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recommended boston area events

wednesday and thursday

february 10th and 11th

the magnetic fields

laura barrett

@ the wilbur theatre

thursday, february 11th

v66 reunion

with rod & cones, big city rock,

the fools, o positive, animotion,

right turn, digney fingus, ernie boch jr.,

lizzie borden and the axes, & more

@ house of blues

thursday, february 11th

found audio

the first annual

the rockefeller fortune

boone

@ oliver's / cask 'n flagon

friday, february 12th

kings of convenience

franklin for short

@ the paradise

saturday, february 13th

one happy island

human hearts (with franklin bruno)

boy genius

free! @ toad, cambridge

saturday, february 13th

a benefit for haiti

the okay win

new son rising

the elevators

@ copperfields

saturday, february 13th

tegan & sara

holly miranda

@ the orpheum

sunday, february 14th

we were promised jetpacks

bad veins

royal bangs

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, february 15th

a benefit for haiti

with big bear, ketman,

chris brokaw, monique ortiz,

art decade, & the dirty dishes

@ the middle east downstairs

tuesday, wednesday, & thursday

february 16th, 17th, & 18th

3 nights with jonathan richman

@ the middle east upstairs

thursday, february 18th

editors

the antlers

@ house of blues

friday, february 19th

28 degrees taurus

el jezel

the broken river prophet

metal feathers

@ o'briens, allston

friday, february 19th

taken by trees

el perro del mar

@ the cambridge ymca theatre

saturday, february 20th

dawes

corey chisel & the wandering sons

jason boesel (rilo kiley)

@ great scott

monday, february 22nd

boy without god

ryan lee crosby quartet

the wailing wall

sleepy very sleepy

@ tt the bears

wednesday, february 24th

wild beasts

still life still

dj carbo

@ great scott

saturday, february 27th

hadoken (cd release)

caspian

irepress

slowest runner

@ tt the bears

monday, march 1st

rogue wave

@ the paradise

tuesday, march 9th

jet

crash kings

@ the paradise

monday, march 15th

one happy island

standard fare

summer cats

@ great scott

monday, march 15th

letting up despite great faults

the brother kite

plumerai

singing bridges

@ the middle east upstairs

wednesday, march 17th

joanna newsom

@ the sanders theatre, harvard

wednesday, march 17th

henry rollins (spoken word)

@ the somerville theatre

sunday, march 21st

the clientele

field music

@ great scott

saturday, march 20th

air

am

@ berklee performance center

thursday, march 25th

aloud

action camp

hello ninja

@ great scott

thursday, march 25th

the donnas

@ the paradise

friday, march 26th

basia bulat

marissa nadler

lady lamb the beekeeper

@ tt the bears

saturday, march 27th

your say party! we say die!

the new collisions

static of the gods (cd release)

@ tt the bears

saturday, march 27th

the big pink

a place to bury strangers

@ the paradise

saturday, march 27th

spoon

deerhunter

@ the house of blues

sunday, march 28th

beach house

bachelorette

@ the paradise

monday, march 29th

the soft pack

nodzzz

beaters

@ great scott

tuesday, march 30th

shearwater

wye oak

hospital ships

@ tt the bears

tuesday, march 30th

manchester orchestra

the features

biffy clyro

o'brother

@ the paradise

wednesday, march 31st

japandroids

love is all

girlfriends

@ the middle east downstairs

wednesday, march 31st

miike snow

delorean

@ the paradise

wednesday, march 31st

a sunny day in glasgow

pants yell!

bearstronaut

@ great scott

thursday, april 1st

girls

dum dum girls

@ the paradise

friday, april 2nd

the xx

jj (late show only)

two shows @ the paradise

friday, april 2nd

drive-by truckers

lucero

langhorne slim

@ the house of blues

saturday, april 3rd

nada surf

@ the paradise

sunday, april 4th

serena maneesh

depreciation guild

@ tt the bears

tuesday, april 6th

wilco

@ the orpheum

wednesday, april 7th

florence & the machine

@ the paradise

wednesday, april 7th

rocky votolato

brooke waggoner

@ great scott

friday, april 9th

midlake

@ the paradise

saturday, april 10th

xiu xiu

tune-yards

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, april 10th

ted leo & the pharmacists

obits

@ the paradise

saturday, april 10th

pissed jeans

confines

sqrm

@ great scott

monday, april 12th

the wedding present

play their 1989 lp 'bizarro'

with openers girl in a coma

@ the middle east downstairs

thursday, april 15th

red sparowes

doomriders

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, april 17th

kaki king

an horse

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, april 17th

the morning benders

miniature tigers

@ tt the bears

sunday, april 18th

the thermals

past lives

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, april 19th

trans am

@ the middle east downstairs

tuesday, april 20th

owen pallett (aka final fantasy)

@ the ica boston

tuesday, april 20th

elvis costello & the sugarcanes

@ the orpheum

tuesday, april 20th

the low anthem

@ the paradise

tuesday, april 20th

quasi

let's wrestle

@ the middle east downstairs

saturday, april 24th

los campesinos!

here we go magic

@ the paradise

wednesday, april 28th

gogol bordello

devotchka

jesse malin

st. mark's social

@ the house of blues

thursday, april 29th

frightened rabbit

@ the paradise

friday, april 30th

corinne bailey ray

@ the house of blues

friday, april 30th

the album leaf

sea wolf

@ the paradise

wednesday, april 28th

little boots

dragonette

fan death

@ the middle east downstairs

monday, may 3rd

yeasayer

sleigh bells

@ the paradise

thursday, may 6th

shout out louds

@ the paradise

tuesday & wednesday

may 11th & 12th

dr. dog

deer tick

@ the paradise

thursday, may 13th

small brown bike

bridge and tunnel

your skull my closet

wallcreeper

@ great scott

tuesday, may 25th

smittens

allo darlin'

one happy island

horrowitz

@ toad

wednesday, may 26th

reverend horton heat

cracker

miss derringer

@ the house of blues

wednesday, june 2nd

the national

@ the house of blues

friday, june 4th

brian jonestown massacre

@ the paradise

saturday, june 19th

james taylor

carole king

@ the garden

visit tourfilter for more shows

Monday, June 09, 2008

Interview + Giveaway: Mission of Burma

The men from Mission of Burma are halfway through a hectic couple of weeks, as they've just returned from a short European tour with Shellac to treat Boston and New York fans to some very special performances. Over two nights in each city, the seminal Boston band will perform the entirety of their 1981 debut EP, "Signals, Calls, and Marches", along with their 1982 full-lengther, "vs.". Each set will be fleshed out with some rarities, and guitarist Roger Miller provides more details on that in the interview responses below, which he and bassist Clint Conley were kind enough to provide during a long drive through Spain a few days back.

Thanks to Fenway Recordings, I've got a pair of tickets for each Boston show (Thursday and Friday at the Paradise) to give away. Details after the interview...
Q: So how did the idea of running through each album over two nights come about? Obviously the recent Matador reissues played a part, but were you all into the idea initially, or was anyone resistant?

Clint Conley: The idea first arose when we were asked to do "vs" at the Pitchfork Fest. That seemed quite an honor, and an idea totally worth stealing and repeating. Seemed to me we were of like-mind on the matter.

Roger Miller: I can't recall exactly, but I think (MoB manager and Fenway Recordings head honcho) Mark Kates suggested it. It's that "Don't Look Back" idea that the ATP festival started, where bands perform their classic albums. It just kind of made sense given the reissues. We certainly would not have done this except that the reissues are coming out. Last fall we hardly performed any of the old stuff, because we were focusing on the new ideas.

Q: If you've had time to run through the seldom-played songs already, are there any that have surprised you (either in a 'Why weren't we playing this one all along?' sort of way, or a 'Uh oh, we're in trouble with this one' kind of way, or anywhere in between)?

CC: There were several songs that required some skullwork to reconstruct, and there are still some transitions, and odd corners, that I am not totally convinced we've got "right." Overall, the recall of songs from almost 30 years ago (!) has been eerily easy. And yes, some of the songs we haven't been playing seem pretty decent, if I say so myself.

RM: Mostly they fell into place pretty quickly. Some were surprising to find how they were structured - they were pretty much all fun to revisit. The most surprising one for me was "Train of Thought", which didn't do much for me "back in the day" but I find quite bracing now. We've run through twelve "resuscitates" (songs we haven't played since 1983), and we're hoping we'll have them together by the time of the shows! We're in Spain right now, and we go over them in soundchecks and incorporate a couple in every show, so we should be OK by the Paradise shows. We just listened to these songs in the van, and found that there were quite a number of little sections we didn't realize were there.

Q: With the albums being relatively short compared to the usual length of your live sets (and one actually being an EP), how are you planning to fill out the rest of each night? And do you plan on sticking to the original "Signals..." track order, or the remastered sequence with the two additional songs? (no worries if you're hoping to keep any of that a surprise, of course).

CC: We are still working out the details of how to present the records/shows. Suffice to say we will be expanding beyond , say, the 6 song "Signals," doing other songs from that period that may or may not have shown up on other releases, such on Taang or Horrible Truth. Same with 'vs'.

RM (from notes he wrote earlier): For the 'Signals...' show, we will play some songs from early on that are not on 'Signals...', but were of that era. We will then play the 4 songs from the Acad/Max session (including the 2 that were just released), then play 'Signals...' start to finish, then play encores, and make sure everyone is happy.

For the 'vs.' Show: We will play the 4 "bonus tracks", 'vs.' start to finish, then play encores, and make sure everyone is happy.

Q: You guys have been playing some new stuff recently, so what does the future hold for MoB? Back to the studio for a follow-up to "The Obliterati"? Any other special plans ahead?

CC: We almost never know what we are going to do. If there is a plan, no one's told me.

RM: We're not so good at planning. We do have new material, and once this reissues thing has passed, I'm sure we'll work on more new songs. The only truth to be told is that so far, whenever we've had enough new songs to make an album, we've made one. That may or may not hold true in the future.

Q: I believe you're answering these questions while driving around Europe on a short tour. So what exactly is helping pass the time while on the road? (what music, books, games, etc.?)

CC: We are at this moment following the luxurious Shellac tour van across the high, dry plains of Spain, on our way north to Gijon, a beach town on the Gulf of Vizcaya (Atlantic Ocean). Spain is beautiful to the point of flabbergasm. I was reading Oliver Sacks' "Musicophilia" until it got stolen yesterday along with my laptop in Madrid.

RM: Gazing at the scenery is quite nice. I was in Barcelona with Alloy Orchestra some years ago, but otherwise, this trip is all new stuff to me. Babbling to each other, occasionally listening to music. Listening to Public Enemy (who MoB will play with at P4K in July - ed) coming into Madrid was kind of interesting. I have my laptop with me and writing the Tour Blog for the Burma MySpace site is my little "side project" on this trip. It's hard to say what we do to keep amused - it just happens.
One thing's for sure: Roger's road blogging kept me amused (especially the Burma vs. Shellac scores). Damn shame about Clint's laptop, huh? Add MoB to the long list of victimized touring bands, but hey, at least it wasn't their instruments. Much thanks to Roger and Clint for taking the time to answer those questions.

As I said, I'm glad to be able to give away a pair of tickets to each show, so if you're game, send me an email at giveaways -at- bradleysalmanac -dot- com titled "MoB Thursday" or "MoB Friday", depending on which one you want to try for (no double-dippin'). Make sure I get it before 10AM on Wednesday, and I'll randomly pick one winner for each show who will end up on the guest list with a +1 spot for a friend.

And to get yourself in the mood, I should mention that I uploaded my January recording of MoB's amazing appearance at Great Scott to the Live Music Archive. Have at it.

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