In anticipation of catching up with iconic English vocalist John Lydon and his latest version of Public Image Ltd. on Wednesday at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, I've finally started reading—ridiculously late—Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, a seminal music history book by Simon Reynolds.

Based on the few chapters I've consumed, the book lives up to its billing as the definitive chronicle of the era and its significant players—including PiL, the initial 1978 lineup of which appears in the photograph at left (by Dennis Morris), and also on the cover of Reynolds's book in its 2005 Penguin softcover edition. Pictured, from left to right, are drummer Jim Walker, guitarist Keith Levene, bassist Jah Wobble and Lydon. The most vital version of the band, the one that emerged during sessions for the epochal 1979 triple-EP Metal Box, came a year later, when Martin Atkins took over as the band's full-time drummer.

The PiL lineup that will be appearing in Williamsburg (and on Tuesday night at Terminal 5 in Manhattan) is not remotely the classic version, though rumors had Wobble, at least, being approached and saying no. Instead, the current group includes guitarist Lu Edmonds, formerly of the Damned, Mekons and 3 Mustaphas 3; drummer Bruce Smith, from the Pop Group and the Slits; and bassist Scott Firth. Following a brief, well-received U.K. tour in December 2009, the band has trekked across the U.S. in May, a tour that ends in Williamsburg.

It's an admirable and versatile group, to judge by a three-disc live recording of its December show in Leeds that I've been listening to for a few months now, and I'm very much looking forward to the show. The irony, if it can be called that, is that my sole previous live encounter with PiL also involved a lineup with Edmonds and Smith (as well as later mainstays John McGeoch and Allan Dias)—and I pretty much detested it.

But that had a lot more to do with my own expectations and prejudices—a passion for the band's early, experimental and confrontational period, combined with severe distaste for the Bill Laswell-produced Album, PiL's American-mainstream breakthrough—than it did with a very good group of interesting, proficient musicians. (It didn't help my outlook that Lydon swaggered out to an instrumental cover of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and the band played a faithful version of the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" later on.) More sanguine in my old age, I expect to enjoy the sight of Lydon enjoying himself.

What really prompts this post, though, is Lala, a brilliant online music service to which I managed to grow passionately attached mere months before its demise at the hands of Apple was announced. Among the many reasons that I'll miss Lala fiercely, being able to jump from Reynolds's descriptions of records by the Normal, Thomas Leer, Cabaret Voltaire and Swell Maps to a site where I can listen to all of the above—on demand, free of charge the first time and again indefinitely for a nominal free—has got to be among the foremost.

For a succinct history of Public Image Ltd. with embedded videos, see RJ Dent. The mother of all PiL fansites is the amazing Fodderstompf, a vast, keenly organized archive as engrossing as it is useful. Among Simon Reynolds's bewildering network of blogs, he posts most frequently on Blissblog; another of his blogs features his footnotes for Rip It Up and Start Again.

Playlist, Rip It Up Special Edition (2010.05.17):

The Normal – "Warm Leatherette"/"T.V.O.D." (Mute)

Thomas Leer – "Private Plane" (Oblique)

Buzzcocks – Spiral Scratch (New Hormones)

Cabaret Voltaire – "Do the Mussolini (Head Kick)"/"The Set Up" (Rough Trade)

Swell Maps – A Train to Marineville (Rough Trade)

The Pop Group – Y (Radar/Rhino)

The Slits – Cut (Island)

…to be continued…