Mission of Burma: Act Two

One nice thing about the acceleration of culture caused by the blooming of a million media outlets and new markets for every niche that the notion of "prophets without honor" is fast becoming obsolete. Bands of thirty years ago and painters of the last century might have died unknown and penniless only to have their greatness discovered later; today it's much more likely that any worthy artistic accomplishment will meet with recognition and praise. (The downside of this, of course, is that a lot of crap gets lionized, and some of it even becomes canonical. But that's a different story.)

So it makes me happy to note that today, the Boston band Mission of Burma releases its first new album in more than 20 years. A great if mostly unheralded quartet that fused punk aggression, musical accomplishment, terrific songwriting chops and radically advanced production and sound manipulation, MoB released a single, an EP and one full-length album between 1979 and 1983, when the band amicably split after singer/guitarist Roger Miller's tinnitus became too much to deal with. The three Burmen went onto other musical projects and other careers and started families, but reunited in 2002 for a few shows. They were amazed to find that in their two decades of hiatus, they'd not only inspired bands from R.E.M. to Moby but also had found the large audience that had eluded them in their heyday. Michael Azzerad's excellent book Our Band Could Be Your Life, which included a lengthy essay on Mission of Burma, probably had a lot to do with this--but the music also just held up incredibly well.

Burma started writing new songs and touring extensively, filmed a documentary titled "Inexplicable" about their unlikely resurrection, and finally signed with Matador Records early this year. The new LP, ONoffON, reportedly sounds much like the band's superb 1982 album Vs., and from seeing them perform in New York this past January I can vouch for the continued excellence of the new songwriting. A couple MP3s are available on Matador's site, and I'm hoping to pick up the CD soon.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said that there are no second acts in American life. But these three over-45 guys rock hard enough to put most 20somethings to shame, which should give hope to all of us trying to age with more style than grace.