Albums by this artist

Identikit (2001)

Mission: Control! (1999)

Burning Airlines

Mission: Control!

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» JONATHAN COHEN | SENIOR EDITOR

Burning Airlines Mission: Control! Desoto, 1999 RiYL: Jawbox, Fugazi, Nirvana, Gang Of Four

Jawbox, the Washington D.C. post-punk outfit formed by J. Robbins in 1989, was once described as "a pop band that refuses to write pop songs." But Burning Airlines, Robbins' first musical project since Jawbox's 1997 dissolution, brilliantly channels the artist's pop sensibilities through muscular hardcore riffs with insistent rhythmic foundations. Mission: Control!, Burning Airlines' debut album, does have its Jawbox sound-a-likes. But Robbins' increasing growth as a songwriter is the real treat -- he takes a few unexpected detours but makes each one rewarding.

With its seamless dynamic shifts, thick riffs and killer melody, "3 Sisters" epitomizes the transition away from Jawbox's clipped, angular post-punk and onto a much more open-ended playing field. The other biggest surprise is Jawbox guitarist Bill Barbot's transition to bass. Jawbox bassist Kim Coletta always rattled off cool melodies, but Barbot has a sharper and more intuitive sense of placement. His rubber-band lines do the dirty work on the slick "Wheaton Calling" and tug on Robbins' riffs like a magnet in "Pacific 231."

Although Jawbox's music had begun to incorporate a greater range of moods by its final album, Burning Airlines finds Robbins' melodies highly effective in a variety of settings: insanely catchy punk-pop ("Pacific 231"), furious Pixies-esque rock ("Sweet Deals On Surgery" and head-spinning opener "Carnival"), and arty dissonance ("I Sold Myself In," the intelligently weird "Crowned"). "Scissoring" is the album's standout cut with its wicked harmonic riff, bad-ass bassline and thrashy second-half. There's rarely a dull or unoriginal moment to be found anywhere here.

A few of the more ambitious numbers don't work -- the overbearing "The Escape Engine" or the Barbot-sung "Meccano" would have been hard-pressed to make the cut on any Jawbox record. "(my pornograph") samples dialogue from Orson Welles' film "The Trial" as the main ingredient of a waste-of-space sound collage.

Overall, Mission: Control! is one of the strongest (and certainly one of the catchiest) albums to come out of the D.C. music scene in quite a while. It's also a very promising start to life after Jawbox.

JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"