Jelly NYC, the folks behind the beloved McCarren Pool parties of yesteryear have shifted their venue this summer to Brooklyn’s East River State Park (90 Kent Ave.) Summer 2009’s kickoff show happens Sunday, July 12 and features Mission Of Burma, Fucked Up, Baltimore’s Ponytail, former Be Your Own Pet vocalist Jemina Pearl and DJ Jonathan Toubin. It all starts at around 2pm and we can promise this will be the hottest free concert to hit the NYC area since Diana Ross played Central Park in 1983. This is an appropriate analogy because a) much like Ms. Ross, Peter Prescott’s performance features many costume changes and b) the two performers previously were a part of historic combos that changed the face of music (Diana with the Supremes, Peter with the Molls).
Some photos of Burma recording their new album at Q-Division studios Squid Hell studios in Somerville Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts this week. All photos by Bob Weston.
Roger Miller describes the album as “Casual but pretty rock. Doesn’t seem to suck.” Which, if true, would be a major departure on two fronts. The band has been blogging each day of the recording on their website.
The above snapshots come to us courtesy of Mark Kates. The embedded photojournalist was on the scene as Mission Of Burma began the laborious process of recording demos for what will be the band’s 4th studio album proper (we’re not counting ‘Signals’ or the Taang compendiums, thanks), tentatively scheduled for the latter portion of 2009.
Not to be outdone by Merge’s recent Volcano Suns reissues, former Kustomized bassist Bob Moses has done an impressive job tying his old band’s history together with a new, posthumous site. Perhaps the lesser known of Peter Prescott’s post-Mission Of Burma projects, Kustomized was once described by Rolling Stone’s Matt Diehl as “maintaining an almost savage drive…unafraid to wander into the bizarre areas outside rock convention.” Though the same could be said of Bob Gamere jogging thru the Fenway, Mr. Diehl hit the nail on the head. Kustomized were awesome and if you didn’t fully absorb their Matador titles at the time, you are a bad, bad person.
This coming Tuesday, the limited-edition double vinyl gatefold 10″ EP from Cat Power hits the stores. Entitled Dark End Of The Street, it includes six bewitching cover songs from the Jukebox sessions and not included on that album. This would make a wonderful Christmas or Hannukah present for someone who likes gatefold covers, or cover songs, and it’s available for preorder now.
We have a lot of other deluxe packages from this year appropriate for stocking-stuffers or under-the-tree action. The deluxe 44-song, 48-page book, die-cut slipcase edition of Pavement’s Brighten The Corners, for example (and if you preorder now, you can still – just – get the ultra-limited live vinyl bonus LP, exclusive to this release). Two weeks ago we released Belle and Sebastian’s justly acclaimed BBC Sessions, with essential radio performances from their early 1996-2001 period. The deluxe version of the CD comes with a second disc containing a complete concert in Belfast from December 2001. The set includes covers of I’m Waiting For The Man, The Boys Are Back In Town and Here Comes The Sun. This is strictly limited and once it goes, it’s gone.
There’s also the deluxe version of the Mogwai’s latest, The Hawk Is Howling, which comes with a bonus DVD containing two videos for “Batcat” (including one nightmarish one directed by Dominic Hailstone of Chris Cunningham / Aphex Twin video fame), and a short documentary about the band by Vincent Moon.
And of course, last March, we released to-die-for versions of the three original Mission Of Burma albums on Ace of Hearts. We’ve banged on enough about the real all-analog mastering from the original tapes, the precious live footage from the late ’70s and early ’80s, the gatefold sleeves on the vinyl, and the books with interviews and photos and more. We’re prouder of these packages than any other reissue we’ve ever done. All three are available for a very short time longer in a vinyl bundle deal for 50 bucks.
There are also a few deluxe copies of Cat Power’s Jukebox left with the gatefold foil digipak and second CD. Then there’s just about every vinyl release from this year, nearly all printed at Stoughton and pressed on RTI HQ180 vinyl. Single LPs here and double LPs here.
Lovers of the first or second most popular rocker simulation console game will be thrilled to know 3 Mission Of Burma songs are now available for the XBox 360’s “Rock Band” ; “Mica”, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” and “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate”. The Burma 3 pack is available for download for 440 Microsoft points, or you can order the songs individual for 160 points each. Whether Burma’s video game debut will prove to be as hot a seller as the Century Media Girls Of Metal Pack remains to be seen, but I must admit we’re feeling a little left out in the cold on this one. For the past 25 years, Matador’s team of programmers have been working on “The Deacons : Escape From Johnny D’s”, and it appears there will be little love for our pioneering title with all this Rock Bandmania going on.
While Matador’s dear pal Bob Moses has some fascinating Mission Of Burma-related content at smokemusicarchive, we’re happy to share the Oburma/Obama banner that was first displayed for Burma’s auctions to support MoveOn.org earlier this month. Copy the following code into your own blog, MySpace profile, whatever, and you too can hop on this change-loving bandwagon almost as slowly as we did.
(SMALL VERSION – links to MoveOn.org)
<a href=”http://www.moveon.org” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.matadorrecords.com/images/mission_of_burma/oburma-175×300.jpg” alt=”burma for obama” /></a>
(LARGE VERSION – links to MoveOn.org as well)
<a href=”http://www.moveon.org” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.matadorrecords.com/images/mission_of_burma/oburma-300×250.jpg” alt=”burma for obama” /></a>
Election day nears but as Obama might say, there is still work to be done. Mission of Burma have heeded the call to action by creating The Burma Auction. Not only will you help raise money for a good cause but you’ll also be able to land some pretty cool stuff as well.
And for everyone in NYC don’t forget that Burma play CMJ tomorrow night (10/23): Rhapsody Rocks Party at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with Jay Reatard, The King Khan & BBQ Show and The Dutchess & the Duke.
Mission of Burma presents…THE BURMA AUCTION In support of MoveOn.org and the Barack Obama Campaign, Mission of Burma is holding an auction of unique Burma memorabilia. All proceedings from the auction go to MoveOn.org and their mission. With your support, you are helping to bring real Americans back into the political process. Please visit MoveOn.org for more information.
2008’s CMJ Music Marathon in New York City begins tomorrow (10/21), but for us, the festivities start tonight with Shearwater’s performance at Le Poisson Rouge (LPR).
Find below, your guide to the official and unofficial CMJ Marathon showcases featuring a trio of Matador acts: Shearwater, Jay Reatard and Mission of Burma.
With quite the live-act triumvirate and manning of the 1’s and 2’s by Billy Hayes and Times New Viking at the Beggars/Matador After Party, this’ll be a week to remember.
(”a little less of Peter’s vocals in the monitor, thank you” – Clint Conley at Pitchfork ‘08, photo swiped from Kirstiecat’s Flickr stream)
The following dates, featuring Mission Of Burma performing a classic album or EP from front to back (yes, they play other stuff, too — if these shows were a ripoff, our bulletin board would be the first place to find out) are on sale right now.
9/25 – LA at Echoplex – Vs.
9/26 – SF at Independent – Signals, Calls & Marches
9/27 – SF at Independent – Vs.
9/29 – Portland at Doug Fir – Signals, Calls & Marches
9/30 – Vancouver at Plaza Nightclub – Signals, Calls & Marches
10/1 – Seattle at Neumo’s – Vs.
Two day passes for the San Francisco shows entitled the bearer to a Burma poster, which you can collect at the merch table on the 26th.
Hear Mission Of Burma play songs they haven’t played since reuniting, as they perform ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’ and ‘Vs.’ all the way through on the Definitive Editions Tour.
If you haven’t figured out how great these reissues are yet, read some reviews. Or better yet, listen to another remastered song, in 256K MP3 or high-quality WAV (your browser probably won’t play the WAV file, so right click / control click to download it to your hard drive — the sound quality is markedly superior to any MP3):
Mission Of Burma (shown above, performing ‘The Obliterati’’s “Donna Sumeria” at last weekend’s Primavera Sound in Barcelona) are touring Europe as of this writing, and Roger Miller’s been chronicling the band’s adventures over at Burma’s MySpace page. My personal favorite passage would be Roger’s critique of Devo’s Primvera set :
I soldiered on until midnight (6 AM Boston time with 3 hours of sleep in a day and a half: the Jaegermeister helped alot) to catch DEVO. Finally, actual ideas executed well! What a joy! After a few of their famed videos, they launched into 3 synth-tracks from “New Traditionalists.” While this is not my fave LP of theirs by any means, it was totally charming. It seemed like they were gonna play the entire album, so i thought about leaving – I mean, who in their right mind would want to hear a band play an entire album?
For those of you who haven’t cottoned on to the gorgeous, powerful sound of the Mission Of Burma Definitive Editions yet, here is another extract.
“OK/No Way” was originally released in 1982 as the non-album B-side of their second single “Trem Two.” The remastered version is on the album Vs.: The Definitive Edition double vinyl, CD and digital album (MP3 or FLAC). A Clint Conley composition, it is one of my favorite Burma songs ever. At the time, it was taken as a nod to hardcore, though in fact Clint wrote it two years before hardcore existed. Rarely performed these days, you will have a chance to see it at the upcoming shows where the band will perform ‘Vs.’ in its entirety (see dates below).
Thu – 6/12 – Boston MA- Paradise – Playing “Signals” in its entirety
Fri – 6/13 – Boston MA – Paradise – Playing “Vs.” in its entirety
Sat – 6/14 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom – Playing “Signals” in its entirety
Sun – 6/15 – New York NY – Bowery Ballroom – Playing “Vs.” in its entirety
Fri – 6/27 – Philadelphia PA – First Unitarian Church – Playing “Signals” in its entirety
Sat – 6/28 – Washington MD – Black Cat – Playing “Vs.” in its entirety
Fri – 7/18 – Chicago IL – Pitchfork – Playing “Vs.” in its entirety
Sat – 7/19 – Detroit MI – Bohemian National Home – Playing “Signals” in its entirety
In addition to upcoming dates in Boston, New York, DC and Philly, Mission Of Burma have just added a July 18 show at Detroit’s Bohemian National Home. ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’ will be performed from start to finish, though I suspect the set list will be a bit longer than that. Probably much longer.
The folks at Pitchfork.tv are screening the recent Mission of Burma documentary “Not A Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story” this week. The film features a laundry list of epic indie talking heads, classic clips and some incredible performances from M.O.B.’s initial 2002 reunion shows. If there is a better way to start your Saturday than with images of Burma killing it across 2 decades, an always excited Mike Watt, or a 5-guitar mega jam of “All World Cowboy Romance” we don’t know it.
See the whole thing HERE
Also, the Mission of Burma CD bundle is on sale for one final week HERE
(pic taken from the Wooster Collective. Trust us, the new Burma shirts are a) snazzier and b) will not mess with your head)
In addition to Mission Of Burma’s forthcoming two night stands at the Paradise (Boston) and Bowery Ballroom (New York), the band have just confirmed the following shows :
June 27 – First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA (performing ‘Signals, Calls & Marches’) – tickets
June 28 – The Black Cat, Washington DC (performing Vs.) – tickets
