Interview + Giveaway: Mission of Burma
Posted on June 9, 2008 at 11:44 am | No Comments
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.
Thursday Music Miscellany
Posted on June 5, 2008 at 3:19 pm | No Comments
Life is blurring by lately… if you’ve glanced at my Flickr pics you may have noticed I’ve recently seen the Thalia Zedek Band, Glorytellers, Drew O’Doherty, Ida, Michael Hurley, and a lecture with writer Neil Gaiman honoring Julie Schwartz at MIT, traveled up to Vermont for some family time where I caught James Kochalka Superstar, Missy Bly, and some Koolaoke, and headed out to Newburyport for some Memorial Day in-town exploration and Plum Island beach time. Good memories all, and more ahead: This evening is the Breeders at the ‘Dise (congrats to reader Courtney, who won those tickets to tonight’s sold out show), next week brings the Tullycraft show with my VT-pop pals the Smittens and Pants Yell!, along with that REM / Modest Mouse / The National team-up at Great Woods, I mean The Tweeter Center, no wait it’s the Comcast Center now (a show I’m still surprised to be checking out, but looking forward to). As Lili Von Shtupp sang: I’m tie-uhd. So vewwy tie-uhd.
Gonna start this short random post off with some songs I’ve really been digging lately…
My long drive back from Vermont on Sunday afternoon meant I barely had time to make that Ida / Michael Hurley show in Somerville, and also left me too wiped out to catch Atlanta’s All The Saints at TTs afterwards. Damn shame, too, because the title track from their just-released debut album is truly great stuff. Hopefully they’ll be back this way soon… Soon after this Great Bloomers song started up, my first thought was ‘what a really nice piece of melancholic piano-based pop’… until that extended intro ended, and the drums and irresistible guitar hook kicked in. ‘Really nice’ instantly elevated to ‘great’, and even higher as a layer of guitar squelch wandered in and out of focus underneath the ultra-catchy top layer (think certain Yo La Tengo songs, or early Idaho). And as someone who’s not a huge harmonica fan (beyond, say, Neil Young), the GBs use it perfectly. This one’s been on repeat… I’m a sucker for well-used violin in my pop songs (hellooooo Dambuilders), and Baskervilles‘ “A Little More Time” does it just right. Add some piano and guy/girl trade-off vocals to a short-but-sweet story of waitstaff flirtation, and I’m so in. Two minutes of bouncy bliss, available as part of the just-out “Twilight”, a 14-song collection (produced in part by Mitch Easter) of songs they released monthly via their website.
Another show I hope to catch this weekend is Somerville’s own Travels, who make just their second local appearance ever on Saturday night at PA’s Lounge (tough choices that night, though, what with Pela at the Middle East and Jennifer O’Connor at TTs). If you’re a ‘Nac regular, you know well of my Travels love, so I was glad to discover this fine footage from their trip to Vienna, where they performed a couple acoustic songs: Debut album track “There Is Movement” on an abandoned outdoor stage, and new one called “The Forgotten” on a street median. Go watch, and check out their MySpace page for new demos, including one for “The Forgotten“.
Keeping it local, there’s a new Dylan In The Movies song up on MySpace featuring some backup vocals from the wonderful Watson Twins. Check out the rough mix of “Truro” here, and read about its creation here. While that one’s a stream, a rough mix of “Josephine If You Only Knew” can be downloaded as an mp3. Such a good song, with some gorgeous guitar work, and hey, hand claps! Fine ingredients all. Read the background on that one here, along with a mention of DitM working with Tanya Donelly on a cover of “Love Cats” for an American Laundromat tribute to the Cure that will also feature The Wedding Present, Dean & Britta, The Raveonettes, The Rosebuds, and many others.
Still talkin’ local: Another show I had to miss due to an out of town trip: Big Dipper‘s reunited return to an area stage back in late April. Truly painful. But I experienced the build up thanks to “Big Dipper Week” at Things I’d Rather Be Doing, and basked in the afterglow thanks to an excellent recording of the band’s Southpaw show over at NYCTaper. I shouldn’t have to even say this, but: Download and listen.
And lastly, congrats to my longtime friend (and occasional bandmate) Mike Barrett, as he and his wife Anna welcomed new son Jasper to the world a couple weeks ago. He joins his sister Leila in completing the eventual rhythm section that will back Mike on guitar and Anna on keyboards. Just give ’em a couple years…
Mike recently shared up a live set from his band The Sixth Great Lake (featuring friends from Guppyboy and The Essex Green) over at the Tup Keewah Recordings blog, recorded back in 2001 at Amsterdam’s Crossing Border Festival. Not sure when we’ll see new offerings on the blog, or the in-progress next Sixth Great Lake album, but hopefully Mike will find some time in between his newly-increased dadly duties. Maybe we’ll even get a second appearance from Stratford Projects? Anything’s possible…
See? I told you this one would be short. Sometimes I’m actually capable of self-control.