Mission Of Burma - New Recordings Due In May
Matador Records is totally psyched to announce the signing of Mission
Of
Burma. The new album - their first new studio recordings in 22 years -
is
tentatively scheduled for worldwide release in May 2004.
Mission Of Burma were a Boston-based band circa 1978-1983. During their
brief
tenure, they released one album, one EP and two singles for the Ace Of
Hearts
label, all of which have been reissued on CD by Rykodisc. Demo
recordings
and radio sessions were later released in less impressive form by the
Taang
label.
Since the band's breakup in 1983, their musical influence has taken on
mythic
form. The number of bands who have cited Mission Of Burma's influence
is in
obverse proportion to the group's popularity in 1983 - though it would
not be
an exaggeration to say they've been cited more during their hibernation
than
during their existence.
Michael Azerrad's 2000 tome, "Our Band Could Be Your Life", has an
entire
chapter devoted to Burma's career and puts them in the pantheon of
other classic
American underground artists such as Black Flag, the Minutemen, Husker
Du and
Sonic Youth. Though the band's core trio have been involved in a
myriad of
other projects since 1983, the legacy of Burma continues to cast a
shadow over
so much that's happened since.
In 2001, the founding members of Mission Of Burma, Roger Miller, Clint
Conley
and Peter Prescott, augmented by Shellac's Bob Weston on tape loops
and
mixing, began performing together again for the first time since 1983.
Their
subsequent shows in Boston, New York, London, San Francisco,
Philadephia,
Minneapolis, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Los
Angeles and
Washington DC have been mostly sold-out and extremely well received.
(Original
tape manipulator Martin Swope - also a post-Burma collaborator with
Roger Miller
in Birdsongs of the Mesozoic - has retired from the music business and
is
living in Hawaii.)
The new album, as yet untitled, is being recorded at Boston's
Q-Division
studios, engineered by Bob Weston with assistance from Rick Harte.
Miller,
Conley, and Prescott all share songwriting and production duties, and
many of the
new songs have been unveiled at recent shows.
Mission of Burma will be performing January 17 in New York City at
Irving
Plaza, IN March AT THE SXSW CONVENTION IN AUSTIN, and in April at the
All
Tomorrow's Parties festival in Camber Sands. Many more North American
and European
dates will follow upon release and throughout 2004.
http://www.missionofburma.com
