A Short Column About Music 4.09.09: Mission of Burma - Vs.

Posted by Andrew Moll on 04.09.2009

With their first full-length album, Burma perfected their aggressive sound with a collection of visceral and cerbral punk rock.

Welcome back to A Short Column About Music, and as you may well know, we are smack dab in the middle of Mission of Burma Month. We've got a series of columns looking at the post-punk legends studio works that started off with last week's look at their first EP, and we'll continue it this week by looking at the first full length from Burma. The next two weeks will focus on the group's two comeback records. I have an idea for the fifth Thursday in April, but I haven't made a final decision yet, so you'll have to stay tuned.










Mission of Burma - Vs.
Released: October 1982
Tracklisting
1. Secrets
2. Train
3. Trem Two
4. New Nails
5. Dead Pool
6. Learn How
7. Mica
8. Weatherbox
9. The Ballad of Johnny Burma
10. Einstein's Day
11. Fun World
12. That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate


Last week, Mission of Burma Month began with a look at their legendary EP Signals, Calls and Marches, a thrilling document of post-punk energy filled with art-rock tendencies, combined with pop hooks that compare quite favorably to anything found on mainstream radio at the time. Classic songs like "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" and "This is Not a Photograph" helped define a catchy, aggressive sound that paved the way for bands like Fugazi and Hüsker Dü.

Burma were also proving to be a very formidable live act, a continuous stream of noise that served as almost an attack on the listener. The band's naturally loud music was combined with Martin Swope's tape loops to create a sonic experience that took Boston by storm. In fact, the shows were so loud that guitarist Roger Miller began suffering from tinnitus that caused him to wear large headphones while on stage. Also unfortunately, excessively loud post-punk didn't lead to large crowds at Burma shows throughout the rest of the country. (It also didn't help that band's shows could be pretty hit-or-miss, with the sheer amount of noise sometimes overhwelming the music.) But this lack of national success didn't disuade the band as they began the recording process for the debut LP.

While Signals, Calls and Marches showed a full formed entity still with large amounts of potential, that debut LP, called Vs. cashed in on that potential and progressed the band's sound further. It's amazing to hear just how tight the band is on this album, and how they were so cohesive yet powerful and chaotic. It can take a band like that a long time to refine their sound and make it both impressive and accessible. (See both Sonic Youth and TV on the Radio.) But Burma had all of that down seemingly right from the beginning.

Vs. opens with "Secrets" which begins with a hanging and echoing guitar, followed by the whole band coming in full force and with a stop/start rhythm that keeps propelling itself forward. The song eventually enters into a breakdown where drummer Peter Prescott is allowed to roam free, providing a drum solo that threatens to run off the rails, but fits perfectly with the group's controlled chaos. We then go back to out opening riffs and groove, and then, after more than two minutes we hear the first words sung on the album with Miller barking "It's not just a blink/Or the following of an arm/And it isn't just a flicker/No it isn't just a flicker/Oh, there's a look in your eyes/That you can't explain/Oh, there's a look in your eyes/And when it slips through the rain." The momentum of the song continues to build, but Miller's delivery becoming increasingly intense, rapidly singing at the end, "Underneath the gaze/Underneath the gaze." This opener is absolutely electric, barely stopping at any point during the three and a half minutes to let the listener relax, opting instead for a consistent impact, and it all makes for a perfect choice to start the album.



"Secrets"


"Train" follows, and for a Clint Conley composition, it certainly strays from any sense of a traditional rock product. It certainly starts off more slowly then "Secrets," but still has its own sense of chaos, with all three musicians sounding like they're each playing a different song. Prescott especially seems to be off on his own and completely straying from the rest of the band. Conley derisively sings "How can you pretend to give a fuck?/If nothing seems to matter at all," before the band seamlessly transitions into a more rocking section, before then transitioning into a closing section that is again exciting and intricate. Each section to the song is its own, with no correlations or instances where a previous section is referenced or repeated. It's an interesting idea and one that is rarely found in conventional rock music. Two songs in, and Mission of Burma were re-writing what a punk band was capable of.

The next track "Trem Two" features an atmospheric and pulsating guitar line and the entire song gives off a tension that is present in many Burma songs, but this time it doesn't really get resolved. There is a haunting quality to the song, one that's added to by the dual vocal delivery of Conley and Miller, who simultaneously sing "The face in the window/The features I know/I try to escape them/Though the others just go/The question is big/The question is wide/I can't see around it/I see only one side." The track is very poignant and introspective, which is something Burma hadn't really explored up to that point. Even when the band begins to let loose towards the end of the song, the sense of haunting and poignancy is still there, never going away. It's even evident in the lyrics "The dreams are all melting/Only to reform/Outside the heavens/Where thoughts are reborn." It's a steady track, but that's fine in the middle of this type of album.

Burma lays the foundation for Sonic Youth with "New Nails" with its alternate tunings and guitar theatrics. There's also some tremendous lyrics regarding Jesus and religion, singing "There was once a special book/It got changed by fascist crooks/(Save me please for I am weak)/There were once some great ideas/Now they're watered down too thin." The atonal nature of the song fits well with the lyrics, which are bound to rub some people the wrong way, especially the lines "The Roman Empire never died/Just changed it to the Catholic Church." It's followed by "Dead Pool" which is more simplistic, but also more affecting than the previous songs on the album. Miller and Conley play catchy parts while Prescott keeps the beat moving. The theme is immediately one of melancholy, as Conley sings "Had the choice but lost my chance/Heard a voice and changed my stance/All I needed was a clue/Had enough of golden rules." It's also jarring to hear a band that moved forward with such confidence and abandon to sing a lyric like "Where did things go wrong?"

That one is then followed up by a song written by Peter Prescott, entitled "Learn How", a track that builds up speed as it goes along, culminating in the group singing "Every raw material at hand." The rest of the song is pretty much cacophony, just a few minutes of noises, provided by each member and Swope as well. It, like many Burma songs, still manages to be cohesive, but the song doesn't have the pop sense or interest of the songs written by Conley and Miller. However, Prescott proves he is capable of bringing a lot to the songwriting table. Conley's "Mica" is next, and he shows how to correctly combine hooks with art rock and noise rock. The song is also quite jagged and rigid, providing the template for bands like Fugazi, much like they did for bands like Sonic Youth. Listening to these Burma albums, it's easy to see just how influential they proved to be, despite the fact they never went multi-platinum. This track also doesn't reach a triumphant end, instead almost limping to its finish, with Conley repeating "What could I say to that?" For better or worse, Burma challenged their audience and rarely gave them what they had come to expect from rock music.

The foreboding "Weatherbox" is next, and is led by a Conley bass line. At the same time Miller and Swope create some interesting sounds, ones that may come across as indulgent, but they never drift into pretentiousness. The song and the band are too much in the hold of loud, aggressive rock to allow those art-rock excesses to completely take over the song. The song's experimental theme, combined with abstract lyrics like "The air is round and the world is flat/And everything is clearly impossible," create a feeling that the listener is here, and the band is somewhere else. In fact, everything about the band, from their music and lyrics, to their name, to their performance style, had the purpose of creating a sense of mystery about the band. Prescott once said "Reading between the lines, there's something that's unsettling. You couldn't put your finger on us sometimes."

The abstract quality continues on one of the album's examples of punk energy, "The Ballad of Johnny Burma." The tremendous lyrics from Miller are some of the best he ever wrote; "I said my mother's dead/Well I don't care about it/I said my father's dead/Well I don't care about it/It happens anyway/It happens anyway/On the edge of Burma/We're on the edge of Burma." The fact that both of his parents were still alive didn't stop Miller from screaming those words in a two minute blast of rock fury, complete with some jagged starts and stops, of course. This was Burma at their best; oblique, energetic, catchy, and loud.



"The Ballad of Johnny Burma"


"Einstein's Day" is next, and it's a melodic and moody track, the logical companion to "Dead Pool." Miller gives a strong sense of claustrophobia when he sings, "Chairs next to the windows/Carpets touch the walls/Time slides through the windows/And slips behind the walls." This leads into a different section, a two-chord blast that then leads us to a feedback drenched guitar solo from Miller, one that surely influenced a number of alternative rockers and shoegazers. The way the band moved from section to section was flawless, never letting the listener get too comfortable with what they were listening to and being challenged throughout the record. The album's next to last track is "Fun World," one that is even more dissonant than "New Nails" but still has a catchy chorus. It's difficult for a band to go to a atonal guitar solo, all the shile the bass and drums chug along almost independently and have make it not only work, but still kick ass. But Burma pulls it off here.

It all leads to the album's last and best song, "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate." Much like "Johnny Burma," it's two minutes of just punk rock, no cerebral art rock, no guitar theatrics. Luckily, Burma were better at punk rock than most punk rock bands so the song ends up being a classic. Conley starts it off by calmy stating the song's name, and then the band unleashes some punk fury. Conley yells, "This might be your only chance to prove it on your own/Tulsa's not that/Tulsa's not that far." The song is like a runaway freight-train with no chance of coming to a stop. (Although there are some halting riffs and such. It is a Burma song, after all.) There's a real tension to the song, one that is characteristically Burma, but it adds so much to what could be a simple song. Conley delivering the line "That's how I escaped my certain fate" is great enough, but when it's complimented by backup lines like "Innocence a nocvice's mistake" and "Honesty's an actor's worst mistake," it packs that much more of a punch. The furious last thirty seconds are nothing short of mesmerizing and the perfect end for the ultimate post-punk document.



"That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate"


When Vs. was released, it received rave reviews, including one from the New York Times. But the band would be unable to capitalize on the critical success. The sessions for the album, along with a constant barrage of loud concerts, worsened Miller's tinnitus to the point that he decided to leave the band in January 1983. His decision marked the end of the band, but none of the members were particularly saddened. They were very proud of the work they had done, and also, it's not easy to play in a struggling punk rock band, playing shows around the country to people that don't know who you are. Agreeing that the band had run its course, Mission of Burma played their last Boston show on March 13, 1983 before a few more shows around the country to wrap things up. Over the years, Burma's influence would grow, as underground bands took what Burma had done and applied to their own scene. And even R.E.M. would cover "Academy Fight Song" in 1988.

The band members remained in music for the most part, with Prescott playing with different punk outfits, Miller palying more softer, instrumental music, and Conley producing music, including the first album from Yo La Tengo, before becoming a television producer. It appeared as if Burma's legacy would be the little heard albums from decades earlier that changed whoever was lucky enough to hear them, but there would be more on the horizon for Mission of Burma. We'll get to that next week when we examine the band's comeback album.