Song of the Week – That’s When I Reach For My Revolver, Mission of Burma

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

This post was originally mailed to my distribution list on October 11th.

Mission of Burma is one of my favorite Boston bands. (Those of you that have been following the SotW for a while have probably noticed that I write about Boston bands a lot… maybe too much.)

The band formed in 1979 when I was still a post grad DJ at WZBC (Boston College’s radio station). We were giving air time to many of the great local bands (Human Sexual Response, The Neighborhoods, etc.) a little ahead of the commercial stations in the city. That was the niche we were cultivating thanks in large part to people like Herb Scannell (GM) who later went on to a very successful career in the television media and Dave Herlihy who coined the station’s “No Commercial Potential” tag line (and was a founder of the band O Positive). But I digress.

MoB consisted of Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass) and Peter Prescott (drums). They also would sometimes call on Martin Swope who would work some magic as a sound shaper by manipulating tape recordings. The band only managed to stay together for 4 years and recorded one single, one EP (Signals, Call and Marches), and one proper album, (Vs). This entire output was compiled into a CD titled simply Mission of Burma.

The SotW is “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”, written and sung by Conley and original on the Signals… EP.

Bill Janovitz wrote a great description of the song at Allmusic.com:

The Mission of Burma original version of “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver” opens with a flatly recorded, ringing bass minor-chord line that forms the core of the arrangement. A chiming guitar enters soon after mimicking the hook. The flatness and the minor key portends gloom. The starkly poetic lyrics do not betray this mood; they suggest an alienated man who has reached his limits and who explodes on the chorus, “that’s when I reach for my revolver/that’s when it all gets blown away.”

The songs arrangement and use of “soft/loud” dynamics provide the clues necessary to connect the dots from MoB to Husker Du to The Pixies to Nirvana. Clint Conley’s ranting vocal may even serve as the template for the hardcore vocal style to develop later, but they’re not quite as harsh.

And, at about 2:25, the song busts into one of the coolest bass solos since John Entwistle’s freak out on “My Generation.”

If you want to learn more about the band, try to find a copy of the documentary Not a Photograph: The Mission of Burma Story (2006) on DVD or to stream.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Black and White, Parquet Courts

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

This post was originally mailed to my distribution list on October 4th.

A band that is currently on the indie rock circuit is Brooklyn (yes, another one from Brooklyn) based Parquet Courts. Their third album, Sunbathing animals, has been out for a few months now. I’ve been checking it out on Spotify and really enjoy the whole album. But “Black and White” stands out to me for its up tempo, post-punk drive – so it is today’s SotW. (It’s also the song they played on Seth Meyer’s late night show earlier this year.)

“Black and White” has a Velvet Underground/Television/Sonic Youth vibe to it – repetitive strumming and droning lead and a feedback laced freak out.

The lyrics communicate the difficulty and frustration of trying to balance how to continue to be fresh and creative when you’re trapped by the mundane tedium of constant touring. Here’s the second verse.

There’s a sinful sort of side of being
So contained, a bit like being lost
Stumbling through the background like a small town loner
Quietly a-whisperin’ my thoughts into my cupped hands
Folded and monk-like, at least that’s what I’ve always said
How does writing letters from the lonely margins feel
When there is no hair on my head?
Is the solitude I seek a trap where I’ve been blindly led?
Tell me, where then do I go instead?

Parquet Courts is another contemporary band worth keeping an eye on.

Enjoy… until next week.

Night Music: Neil Young, “Old Man”

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I’m ambivalent about many Neil Young songs.

This one is utterly beautiful. So is a Man Needs a Maid. And the Needle and the Damage Done. But the content doesn’t always match the package.

That said, I love this clip. I’m going to see my old man in a few hours, and whether I like it or not I’m a lot like he is (this is what led me to this tune tonight).

Lunch Break: The Silos, “Let’s Go Get Some Drugs and Drive Around”

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In the darkness of the late 80s there were the Silos.

Like the Mekons they had a fiddle. They also had a big drum sound, and spoke the vernacular English.

Like the Mekons they never had a hit, and maybe came even more unclose. They don’t rock nearly as hard as the Mekons, and didn’t endure nearly as long, since they were mostly a one-man band. Eventually he went solo, which made not much difference except his nut was smaller.

Is that a good thing?

But if you’re mixing up rock and folk, smarts and rock, this is a pretty fine band to have.

Lunch Break: My Shit’s Fucked Up

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Warren Zevon speaks plainly. Is this real folk music?

Breakfast Blend: The Wrens

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I first heard this band with their third album, called the Meadowlands, after their New Jersey homelands.

What I hear in them is the sound of the Flaming Groovies without the Flaming’s complicated relation to garage and camp. And with a more stately rhythm, at least most of the time.

In other words, sincerely trying to make pop music in the guitarists dining room. Who doesn’t root for that.

These guys could have sold out magnificently, and it accrues to them positively that they don’t seem to have given that much thought. But it would be nice if some big star, looking for a fine tune, might find them. And their songs. This is nice music.

Night Music: Style Council, “Long Hot Summer”

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This morning’s Crowded House blue-eyed soul reminded me of this homoerotic video and shirts-off performance by Paul Weller.

It’s hard to imagine exactly what scenario the lads are acting out here, or how hot Weller’s bony torso is supposed to fire us up, but whatever your persuasion the message is a jumble.

Unless you like bony rock lads.

Breakfast Blend: Both Finns

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Speaking of Crowded House, founded by Neil Finn in Australia, there is this excellent blue-eyed soul, with a decidedly gendermorphic and inexplicable video. What exactly is going on here? I like it.

Tim Finn and Phil Judd formed Split Enz in New Zealand in the early 70s, but turned progressively prog. The band met Roxy Music in 1976, opening for them on their Australian tour, which led to a move to England and being produced by Phil Manzanera.

After that Judd left the band, Neil Finn joined, and Split Enz became more of a New Wave band.

Eventually the Finns were awarded the OBE from Quenn Elizabeth, tribute to their role in the musical culture of New Zealand.

Night Music: Southern Culture on the Skids, “Camel Walk”

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I know, I know, I know, this song is a joke, I get that. But it raises all kinds of questions.

Let me set the scene. I spent 4+ hours in the car today, and I listened to the radio. I’m in New York City, I could listen to scores of radio stations, but some of the college stations fade in and out. The one that doesn’t is WFUV, the station of Fordham University.

WFUV has been a decent enough radio station, even though it doesn’t sound like a college station. The DJs aren’t learning their craft. Some of the top DJs from WNEW in the 1960s and 70s heyday still work at the station. So, in spite of the collegiate affiliation this is a professional non-commercial station.

Until recently they played the format known as Americana, mostly, which meant trudging through the dull dirt waiting for the occasional gems. Those days were mostly inoffensive and sometimes good, and since I don’t spend that much time riding in the car in NYC, not a problem. WFUV was reliable if often dull.

Now, it seems, WFUV has changed to something you could call a discovery format. From my experience today they play a mixture of old and new, aiming for the older listener who may recall the AOR (Album Oriented Radio) days fondly.

So, on my drive, I heard Devo and the Dolls, Big Star and Crowded House. Chuck Berry, the Coasters and the new album from Stars. Good, right? You can read today’s list here. But I also heard Nigel Hawthorne and Weezer, the Dave Matthews Band and this.

I knew it wasn’t the B-52s, because it obviously sucked, but it also caught my ear because in a way it seemed in some way to be talking back to the effete socialists in the Delta 5 and Gang of Four and the Mekons. It was saying, us ‘Merkins love our crackers and our surf rock and don’t go messing it up with your jangly angular allusions and arch lyrics. Eat my drool, lick my lil Debbies, suck ass.

Which doesn’t, on the face of it, seem like a losing strategy to me, necessarily, and maybe SCOTS have done better, but this song? I can imagine why it might have been made, it probably seemed funny at the time, and someone clearly paid, but why is someone playing it on the radio today?

Does anybody know?

Lunch Break: Neil Young, “Who’s Gonna Stand Up”

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Supposedly this is the first Neil Young song he played no instrument on, he only sang.

I think the spectacle of the orchestra is the reason to watch. The sentiment is, of course, hugely noble, and the presentation is really weird.

I like Young for being heartfelt, and he can be very smart about his music and the role it plays in peoples’ lives by virtue of his playing and talking. That matters.

But this? I hope it matters. As art it does not.