Mission Of Burma
Signals, Calls & Marches, Vs., The Horrible Truth About Burma
Matador Records
By Jose Fritz
It’s been long established that Mission of Burma was named after a building. It’s not a misprinted handbill for some ill-fated mission to Burma. Like much of their catalog, the decision on their name was spontaneous, random, and senseless… but right. Now, over two decades after they were first brought before us, it seems there really was a mission. Despite tinnitus so severe he has to wear headgear, Roger Miller reunited with the group in 2002, and began touring again. He’s even remarked since then that the tinnitus has worsened. Repeated exposure to dangerous decibel levels only compounds the problem. The ringing noise is getting louder and will begin to drown out voices, the wind, and background sounds approaching total sensorineural hearing loss. Eventually there will be only one sound—the ringing of his ears.
Spread across different neglected indie labels from another era, their early albums were sadly shelved as time marched on. Both Ace Of Hearts and Taang! Records still exist in one fashion or another. but for over a decade Mission of Burma did not. Roger Miller, Clint Conley and Peter Prescott went their separate ways back in 1983 shortly after the release of Vs.
The reason for their split wasn’t all that dramatic. There was no gossip, had been no serious infighting. It was just the tinnitus. Rick Harte, owner of Ace of Hearts shrugged and put out an LP of live cuts then let the catalog go out of print. Rick Harte of course is the reason that these albums are worth re-mastering. Most punk acts of that era released disposable lo-fi 7-inches; Rick Harte had cut his teeth recording Boston area jazz groups and he brought that high fidelity aesthetic with him. It was Bob Weston that put the noise back into Mission of Burma. It was he who encouraged their tape manipulating tendencies. Rick is the reason that we can hear these albums well enough that we know the chaos and the tape noise were deliberate and calculated.
The interval brought us a series of collaborations, side projects, and guest spots, but in 2002 they finally began playing together again and the new albums on Matador needed company. A new generation of fans was discovering Mission of Burma through their new works and there was a world of back catalog they were clamoring for. Ryko had re-released the Ace of Hearts albums in the late 80s, making them just shy of scarce but the Taang! Releases were impossible to find.
These records were recorded directly to quarter inch tape in the 1980s. At Sterling Sound, Rick Harte remastered the original tapes in real-time directly from the tape then dubbed directly to vinyl with a record lathe. It’s an archaic and expensive all-analog process. Matador picked up the tab and re-released the albums with a 32-page booklet, DVDs of black and white 1980s concert videos, and still had the cajones to make it available on damn sexy 180 gram vinyl.
What we are left with is a monument to a magical four-year window. In that brief era Mission of Burma became massively important: they were like Wire, Sonic Youth, James Chance, and the Contortionists, Husker Du, The Stooges, The Minutemen. They are one of those bands that inspired the term “indie rock royalty.” They seemed to come out of nowhere to influence their peers, and their predecessors alike. When you listen to these, you can only ask yourself —How the hell did these go out of print?
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