

There are, however, two notable exceptions. There were two pieces of new music released by the band between 1991’s Loveless and 2013’s mbv, both of them covers, and neither of them available to hear in any officially sanctioned form anywhere – rights and royalties issues, I would think. The first, a Louis Armstrong cover of all things, appeared on Peace Together, a 1993 benefit compilation for the youth of Northern Ireland, and in 1996 they contributed a perfect track to Whore – Various Artists Play Wire, which was exactly what it said – a tribute album to the post-punk legends Wire. In 2015, Colin Newman rated in the ninth best Wire cover in existence:

“What can you say? It’s MBV and they covered a Wire song. It’s one of a very short list of songs they have covered (the other well known one being We Have All The Time In The World, first done by Louis Armstrong).”

– Colin Newman of Wire, to Dummy

Obviously I love it, and considering it brings together the two artists that have gotten the most attention hereabouts lately, a good way to close out a short week.