Ladies and Gentlemen, Mission Of Burma Is Back.

Mission Of Burma, my favorite band in history, has just signed to Matador and will release their first new album since 1982 in May. I shutter to think of it's sonic majesty....

Ah yes, that IS good news indeed! However I am cynical of what can happen to a great band that's been MIA for so long. Look at (and I'm not comparing these bands) Jane's Addiction...

And in the world of movies... we all know the Star Wars series should have been left alone...

I have also heard there is a possible Pixies reunion, and therefore, a possible new album. I love the Pixies, yet this news is kinda bittersweet knowing what I know about "come-backs". It's better to burn out...yadda yadda yadda

Ah, hell, maybe I am being too cynical.

[ Edited by: Slacks Ferret on 2004-01-14 22:57 ]

I saw Mission Of Burma last year. It was an absolute s m o k e r. One of the best shows I've ever been to.

Off Topic
Slacks Ferret wrote

I have also heard there is a possible Pixies reunion

This is what I have read. The Pixies will be at the Coachella festival in Indio, CA. On May 1syt and 2nd. The two-day festival will be held May 1st and May 2nd at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, CA, just outside of Palm Springs. I am so excited!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/news/03-09/10.shtml

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2004-01-14 22:00 ]

You've got great taste, BK!

I saw Mission of Burma twice last year (edit actually 2 years ago - time flies) in England. Their show at the Garage in London was the best show I've ever seen and by the looks of the Burma website, the band themselves thought it was their finest hour.

I have high hopes for the new album (on Matador) from the few new songs they played.

Volcano Suns (Burma offshoot, of course) are my fave band of all time & the Roger Miller/No Man stuff is very very good indeed (when he ditches the overly dada/experimental bumf). Clint Conley's Consonant album is a must for anyone who loved Burma in their 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver' type moments.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2004-01-15 04:44 ]

I saw them also last year. Great show, and incredibly loud!

Last year was great for reunion shows. I saw the following, and all were great shows except for Television, who were good but boring at times (too noodley): Mission of Burma, Television, Rocket From the Tombs, the Weirdos, the Loved Ones, Hepcat, the original Blasters (or was that the year before?). Can't wait for the return of Radio Birdman! They've already played some dates in Europe.

Last year was great for reunion shows. I saw the following, ..., the Weirdos, ...

For a little second I thought you meant the Weird-Ohs (as in Mr. Gasser & The..). Now THERE's a reunion I'd like to see. "Even if it don't go, chrome it!" Course it'd probably not be a very good show because some of them are dead, and corpses don't play good music.

Sorry, this is both non-tiki AND off-topic.

-Randy

they're at irving plaza in nyc Saturday, January 17.

On 2004-01-15 04:26, Trader Woody wrote:
You've got great taste, BK!

Volcano Suns (Burma offshoot, of course) are my fave band of all time & the Roger Miller/No Man stuff is very very good indeed (when he ditches the overly dada/experimental bumf). Clint Conley's Consonant album is a must for anyone who loved Burma in their 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver' type moments.

Trader Woody

[ Edited by: Trader Woody on 2004-01-15 04:44 ]

I like Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic a lot, too. Burma is my roots...I sat on many a porch after many a good party (sadly back in the eighties) drinking Old Milwaukee tall boys and listening to Burma. My post punk period was the Lyres, Embarassment, Big Dipper, Dumptruck, Died Pretty, Miracle Legion, Leaving Trains, Scratch Acid, Sex Clark Five, Absolute Grey, Sonic Youth (back when they had credibility!), Minutemen, Slovenly, Salem 66, The Black Girls, Crucifucks, The Feelies, Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven, and (Okay...you know me better than to call me a jam bander, but...) Plan 9... Anybody else here like any of those?

On 2004-01-16 10:59, Basement Kahuna wrote:
My post punk period was the Lyres, Embarassment, Big Dipper, Dumptruck, Died Pretty, Miracle Legion, Leaving Trains, Scratch Acid, Sex Clark Five, Absolute Grey, Sonic Youth (back when they had credibility!), Minutemen, Slovenly, Salem 66, The Black Girls, Crucifucks, The Feelies, Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven, and (Okay...you know me better than to call me a jam bander, but...) Plan 9... Anybody else here like any of those?

You guys are talking my kind of music here. Scratch Acid was great, but Jesus Lizard was brilliant. Anyone know what David Yow is doing now.?

I still listen to Double Nickles a lot, and Zen Arcade, too. My 2 favorite double albums of that period. Husker Du still seems to be a band people remember, but The Minutemen not so much. Don't really understand why.

The Lyres were great and so were DMZ before them. Boston produced so many great bands back then.

The Feelies are a band I could never get into but would probably appreciate more today. My favorite Feelies moment was when they popped up in Something Wild as the band at the high school reunion.

I remember having Slovenly, Leaving Trains, and Miralce Legion records but can't remember anything about them. Camper Van was also a band that got much acclaim but left me cold.

I've been tempted to buy one of the Dumptruck reissues. I had D for Dumptruck and liked it a lot. A couple of bands I liked to see some reissues of are Squirrel Bait and Killdozer.

I, too, eagerly await the new MOB disc. Now if only Steve Albini would reform Big Black. I haven't cared for what I've heard of Shellac and didn't like Rapeman, either. But what do I know? I still love to listen to the dentist drill sounds of early Swans.

What about early Replacements and 100 Flowers? I liked a lot of the "Paisley Underground" bands back then (Salvation Army/3 O'Clock, Dream Syndicate, Green on Red, Rain Parade, Long Ryders) but when I listen to it now some of it sounds boring. I guess it helps to drop acid regularly.

Some damn fine bands mentioned!

The Jesus Lizard were responsible for one of the most extreme shows I've seen at The Garage in London. Loads of people were packed in, Yow did his stuff and as time went on, the whole room started to buckle and collapse! Afterwards, the floor was covered in ceiling tiles and debris, and all sorts of metal bars were bent out of shape, yet the only person that semed to move was Yow himself. (hanging down from a spinning ceiling fan, etc.) They called it a 'riot'in the press, but nobody was rioting. Very odd.

Similarly, when I saw the Swans in Newcastle, it was so loud yet bass-y that people were collapsing from the sound. Nobody clapped at the end, they just staggered to the door. I really felt like I was about to keel over or puke for about 99% of the show. My friend who was dj-ing said the turntables were vibrating like crazy the whole time. I guess they don't make bands like those any more.

Trader Woody

Wow! 2 people mentioning Dumptruck in 1 thread! I felt like the only guy in LA who listened to them (of course the other 2 guys posting about them are from Georgia & Chicago, so maybe I was the only guy in LA listening to'em!). Also Dinosaur (before they had to add the "Jr."), Leaving Trains (before Falling James went transvestite), Downey Mildew, Black Flag, Minutemen, Ramones (the last 3 being a great show @ the Hollywood Palladium, but that's another story), Big Black, Circle Jerks, Christmas, Birdsongs of the Mezozoic & NoMan (I actually came to MOB through the back door), Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Foetus, Swans...

How the Hell did we end up listening to Les Baxter, Martin Denny & Arthur Lyman?

i came on to this thread too late, cant respond to all the bands.
i wish i would have seen big black live; i watch the pig pile video once in a while and have songs about fucking in my truck right now. scratch acid and jesus lizard, Yow-ee.
take the skinheads bowling.
cant say i ever got into mission of burma, will have to give them a listen. in speaking of bands coming back, i got to see james chance and the contortions recently, at a show with the stooges and captain beefheart, damn! by the time sonic youth came on, i could have gone home.
back to the time period, i would add suicidal tendencies to the list. i saw them live at a halloween party last year and they still know how to throw down.

[ Edited by: tikitanked on 2004-01-21 10:37 ]

On 2004-01-21 09:41, tikitanked wrote:
in speaking of bands coming back, i got to see james chance and the contortions recently, at a show with the stooges and captain beefheart, damn!

[ Edited by: tikitanked on 2004-01-21 10:37 ]

I've been getting back into the No Wave thing lately. There have been some great compilation CDs of No Wave bands out in the last year. I have NY No Wave and Mutant Disco and there is another that I can't think of the title. I highly recommend them. Nothing quite like Lydia Lunch yowling and screeching with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. I like to wake up my neighbors with it on a Sunday morning.

And one more obscure band I'll plug. If anyone is a fan of alt-country, cowpunk, whatever you want to call it. The first 2 albums by Rank and File, in my opinion the original cowpunk alt-country whatever, have been released on one CD by Rhino. It's a limited edition and I think it can only be purchased through Rhino, but Amanda Ruth and all of the songs from the first album put me in a state of bliss.

teenage jesus and the jerks are great. i have the no new york compilation on vynil with them and mars and james chance.

Then the contortions became James White & the Blacks and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks spun off into 8 Eyed Spy and 13-13. Lydia Lunch hooking up with Henry Rollins for "spoken word" shows must have been great (didn't get to one). ON country punk bands, I was really into a band called the Del Fuegos back then. They were kinda like Rank 'n File meets the Plimsols (not that I myself lend any credibillity to these type of comparisons).

the james chance box set that came out last year is great. covers every incarnation of the band, which there were a few.

On 2004-01-21 21:46, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
Then the contortions became James White & the Blacks and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks spun off into 8 Eyed Spy and 13-13.

I saw 8 Eyed Spy at the North Park Lions Club in 1980 - did you see that show? I don't remember too much but I thought Lydia Lunch was wonderfully strange. I saw Lene Lovich a couple of times as well and loved her.

I always thought ti would be cool if Lydia Lunch and Lene Lovich collaborated

On 2004-01-22 11:34, Atomic Cocktail wrote:
I always thought ti would be cool if Lydia Lunch and Lene Lovich collaborated

I haven't heard of that, but Lydia collaborated with Exene Cervenka of X on several things: "Adulterers Anonymous," "Rude Hieroglyphics," & various live appearences.

never seen either of them live. lene lovich is great, have a bunch of her albums on vynil.
i would say that ehr and klaus nomi are two of the most unknown or underrated singer/performers from the period. kind of the hasil adkins of the 1980s

Oh God! :lol: I'm now trying to combine Hasil Adkins with Klaus Nomi! A 1/2 crazy-from-bad-moonshine hillbilly rockabilly singer/musician who thought everyone on the radio played all the instruments in their songs themselves, live, just for him, crossed with a male soprano opera/Weimar Republic cabaret singer in Sci-Fi drag! I'd pay good money to see that train wreck!

On 2004-01-22 11:29, thejab wrote:

On 2004-01-21 21:46, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
Then the contortions became James White & the Blacks and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks spun off into 8 Eyed Spy and 13-13.

I saw 8 Eyed Spy at the North Park Lions Club in 1980 - did you see that show? I don't remember too much but I thought Lydia Lunch was wonderfully strange. I saw Lene Lovich a couple of times as well and loved her.

No, but I caught them at the Skeleton Club when my band opened for them on Valentines Day 1980. Check out pg. 2 of Snare Magazine #2 (a local fanzine that probably only me & jab still have a copy of).

My wife told me that the guy who played Aragon in Lord of the Rings was actually married to Exene Cervenka, gossip fans.

Count me in as another person who knew of Dumptruck, by the way. Not all time faves by any stretch of the imagination but I liked 'em enough to buy 'Positively' & the one with the truck in the ice. I used to lump them in with Big Dipper, who I preferred for some reason.

Killdozer were awesome - 'The Puppy' is one of the funniest songs ever written. Thumbs up for Squirel Bait too. Bastro were sort of like a Squirrel Bait/Big Black combo and were another long lost & under-rated band. Anyone into Naked Raygun by the way?

Trader Woody

Oh, BK I used to LOVE the Crucifucks!

Their 'Wisconsin' album is totally unhinged... Steve Turner from Mudhoney described them as being a 'guilty pleasure', which sums them up nicely.

Trader Woody

Burma album named - "'ONoffOn' is a work of staggering complexity showcasing a group just as ahead of their time in 2004 as they were in 1982. The trio of Roger Miller (guitar, vocals), Clint Conley (bass, vocals) and Peter Prescott (drums, vocals) (augmented by Bob Weston on tape loops) have completed an album brimming with all the raw power of their debut, yet revealing tones, textures and lyrical themes unimaginable the first time around. For our money, this isn't just a hot new release, it's a goddamn cultural event.

The 16 track CD is divided into 2 sets, much like the band's recent performances, with a brief silent intermission (well, briefer than the intermission at the gigs). The vinyl version of 'ONOffON' will include 2 bonus tracks, one of them a cover of The Dils' 'Class War'.

Said double vinyl version will be mastered in true all-analog from the 2-inch master tape at Sterling Sound - guaranteed no digital stages - and will be pressed in 180-gram vinyl at RTI in California. The CD version will be released in both CD and hybrid SACD-CD format - Matador's first Super Audio Compact Disc."

Trader Woody

I saw them do that Dills song live, They do it better than the Dills! Yeah...on the Crucifucks, "Wisconsin" was the magnum opus. I can remember sitting in the back of a red Ford work van drinking Johnny Walker Black with three of my friends around 1990 for about 180 miles to go see Camper Van Beethoven with that tape on the stereo! On the way back on Interstate 20 near Thompson, Georgia a construction DYNAMITE truck had jacknifed on the highway and we had to spend the night in that damned van...they wouldn't let any traffic through until 7:00 in the morning when they got it cleaned up.

Another great band that's back is the Urinals. I saw them last Friday at the Hemlock Tavern in San Francisco with the recently reformed Human Hands. I haven't seen the Urinals since 1980 when they played with Black Flag in San Diego. They became 100 Flowers shortly after that and were still just as good. They reformed in 1996 but the original singer Kjehl Johansen left in 1998 and Rod Barker joined as new singer. The drummer (Kevin Barrett) and bass player (John Talley-Jones) are original members.

The show was great! Human Hands were poppy with a bit of psychedelia thrown in. They sounded like something from the early 80s psychedelic scene (sorry!). I liked them but the Urinals were amazing! They are very powerful (and loud) for a trio. They did a few songs off their new CD (which sound quite good) and some great old numbers like "ack ack ack", which they played first and a million bands covered. Unfortunately, only a handful of people showed up for the show (why?). They usually only play in Los Angeles and I don't know if any tour is planned.

Matador is currently chucking out the CD album at the bargain cost of $10 if you pre-order. There's also the vinyl double album out there for $18 with an extra track. I've gone for the vinyl myself as Burma is intrinsically linked with vinyl.

Release date is about a week from now.
Bring it on!

Trader Woody

I heard "Neutron Bomb" on the radio the other day. Ahhhh. I wonder why people think I'm Weird!

Funny thing,

I didn't even know this thread existed until this morning, but I spent the entire ride to work listening to the new Mission of Burma record.

It's fantastic, but lacks a lot of the noise elements that were in their earlier work. It's very fuzzed out with tons of distortion, much like the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, but much more rock n' roll. It's also really catchy which is a word I wouldn't associate with MOB.

Great record.

-g-

Just discovered the setlists I'd 'gathered' from their first two shows in the UK a couple of years back:

Trader Woody