Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma is an American band from Boston ( Massachusetts). Despite its short first phase of action from 1979 to 1983 they had a major influence on the development of alternative directions and post-punk. In 2002 there were less than 20 years the reunion.
The band consists of guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley and drummer Peter Prescott, with Bob Weston ( at the beginning of Martin Swope ) as tape manipulator and sound engineer. The three musicians share the work of songwriting and singing. It features Roger Miller, who is sometimes referred to as head of the band, mostly as a composer of more experimental pieces, while Conley Talent stronger in writing catchy and at times anthemic songs is ( he was in a critique even describes as a "hook machine" ). So who also wrote the song That's When I Reach For My Revolver, which is probably the most successful and best-known piece of the band, from the pen of Clint Conley.
Like many of their post-punk and no- wave contemporaries sought Mission of Burma, expand and change without losing its essential rebellious spirit of the original idea of punk rock. The special feature of this approach to Mission of Burma is their good musical education ( Miller piano, tuba and composition studied in college ) and to a lesser extent their love for late 60's and early 70's proto punk bands like MC5 and The Stooges, both of which as Miller and Swope come from Michigan.
In the aftermath of the breakup of the band their reputation took almost legendary dimensions. Today's music critic raise the work of Mission of Burma emerged as the decisive turning point in the North American independent music. A number of bands have Mission of Burma specified as inspiration for their work: Nirvana, Creed, REM (which Academy Fight Song played on their Green tour), Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Soul Asylum, Pixies, Sugar, Graham Coxon and Moby - the last two they covered That's When I Reach For My Revolver.
- 2.1 The beginnings
- 2.2 The resolution
- 2.3 After Mission of Burma
- 2.4 The Reunion
- 3.1 original
- 3.2 Reunion
- 3.3 Compilations
The Music
Due to rapid change of dynamics, for Punk unconventional time signatures and chord progressions and together with distinctive tape effects they placed the prevailing modes of expression of punk in question, without losing the power and directness. On a purely intellectual level is the approach of the Mission of Burma by Glenn Branca ( an early contemporaries Burma ) and later similar to that of the Branca students Sonic Youth.
Lyrics
Lyrically made use of the band Dadaist techniques ( This Is Not A Photographer, Nu Disco, Go Fun Burn Man), punk rock fury ( Fun World, New Nails, 1970), alienation ( Mica, That's When I Reach For My Revolver, Trem Two, Academy Fight Song ), art ( Max Ernst) and narratives ( That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate ).
Live performances
Their live performances were known to be rougher than the shots in a pretty casual environment, and mostly a lot; the title of her live Albens ( The Horrible Truth About Burma) refers to these peculiarities of the band at live performances. The Boston critics and connoisseurs Scene Tristam Lozaw used a nursery rhyme to Mission of Burma to describe live: " whenthey were good, theywere very very good, but whenthey were bad they were horrid ... But did what the nature of the beast .... Because They Took chances, you never knew Whether you were going to get one of the most spectacular experiences of your life or if it going what a ball of incomprehensible noise " ( Azerrad, 106 ) ( German: " If they were good, were they are very very good, but when they were bad, they were terrible ... but this is the peculiarity of the devil ... they went a risk, because you never knew if you were there, one of the most spectacular experiences of your life make, or whether it is a just a lot of incomprehensible noise. " ), if the band lives out their improvisational side wore the unpredictable chaos of Swopes tape effects still something to the discordant chaos at the main points of criticism (after Lozaw ) of live sound and the dynamics and Timinig their pieces. When they were faced with a venue at which the system or room acoustics typical of Mission of Burma could not play sound clear Swope went anyway not compromise, and decided to implement it anyway. The set list of the band ( discussed which shortly before the performance was ) ranged from well-matched to apparently random, and (apart from Secrets as an opener and All World Cowboy Romance or a cover as an encore ), there was a dislike which an order once as had successfully proven to be repeated. The already almost random bystander effect could completely collapse if they had chosen an unfavorable order. In contrast, the band could, if all transitions worked, use the dynamic differences of the songs as exciting and unexpected effect.
Swopes tape manipulations and sound engineering techniques
Prescott described the technique of Swope in a 1997 interview: "What Martin did ... what tape 's something that what going on live, manipulate it, and send it back in (via the soundboard) as a sort of new instrument. You could not predict exactly how it would sound, and did got to be the really fun thing I think we all liked. We wanted to play this hammer -down drony noise stuff, but we so wanted another sound in there " ( German: ". What made Martin ... was to take something and what was happening live, to work it and it through the mixer as a new admix instrument. You could never predict exactly how it would sound, which was a very funny thing that we really liked. We wanted to play these purely percussive droning Noisekram, but we also wanted to sound different. " ) Swopes work ranged from subtle and almost imperceptible until striking and even jarring. In Michael Azerrads Our band Could Be Your Life is reported that " a lot of people anything about Swopes contribution knew and confused were like the musicians on stage were their instruments wring such amazing phantom sounds ( The rough translation ). " Although Swopes work so was an essential part of the sound, he hardly seemed on stage, occasionally he appeared to the second guitar to play encores.
Band History
The beginnings
Mission of Burma has its roots in a short-lived Boston rock band called Moving Parts. The cast consisted of Roger Miller, who recently brought in from Ann Arbor (Michigan), Clint Conley (originally from Darien (Connecticut ), after visiting the University of Rochester in New York), keyboardist Erik Lindgren and drummer Boby Bear. Although members all got along well, the ideas of Miller and Conley went in a different direction than that of Lindgren. When they broke up in December 1978, Miller and Conley began new drummer and decided to try out for the Boston -born Prescott, who formerly played in the Artrockband The Molls.
At the name of Mission of Burma, they were inspired by a commemorative plaque, which had Conley discovered on a diplomatic embassy; he thought that the name of a " dark and troubled " effect has (Michael Azerrad, 97). Mission of Burma had her first appearance in April 1979 as a trio, but later in the month Miller wrote a song (New Disco ) which, he thought, could be improved by a tape loop. Miller sat down with the also drawn away from Ann Arbor Martin Swope in connection with which he had written earlier has inspired a few of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen pieces for piano and tape. Swope was used immediately as a live audio engeneer and occasional tape -effect artists (and thus included as an auxiliary member of the band ). His last role grew steadily ( both live and in the studio work, like on The Horrible Truth About Burma documented ) until in 1981 all songs beimischte tape effects, and was regarded as a permanent member of the band, and thus both the band photos as also appeared in the credits of the plates.
Mission of Burma were known in their home town and surrounding area, and made regular trips to New York and Washington DC. They put some created small national tours back that were really well received ( Jello Biafra was a fan ), but expanded their audience not significant from, perhaps for the reason that independent networks, both in relation to the live performances as well as on record distribution was then not nearly as developed as it should be a few years later.
The resolution
After the release of their first studio album, Vs. broke up the band, the reason was a tinnitus in Miller, as a result of known loud performances of the band. Vs. has since harvested a lot of praise; in a record review states that "very few American bands from the 1980s released an album as ambitious or as powerful as Vs, and it still sounds like a classic.. " ( German: " Very few American bands of the 1980s have a plate as Vs. published, which is just as demanding as it is powerful, and it still sounds like a classic. " ) New Nails seems to create the conditions for Sonic Youth, with craggy guitars and " Shouted " vocals, influenced by the novel VALIS of the author Philip K. thickness ( which is regarded as anti-religious ), for example: "The Roman Empire never died / It just changed into the Catholic Church " ( German: " the Roman Empire never fell / was the Catholic Church ").
After Mission of Burma
Miller and Swope then turned their attention to her something quieter side project Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic ( with her former colleagues Lindgren ), which they then left in the '90s, Miller around several solo projects and films ( with the Alloy Orchestra, he accompanied silent films musical ) to devote to it Swope moved to the solitude of Hawaii. Prescott remained active in the Boston music scene, he founded Volcano Suns and later Kustomized and The Peer Group. Except for the production of a panel of Yo La Tengo to Conley retired from the music and worked as a producer for a Boston television station until he took up with Consonant 2001 his musical career again.
In 2001, Michael Azerrads collection of essays (Our band Could Be Your Life ) appeared on a handful of influential American bands of the post-punk era, it also Mission of Burma. The publication of the book introduced the band to a large audience that had never heard of the band.
The Reunion
In 2002, the band was back together and started with Bob Weston of Shellac ( and formerly Prescott's Volcano Suns - band member ) to occur, Weston replacing Swope at the mixer as a tape manipulator. In an interview, Miller explains, "when we Approached Bob Weston to fill Martin's position, we told him he could use current digital technology Which accomplishes Martin's antics in An Easier fashion. HOWEVER, Bob the opt for Maintaining the original integrity, and uses a tape deck " ( German: ". Than we had introduced Bob Weston at Martins position, narrated we in that he could use today's digital technology, which can bewerkstellen Martins grotesque work playing. However selected Bob to obtain the original sound, a tape deck. " )
A new album entitled ONoffON 2004 was produced by Bob Weston in cooperation with Rick Harte and awareness of the band, and released on Matador Records on May 4. The record debuted at number 90 of the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll. The live disk snapshot of the re-founded Mission of Burma was released exclusively for iTunes.
In September 2005, Mission of Burma began recording for their third studio album, tentatively titled (among others) Aluminum washcloth. The task of the producers took over Bob Weston. The albums was also published with the title The Obliterati at Matador On May 23, 2006. On 23 October 2009 appeared the third post- reunion album with The Sound, the Speed , the Light.
Discography
Original
Reunion
- 2004 - ONoffON (LP)
- 2004 - Snapshot (Live; iTunes exclusive)
- 2004 - Dirt b / w Falling ( Single)
- 2004 - Four Hands EP ( EP)
- 2006 - The Obliterati (LP, added anonymously announced as Aluminum washcloth )
- 2009 - The Sound, the Speed , the Light (LP)
- 2012 - Unsound (LP)