Mission of Burma

I am a member of the rock band Mission of Burma. The group is potentially interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. We existed from 1979-1983, then folded. (We are classed as a "post-punk" band, but our influences are very wide, and once we were even referred to as a "pre-post-punk band" in the press.) Curiously, over the next 19 years our status rose considerably. So we "reformed" in 2002 to play two shows. Which quickly became many more shows, U.S. and Europe. (At all these shows, we performed with a banner next to the drum kit (reading "NO NEW McCARTHY ERA").

In 2003 we recorded our second studio album, ONoffON, for Matador records - our first studio album was recorded in 1982, Vs., for Ace of Hearts records. The reviews fo ONoffON were very favorable. So we kept on playing. After a 19 year hiatus we came back to life and, according to the response, were at least as good as we had been the first go-round. Go figure.

2. Mission of Burma is a classic rock trio - guitar/bass/drums - but has a fourth 'invisible" member, the tape loop player (this was Martin Swope from 1979-1983). This "invisible" member, Bob Weston (who is also bassist/vocalist for the beyond-indie-rock band Shellac), has a tape recorder at the sound board where he also mixes the live band. Before each show, he makes tape loops - loops of recording tape a few feet long - then records bits of the band onto these loops as we are performing. He then maniuplates the tape (flipping the tape over so that the sounds play backwards, changing the tape speed, etc.). and feeds those sounds back into the mix. This produces unearthly, sometimes excessively earthly, sounds that cannot be blamed on the musicians on stage.

From September 28-Oct.12, we began and completed our third studio album. That made fifteen 12-hour days in a row. Got kind of blurry after a while. For this album/CD, only the band was involved: myself - guitar/vocals/songwriter; Clint Conley - bass/vocals/songwriter; Peter Prescott - drums/vocals/songwriter; Bob Weston - tape loops/sound person. Bob engineered it (he is a very experienced engineer who works for NPR as well as Electric Studios in Chicago), and we all produced it together. Whether or not this made it even more of an anomaly than our usual fare remains to be seen.

The band rarely constructs songs in a typical fashion, and we make no apologies for our basic lack of concern about having a mainstream "hit". But if one is interested in an unusual take on what "rock music" is, or isn't, Mission of Burma could be a place to look. The band, with three distinct vocalists and songwriters, functions in a very democratic/anarchistic fashion. And is not afraid of chaos, though
things are often highly structured if you look just past the surface. As an example of our atttitude, on one song from the just-recorded CD the following happens in the last 1 1/2 minutes: A near-disco groove unrolls with 'creamy' vocals in pleasing two-part harmony. Then we lurch into an "out of control/cacophonous" section where each player researches his own thesis. This morphs into a super-minimalistic riff/beat. Shorly a duet shows up between guitar and tape loop/tape manipulations. The song ends when the band/groove grinds to a halt, and the guitar and tape loop overhand just long enough to prove that things aren't what they appear.

It seems likely that the CD will be out in May or June on the Matador Records label.