They always said they were the rock band that broke up before they got a chance to sell out. And they broke up not because of personal animosity or financial woes but because their guitarist couldn't tolerate the loudness and developed tinnitus--ringing in the ears.
The band was Boston's Mission of Burma--darlings of the avant-punk movement of the late 1970s--and they are featured in Michael Azerrad's new book about the era, Our Band Could Be Your Life.
Photo copyright © 1983 by Phil in Phlash
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Now, 20 years after their demise, the members of Burma are doing what they said they'd never do: They're reuniting.
But, for guitarist Roger Miller, bassist Clint Conley, and drummer Peter Prescott, there is a caveat. All of them have other lives, in music and out. And this is a two-city-only event, Boston and New York, sometime in January.
"I probably will hurt myself," says Miller, "but we're only going to play a couple of shows. It's more the relentless day-in, day-out that kills your ears. When we rehearse, I'll be out in the hall with my shotgun headphones, and I'll have them on in concert. We're doing it for the emotional satisfaction, though none of us understand why.
"We'll play the 'hits'--didn't we have two?--and then we'll do an assortment of stuff[,] known and more obscure. I believe each of us will bring in something new as well." -- Jim Sullivan, "Mission of Burma Back for Encore" item, in "Names and Faces" column, Boston Globe, October 11, 2001, p. D4.
Mission of Burma, October 11, 2003Consonant, August 16, 2003
Mission of Burma, June 27, 2003
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