In case the previous post doesn’t mean much to you…
Mission of Burma are arguably Boston’s most significant contribution to rock music, and living proof that the ability to create and perform music that is edgy, progressive and, um, loud, doesn’t have to diminish with time. The band formed in 1979 and broke up in 1982, and produced exactly three releases: an EP, a full-length album, and a post-breakup live album (all of which were recently remastered and re-released by Matador). Despite this paucity of material, Mission of Burma were, and remain, hugely influential – everyone from REM to Nirvana to Moby cites them as an inspiration. That should have been the end of the story. But after a two-decade hiatus, the band started playing together again. Since then, they’ve recorded two more albums, ONoffON (2004) and The Obliterati (2006), to massive critical acclaim. I was lucky enough to see them twice in 2006, including at that summer’s Pitchfork Music Festival, where they made most of their successors look like snot-nosed poser-punk kids. I’m stoked that they’ve been invited back to Pitchfork for 2008.
MP3: Mission of Burma – Donna Sumeria
Image: Mission of Burma @ Music Hall of Williamsburg – 1.19.08 by Flickr user Bryan Bruchman, reposted here under its Creative Commons license.
