Mission Of Burma

For a band with one studio album and a couple EPs to its name, Boston's Mission Of Burma was a tower of inspiration to the American post-punk scene, due to its unique, fiery compositions and unequalled ability to blend feedback and sonic experimentalism with shouting, anthemic rock.

Formed in 1980 by bassist Clint Conley, guitarist Roger Miller, drummer Peter Prescott, and tapehead Martin Swope, MOB blasted onto the scene with an incendiary debut single, "Academy Fight Song" b/w "Max Ernst," and proceeded to take its sizzling, adventurous pop/punk style a step further on the excellent Signals, Calls, and Marches EP. The full-length Vs. revealed a deeper incarnation of MOB, but it also proved to be the band's last studio recording.

The group's furious live performances left Miller nursing tinnitus and he soon moved on to less volume-extreme musical projects, such as the Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic. But Burma's short lifespan belied its true influence, with bands as disparate as R.E.M., Fugazi, and Sonic Youth venturing off in new sonic directions first hinted at by Mission Of Burma.

A 1985 live album tied together some loose ends, and the band actually reunited briefly in 2001, when some of NATN's writers had the privilege to see them perform in New York. With a host of new songs and a fresh appreciation of the old, MOB reminded everyone in attendance why music sometimes really makes a difference.

Album reviews

The Horrible Truth About Burma
Rykodisc (1985)
One of the tightest and most exciting of the American post-punk bands, Mission Of Burma's recorded output -- the Signals, Calls, and Marches EP and the full-length Vs. -- is consistently engaging but tragically scant.

Signals, Calls, and Marches (Recommended)
Rykodisc (1981)
Mission of Burma's debut EP is a great example of the good that punk has done for rock music.