Artist bio

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.

Albums by this artist

The Horrible Truth About Burma (1985)

Signals, Calls, and Marches (Recommended) (1981)

Mission Of Burma

Signals, Calls, and Marches

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

NATN Recommended Mission Of Burma Signals, Calls, and Marches Rykodisc, 1981 RiYL: Fugazi, Television, The Clash

Mission of Burma's debut EP is a great example of the good that punk has done for rock music. The adventurous, invigorating rock of Signals, Calls, and Marches helps bridge the gap between punk, post-punk, and its latter-day progeny like indie rock, post-rock and even britpop.

The caustic quartet -- drummer Peter Prescott, guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley, and tape manipulator Martin Swope -- released this eight-song EP in 1981 (including the 1980 single "Academy Fight Song"/"Max Ernst"), and followed it up with only one full-length album before disbanding. MOB's loud, inspired music went so far as to physically injure its creators -- Miller's tinnitus leading to the band's breakup -- and its powerful effects can still be felt.

With brilliant hardcore anthems like "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" and "Academy Fight Song," the band adds their own spice to the sound of punk classics like The Clash and Gang of Four. But songs like the angular "Outlaw" recall the art-school punks like Wire and the Talking Heads.

Even more adventurous tunes like the many-faceted "Red" and the instrumental epic "All World Cowboy Romance" drew on these influences to create forward-thinking rock that would be echoed in the sounds of '80s underground stalwarts like R.E.M., Husker Dü and Fugazi. Mission Of Burma's inventive arrangements of punk-rock rhythms can even been found laced throughout '90s experimental rock like Aerial M and Directions In Music.

But Signals, Calls, and Marches isn't all about being derivative or inspirational. Despite all these crossroads, this record is a well-produced, unique-sounding achievement and it's remarkably cohesive for all the bases it covers. That it shines in shades of all these other artists is merely a tribute to the far-reaching power of Mission Of Burma's music. Highly recommended.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.