Genre
Post-punk
Years Active
1979-1983, 2002-
Boston Then Interview Exclusive: Roger Miller, Guitarist
1. What brought you to Boston and can you describe the music scene when you arrived?
I had tried to get a band going in Ann Arbor, Michigan (where I grew up) through-out 1977, and just couldn't make it happen. My brothers Benjamin (on sax) and Laurence (on guitar) had joined Destroy All Monsters, but I chose not to because the music wasn't quite right for me. Eventually, I developed Tinnitus (that pesky "ringing in the ears" thing) and saw that I wasn't getting anywhere in bands, so I decided to move to Boston to become a piano technician. Due to the tinnitus I did not plan to get involved in rock music, but I had ideas of playing piano w/pre-recorded tape loops of bass lines behind it - a one-man avant-piano band. It's curious that aspects of this idea materialized in Mission of Burma in 1979 (tape use) and Maximum Electric Piano in 1983 (solo piano w/loops).
As mentioned, I had no plans to be involved in rock music. However, almost as soon as I got to Boston in Jan.1978, I saw a very interesting poster: "Girls! Movies! La Peste! Human Sexual Response! Mass Art!" all done in an interesting punk-style. I had no idea which were movies or bands, but as soon as I saw it I new I had to go. The Girls (of America) especially blew me away with their minimalist/barely able to play their instruments blended with a high-energy art-based attitude. After I joined the Moving Parts (Feb. 1978) I next saw DMZ, a more straight-forward punk band. But I loved them, too, especially Jeff Conolly's choice of '60's Kinks covers. These two gigs show the opposing poles in Boston's scene at that time: "basic" rock and roll w/a punk angle, and more "art" derived rock, often with an unusual edge. Eventually we kind of straddled those two poles.
2. How did Mission of Burma form?
Within three weeks of moving to Boston I had gotten involved with the punk scene (see above). Seeing The Girls (3 guys, of course) at Mass College of Art was a real eye-opener, and I figured any place that would allow them to play would allow ME to play! I saw an ad in the Real Paper - someone looking for a bass player who could read music (I dropped out of music school in 1976) and loved punk, so I fit that bill. I showed up and it turned out that they - The Moving Parts - needed a guitarist instead of a bassist. So I said I'd play guitar instead. I just wanted to play - damn the tinnitus! I got the audition because I wrote the song "Manic Incarnation," which impressed the band members Erik Lindgren (later in my band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic), Clint Conley (soon to be bassist in Mission of Burma) and Boby Bear, previously drummer for The Atlantics.
However, by fall 1978 it was clear that Clint and I had a different vision than Erik (who was the leader of the band). His music was very much "written out", and Clint and I wanted to go primal. I was writing songs that were considerably more Dionysian vs. Erik's Apollinarian work (Clint was not yet writing). By December, it was clear the group was going to implode, and that Clint and I were going to form a new band. While we loved Boby, he wasn't quite the right guy for this new raw approach.
We started auditioning drummers and settled on Peter Prescott in February 1979 (after 3 tryouts!) and got down to business. We had my Moving Parts songs as a starting repertoire, but out of the blue Clint wrote "Peking Spring." From the get-go, it was the dichotomy of Clint's (generally) more accessible material vs. my (generally) more experimental songs which defined the band. In 1982 Pete had his first successful song in the band, the ripping "Learn How," adding yet another wrinkle in Mission of Burma.
3. What did the band think when the LP sold out of its 7500 pressing? Was that an 'aha' moment that the band was making it or becoming something bigger?
There was never an "aha" moment for us in our first round (1979-1983). This sounds cliche now, but often as not we'd play to baffled or uncaring audiences. What kept us going was that we felt that we were really onto something, at least for ourselves, and so did the "musical intelligentsia." We started doing pretty well in NYC by 1982 (the first 2/3 years or so were generally hopeless) and Boston often supported us well, usually in the smaller clubs.
I think part of the problem was our SOUND: we were (still are) extremely raw, yet very heady and complex. Highly physical and highly intellectual, without that warm emotional thing in between! And each instrument walks all over the other instrument in frequency range - the bass doesn't just sound round and warm but has lots of upper frequencies, which compete with the guitar and cymbals, etc. It is a very chaotic sound. I think that made our music hard to understand.
For example, we played Cleveland in 1981 or 1982. We met a couple gals on the street who said they loved Revolver, and we thought Wow, this is gonna be great night! But the recording of Revolver is very tidy, not like our live sound. And the minute we started playing, people pressed themselves up against the walls. Literally, they did not make ANY sound after a song was done. Dead silence. Half way through I started making fun of them and STILL they did not respond. The booking agent said he really liked us, but didn't see any reason for us to play a second set! That was one of the more extreme situations, but in another way it sums it all up. On a number of occasions we were told we didn't need to play our second set...
I state the above to show that we were used to being confusing and never expecting anyone to like us. But we didn't really care.
On the other hand, when "Academy Fight Song" came out, we did get on the cover of New York Rocker as being one of the 10 most important singles of 1980. That helped validate us. Generally (though not always) the press was good to us, encouraging us to soldier on. I mean, when Vs. was released, the Boston Phoenix took over half a year to even get to reviewing it. Other reviews were confused by it. We didn't make the music confusing on purpose - it's just what we did, and we thought it was good. So fuck everybody else!
There were a few times after we folded that stunned us. This was one that took us totally by surprise: Our catalog was reissued on CD by Rykodisc in the latter '80's. (Technically it was the longest CD in existence at that time, and it amused me to find that the last 6 tracks wouldn't play on the first CD player I heard it on!) It was reviewed in Rolling Stone along with 3 other reissues, as if we were "on a par" with these folks. Yipes..... They were: Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Van Morrison, and Mission of Burma. All on the same page. I was happily confused by this at the time.
4. What was your favorite Boston venue to play?
The classic was The Underground in Allston. Jim Coffman, the guy who ran it, later became our manager. It was basically a dive - the PA system only had 3 inputs! But it had a real community vibe to it, and also got some of the UK bands to play there. The Rat in Boston is the legendary place, but there was a lot of weirdness associated with it, like crazy bouncers and so forth. A really great place in 1978/early 1979 was The Space in downtown Boston. Again, smallish, but great community vibe.
Probably our favorite was a band-run loft (actually a basement) called Thayer Street at the edge of civilization in South Boston where we played a lot. Generally, this was where the more "art" rock bands played (we crossed the line in that department). Seriously communal vibe on that one. I recall a friend showing up who had no money so he paid in food!
5. What was your worst Boston gig?
That depends on how you describe "worst".... At Thayer Street, probably June 1979 (our first gig was April Fools Day, 1979). For some reason, Clint and I took quaaludes before the show (not our usual habit!). We got off stage and Clint and I thought we'd nailed it. But our friends came up and said "What the hell happened to you guys!?" Of course we were probably sloppy as hell and barely keeping it together, but it felt great to us! Fact is: Bad drugs are bad drugs!
6. What other local bands were your favorite to play with?
The Girls. The Maps. Human Sexual Response. The Unnatural Axe. The Lyres. 21-645. Negative FX. The Neats.
7. Since M.O.B.'s music crosses multiple genres--from hardcore to post-punk to art rock--what sort of identity did this help the band create in Boston?
When we arrived, the "art" side of punk was still more underground, and the more basic rock and roll punk was what was on top. But bands like The Girls, La Peste, and Human Sexual Response opened that up and we walked into this new area. However, we also could be viewed as a basic power-trio: early on we played with some very straight bands and sometimes their crowd loved us, seeing us as akin to The Who.
I suspect we helped give Boston a more innovative vibe. Other bands that came after us - Throwing Muses and Pixies come to mind - continued that tradition.
8. The band broke up in ‘83 but returned as a fully operational unit in 2002. Why did M.O.B. stop in ‘83 and what brought about the return to a fully functional band in 2002?
We stopped in 1983 because my tinnitus had gotten noticeably worse the second half of 1982 and I wanted to be able to hear when I was 50. Also, I have many other areas of music that I am involved in (currently I'm having compositions played at the New England Conservatory). And perhaps we didn't seem to be accomplishing all that much? Who knows. The band chose not to find another guitarist, and folded.
Our real "aha" moment was when Michael Azzerad's book "Our Band Could be Your Life" came out (2001). We were stunned to see ourselves listed as one of the most important bands of that era! We were right in there along with all these other bands that we generally loved who were MUCH more known than we were. It blew our minds to be included in that book - we thought we were mostly forgotten, a little side-note. Curiously, we've been in almost every other book on indie rock since. Hey, thanks Michael!
Shortly after that, and through a number of other twists, we were offered a reformation show. I was the contact person for this, and figured we'd decline it like we always had in the past. But I felt obligated to run it by Clint first,. To my amazement, he wanted to play! I said "Well, run it by Pete." I was certain Pete would decline. Nope, both those guys wanted to play which obligated me to do so as well. Besides, I was now 50 and I could hear just fine!
So we thought we'd play one Boston show and one NYC show and that would be it. It became 3 sold-out BOS shows and 2 sold-out NYC shows. Then we were offered to play ATP in the UK (Shellac was curating, and Bob Weston had taken over Martin Swope's tape-loop role when Martin declined to be involved with the reformation). We never played the UK "back in the day", so we figured we'd do it on a lark. That lark is still continuing, over 10 years later. No one could be more surprised than the band.
"Back in the day" we were notorious for sometimes being totally ON and sometimes a total mess. In the last 5 years or so, our ability to play consistently well is way higher than it was in the '80's. Who knows why. As a performing band now, I believe we are much better than we were then. I believe our material is quite good, as well. Of course Signals and Vs. was when we defined our sound, so there is no way to go back and be that ground-breaking again. But I believe two of our reformation albums, The Obliterati and Unsound, are both really good rock records and live up to the early material.
Well Known Songs
"Peking Spring," "Academy Fight Song," "That’s When I Reach for My Revolver"
Members
Roger Miller (guitar)
Clint Conley (bass)
Peter Prescott (drums)
Martin Swope (tape manipulator/sound engineer)(1979-1983)
Bob Weston (loops/sound engineer) (2002- )
Miller, Conley and Prescott share singing and songwriting duties.
Band Bio:
Started in 1979 and ended in 1983, Mission of Burma is a band with a short (initial) stint but long-lasting legacy. Credited with inventing post-punk, they crossed genres from punk to hardcore to art rock and influenced later bands such as Nirvana, Moby, R.E.M. who would also cover them.
The only recordings released by the band while still together were through local Boston record label, Ace of Hearts, which included 2 singles, the six-song EP Signals, calls, and machines in ‘81, and then their full length album in ‘82 Vs. Their first single “Academy Fight Song” sold out of its 7,500 pressing in 1980, a rare feat for an indie single. Their second single “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver” became an them covered by numerous bands.
M.O.B. played their first gig in 1979 at the Bradford Ballroom/Hotel. [Put more info here??] Their last show came in ‘83 in Long Island, part of their farewell tour due to guitarist Roger Miller’s tinnistus. In ‘85 Ace of Hearts released The Horrible Truth about Burma, a collection of unreleased songs and live performances.
The majority of band members have stayed active in several groups, including Sproton Layer, The Alloy Orchestra, Volcano Suns, The Binary System, among others. In 2002, M.O.B. reunited (save for Swope, with Bob Weston replacing him on loops) and have since come out with four more albums.
[Content combined from Salon, Mission of Burma, Wikipedia, and The Quietus]
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