1. Mission Of Burma Band
2. That's When I Reach For My Revolver

Signals, Calls, and Marches is an EP and the debut release by American post-punk band Mission of Burma. It was released in 1981 by record label Ace of Hearts.

Content[edit]

The album's first track is 'That's When I Reach for My Revolver,' which features a singable, anthemic chorus that helped make it one of the band's most popular songs.

Though Mission of Burma's live performances were characterized by noise and chaos,^[1]Signals, Calls, and Marches has a notably 'cleaner' sound in comparison to the band's live performances and subsequent recordings.^[2] Marc Masters of Pitchfork called this different sound 'somewhat misrepresentative' of the band, as '[Producer Richard] Harte's production cleaned up the band's brutally loud live sound.'^[3] Guitarist Roger Miller noted that the sound probably helped the band become more accessible, recalling:

Mission Of Burma; Album vs. Mission of Burma- The Ballad of Johnny Burma. ZRN959 24,086 views. Mission Of Burma- Mica & Weatherbox. Feb 13, 2014 - Mission of Burma are pretty much the be-all and end-all of upbeat, catchy post-punk if you ask me. This EP is fantastic, it's incredibly consistent.

We played a show in Cleveland ('81 or '82) and we were on the street in front of the club. A girl came up to us and said how much she was looking forward to the show, and that she loved 'That's When I Reach for My Revolver'. We thought we were golden. However, once we started playing, people backed up against the wall and after the first song did not applaud or respond to us one bit, even after we started heckling them. Even when we played 'Revolver'. So, it is quite probably true that the 'mild-mannered' recording we made on Signals reached more people than if we recorded it in a more furious or noisy fashion.^[4]

Release[edit]

Signals, Calls, and Marches was released on July 4, 1981 by record label Ace of Hearts.

Upon its release in 1981, the record was immediately popular in the Boston area, charting at number six on local radio station WBCN's charts. The EP sold out its initial printing of ten thousand copies before the end of the year.^[1]

For the CD reissue, Rykodisc remastered the six original songs and added the two tracks from the band's 1980 debut 7' single, 'Academy Fight Song' and 'Max Ernst'. The EP was remastered by Matador Records in 2008 with video material and extra tracks.^[5]

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Reception[edit]

Signals, Calls, and Marches has been well-received by critics.

In his retrospective review, Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote, 'if Mission of Burma were not yet at the peak of their form, most bands blazing as many trails as this one did lost their footing a lot more often that Burma did on these six songs; Signals, Calls and Marches was as accomplished and impressive a debut as any American band would release in the 1980s.'^[6] Marc Masters of Pitchfork called it 'impeccable' and 'probably the best Mission of Burma release ever.'^[3]

Mission Of Burma Band

Legacy[edit]

Signals, Calls, and Marches is considered an immensely influential landmark in the field of indie rock and alternative rock. Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote, 'One could argue that [Signals, Calls, and Marches] was the point where indie rock as a separate and distinct musical subgenre well and truly began. Mission of Burma's music had the brawn and the volume of hardcore punk, but with a lyrical intelligence and obvious musical sophistication that set them apart from the Southern California faster-and-louder brigade.'^[6] Marc Masters of Pitchfork opined that the EP 'reverberated loudly through alternative rock for three decades, influencing everyone from R.E.M. to Fugazi to Nirvana.'^[3]

Pitchfork ranked it the 53rd greatest album of the 1980s.^[14]

Track listing[edit]

All tracks written by Roger Miller, except where noted.

Personnel[edit]

Mission of Burma

• Martin Swope – loops, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Clint Conley – bass guitar, vocals, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Roger Miller – guitar, vocals, piano, trumpet, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Peter Prescott – drums, vocals, percussion, cover and sleeve design

Technical

• Richard W. Harte – production
• John Kiehl – engineering
• Holly Anderson – cover and sleeve design
• Neal Trousdale – sleeve photography

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abMichael, Azerrad. Our band could be your life : scenes from the American indie underground 1981-1991 (First Back Bay paperback ed.). Boston. ISBN9780316787536. OCLC50483014.
2. ^Robbins, Ira; Smith, Jason W. 'trouserpress.com :: Mission of Burma'. Trouser Press. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
3. ^ ^abcdMasters, Marc (March 24, 2008). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches / Vs. / The Horrible Truth About Burma'. Pitchfork. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
4. ^'Signals, Calls and Marches'. missionofburma.com. Archived from the original on October 29, 2003. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
5. ^'Matador Records Matablog'. matadorrecords.com. February 11, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
6. ^ ^abcDeming, Mark. 'Signals, Calls and Marches – Mission of Burma'. AllMusic. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
7. ^Christgau, Robert (1990). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls and Marches'. Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s. Pantheon Books. ISBN0-679-73015-X. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
8. ^Mirkin, Steven (August 1, 1997). 'Mission of Burma reissues'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
9. ^Gatian, Natasha (July 30, 2015). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches / Vs.'. PopMatters. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
10. ^'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches'. Q (190): 132. May 2002.
11. ^'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches'. Record Collector: 100. [P]erhaps their strongest statement, opening with the brilliant 'Academy Fight Song' and the anthemic post-punk classic 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver'..
12. ^Randall, Mac (2004). 'Mission of Burma'. In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 546–47. ISBN0-7432-0169-8.
13. ^Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN0-679-75574-8.
14. ^'Top 100 Albums of the 1980s - Pitchfork'. pitchfork.com. Retrieved July 8, 2017.

External links[edit]

• Signals, Calls, and Marches at Discogs (list of releases)

Vs. is the debut studio album by American post-punk band Mission of Burma, following their 1981 EP, Signals, Calls, and Marches. It was released in October 1982 by record label Ace of Hearts. It is the only full-length studio album the band released during the 1980s – and until 2004, as soon afterward they disbanded due to guitarist Roger Miller's worsening tinnitus.^[2]

Recording and content[edit]

Whereas 1981's Signals, Calls, and Marches was notable for its accessible and organized qualities, Vs. saw Mission of Burma make a deliberate effort to record the chaos and noise that characterized their live performances.^[3] To help capture their live sound, the album was recorded in a large room at Normandy Sound studios in Rhode Island.

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The songs on the album feature a greater presence of band member Martin Swope's electronic and tape sound effects than with the band's previous recordings.

Mission of Burma guitarist Roger Miller considered Vs. to be the band's best recording, and among the greatest rock and roll albums ever made.

Critical reception[edit]

Vs. has been well received by critics, immediately getting positive reviews from publications like The New York Times. But despite strong reviews, the noisier sound caused the album to be considered less appropriate for radio airplay than previous Mission of Burma recordings.^[3]Robert Christgau, who originally gave it a 'B+' in The Village Voice, later said he should have graded it an 'A−'.^[12]

In his retrospective review, Mark Deming of AllMusic opined that Vs. saw Mission of Burma '[mature] into a band whose sound was as distinctive as anyone of its generation. [..] It's daunting to imagine just how far Mission of Burma could have taken its music had Roger Miller's hearing problems not caused the band to break up the following year, but regardless of lost potential, very few American bands from the 1980s released an album as ambitious or as powerful as Vs.'^[1]

Legacy[edit]

The album ranked at number 49 on Pitchfork's 'Top 100 Albums of the 1980s' list.^[13] In 2016, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album number 25 on their list of the 40 Greatest Punk Albums.

Track listing[edit]

All tracks written by Roger Miller, except where noted.

That's When I Reach For My Revolver

Note

• The Matador Definitive Edition CD has the same bonus tracks, but they are in a different order: 'Laugh the World Away', 'Forget', Progress', 'OK/No Way'.

Personnel[edit]

Mission of Burma

• Martin Swope – tape operation, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Clint Conley – bass guitar, vocals, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Roger Miller – guitar, vocals, piano, trumpet, percussion, cover and sleeve design
• Peter Prescott – drums, vocals, percussion, cover and sleeve design

Technical

• Richard W. Harte – production
• John Kiehl – engineering
• Holly Anderson – cover and sleeve design
• Diane Bergamasco – sleeve photography

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcDeming, Mark. 'Vs. – Mission of Burma'. AllMusic. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
2. ^'Interview With Roger Miller From Mission Of Burma: Psychedelic Sorties'. The Aquarian. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
3. ^ ^abMichael, Azerrad,. Our band could be your life : scenes from the American indie underground 1981-1991 (First Back Bay paperback ed.). Boston. ISBN9780316787536. OCLC50483014.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
4. ^Schroeder, Audra (May 2, 2008). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches, Vs., The Horrible Truth About Burma'. The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
5. ^Mirkin, Steven (August 1, 1997). 'Mission of Burma reissues'. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
6. ^Masters, Marc (March 24, 2008). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches / Vs. / The Horrible Truth About Burma'. Pitchfork. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
7. ^Gatian, Natasha (July 30, 2015). 'Mission of Burma: Signals, Calls, and Marches / Vs.'. PopMatters. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
8. ^'Mission of Burma: Vs.'. Q (190): 132. May 2002.
9. ^Randall, Mac (2004). 'Mission of Burma'. In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. pp. 546–47. ISBN0-7432-0169-8.
10. ^Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig, eds. (1995). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. ISBN0-679-75574-8.
11. ^Christgau, Robert (March 29, 1983). 'Christgau's Consumer Guide'. The Village Voice. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
12. ^Anon. (April 25, 2002). 'Nitpicking Issues With the Lists'. robertchristgau.com. Retrieved April 20, 2018.
13. ^Dahlen, Chris (November 20, 2002). 'Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s Features Pitchfork'. Pitchfork. Retrieved April 25, 2013.

External links[edit]

• Vs. at Discogs (list of releases)