Check out The Music Slut to enter to win a pair of tickets to the Jan. 29th show at Bowery Ballroom! If you’re the lucky winner, you’ll also get a 7″ vinyl single of Innermost. Good luck!!

Mission of Burma played a Lounge Session at Austin’s WOXY last week. Stream it here. Stay tuned for more live sessions from Aquarium Drunkard and KEXP.

Dreary day, basically. Cold. We hear it’s supposed to snow in Seattle tomorrow – looks like we got out of there just in time. Back on I-5. Bob’s wife Carrie joined us here through SF: an excellent addition to a well-balanced touring van. At the gas station, Pete caught me staring into space. I tried to explain it was the scenery, but then I noted where I was looking…..

In the car played a “White” compilation CD a friend of mine gave me: they are a Chinese underground “rock” band. Sometimes industrial, sometimes drummish, sometimes melodic almost like a simpler Steve Reich. Consensus in the van: very curious stuff.

Hit our favorite hotel in Ashland, OR: the Bard. This is a shakespeare festival town, and it’s got everything we need. Bob and Carrie, Clint and I hit the thermal hot spa. Sulphuric waftings toasted us out, while alternating between the steam sauna, the cold water near-olympic length pool, then back into the smaller hot pool. Quite fun and gonkily relaxing. Then Pete and Jimmy joined me ‘n’ Clint for thai food at the Thai Pepper. Excellent food, and general excessive relaxation. That’ll wind up a day off, much needed.

Superb coffee shop a few blocks from the Hi-X Hotel we stayed at: Tougo Coffee Co. on the corner of 8th and Westlake. Top notch beverages and charming folks behind the counter. Then, again, we marvel at Jimmy’s ability to “sqaure-off” all the gear into the back of the van. Not an inch wasted space. Not a quarter of an inch.

A couple more details here: We are now on I-5 south of Seattle. Speed: 70 mph on the dot. Ford Van rented from: Bandago. Air quality in van: quite tolerable. Music at the moment: Fucked Up. Condition of sky: some clouds, but sunny (there is a sun! The rumors are true…!). Quality of pavement: mild bumpiness, but nothing to warrant current govt. grants for repair. Color of trees on hillside: green. Vehicles on the road: generally evenly spaced, between 10 and 20 feet between each. Pete just pointed out that we’re passing “Millersylvania State Park”. Ooops, there goes the sun. Haven’t we been on this road before?

WOW Hall (Eugene, OR): one of the coolest venues we play on the West Coast. Good DIY ethic mixed with professionalism.

Kickass (sic) night of rock (or whatever it is) by Explode Into Colors. Their sense of rhythm and time is so on it’s quite amazing – interlocking rhythmic fest. We’re starting to know some of their songs – just in time to not play with them again – and they get better when you know them. What a band (all Burmas think this, hands down….). Our set was quite good, too – we’re back on track as we were last night. Felt good. Hotel is only two blocks away. We can leave the gear securely in the venue overnight. Don’t have to leave until noon. Goal tomorrow: short drive, hot springs, early hotel fun! It’s about fucking time as far as we’re concerned……

Our friend Eric set us up for a hi-fi breakfast/brunch at his place. We’re talkin’ hi-fi pancakes, hi-fi sausages of variety, hi-fi eggs of scrambling, plus general hi-fi. Our only payback was signing the vinyl he had – virtually all Burma plus Volcano Suns, Shellac, and more of my solo albums than I care to recall. An exceptionally pleasant morning. Then back on 5 North, where we just came down yesterday, and will go back down tomorrow. There was a rainbow that was so close it started between the two cars in front of us and ended by the side ditch. Never seen one that close, and Jimmy had to steer carefully to avoid getting the tires burnt.

The new Crocodile Club in Seattle is definitely “bigger”. The acoustics of the room are not exactly ideal, however. Just ask Bob. Or us. But we played with the most “correct verve” of the tour so far – no obstacles to fight, and back on track (Portland was a tad bit lame on our part…..). Clint saw an old highschool buddy and I saw one of my nephews, so external socialization was good.

The opening band, Explode Into Colors, was superb (happily we play w/’em tomorrow, too). 3 gals: 2 drummers, one baritone guitar, and two of them on vocals. All players really really good – this group setup could be a recipe for disaster, but the fact that they pull it off so smoothly makes them all the more amazing. Highly recommended to see if they show up in your town.

Got enough sleep for the first time in it seems like weeks. Good coffee (it’s Seattle after all, though I way defer to non-Starbucks joints). First solid packing of the van, and it’s off to Portland. Clint: “Jimmy, can you speed up and pass that Semi so we can see the mountain?” Yes, that is a nice mountain, what with glaciers topping it off into the clouds. Possibly a dying breed, them glaciers. Good thing the Republican administration made sure the U.S. “didn’t believe” in global warming. What useless fucks.

Jimmy had a dream last night that Mark came up to him saying “When it rains, it pours!” and handed him a sheet of paper. “Check it out!” It was a gig in Orlando, FL, on a freshly docked navy ship and the dough was really good. This is notable because Orlando is land-bound on all sides.

Bob had a burn of the KEXP radio show so we pumped it into the van CD player and to our moderate amazement, it actually sounded pretty fun. We were so irritated during the session that we did more “expansionist” work than usual. The attempts at a glorious mess were quite amusing on a couple tracks.

We love the Doug Fir. Sound-checks are easy, crew solid, stage and PA sounds great, superb dinners at the Jupiter (with band discount…), and the Jupiter Hotel is directly over the club. Plus, each very charming hotel room comes with a separate basket for recycling, 2 sets of ear plugs, and a special “Jupiter” condom… i.e., rocker’s paradise…..

The show went well w/good audience enthusiasmics. Bob joined us for the 3rd encore of Good Not Great. Erase Errata’s opening set was truly fab. Afterwards we sold merch. from the stage as is our wont these days. We’re so rich now we won’t have to play another gig at least until we get to Seattle tomorrow.

Shit – it’s American Airlines for us today. One of the worst.

We are all in line (after rousing at a cheerful 6 am). The ticket-marm barks something into her microphone/distortion unit. Not one of us understands a word she said. Quick comparison of notes with other ticket-holders brings the same response – it was total gibberish, devoid of information.

Jimmy, now accepting full responsibility (as he should), decides the time has come for action: brazen as an elk w/a fresh head of antlers, he leaps forward waving his right to passage in his bag-free hand! The ticket-marm scans his ticket w/increasing dismay, and a dark cloud settles upon her brow. Her eyes rise slowly and nail Jimmy to the floor: “What were you thinking?!?!”, and she cuffs him redoubtably about his ears. Sympathy pours from all those still quailing in line, terrified that they, too, might inadvertently commit a misdeed merely from innocent misunderstanding, or excessive verve to attain their allotted seat-slots.

Clint chooses this moment to rush, arms flailing, to his brother’s aid, but she brushes him into the same side-pen and reaches under her gilded podium to produce, and hold aloft for all to view, a gleaming white dunce cap! Jimmy sheepishly hangs his head forward while she sits it triumphantly upon his skull and fixes the strap firmly under his chin. After thus asserting complete domination, she gazes ahead for a goodly time without uttering a single announcement as to which row or boarding group was to go forth next, to inflict upon us all, as co-conspirators we surely were, her worthy and just punishment.

(note – names have not been changed to protect the innocent)

Landed in Seattle. Jimmy got the van. We picked up our guitars in the “Oversize” area. Drove to where our amps and drums had been shipped. Went to the hotel. Ate some food. Recorded a radio show (KEXP in Seattle) to be aired later. Some now going out for a goodly dinner. I now to the pool to dekink my system. Overall it feels good to be somewhere seriously ON LAND, in a VAN and not on a plane.

By late afternoon, the mud had solidified from yesterday’s flood, and now the various lizard and bird corpses were being scavenged by hungry concert-goers. Trash cans became burners, and the smell of singed lizard-fat clogged nostrils throughout the sodden parkland. Mudstock it was.

The rain shifted from “mucho” to “poco” and back again on a whim. I hustled from tent to tent, huddling with concert-goers and musicians alike. Shoes caked to the top with mud. Any slope with an incline of more than 2% was a serious threat. I stood in line for the free “artist” beer area, found they only had Miller (wtf?), and got my jacket soaked for that. There was no backstage area. However, while Jimmy, Pete and Mark hunkered down on some struts under the stage, the band Broadcast made it as tolerable as possible, spreading benevolent psychedelic vibes topped with vocal expertise.

Of course when we started setting up, Pete’s drum pedal was missing and neither bass nor guitar amp would work (we were using back-line for the fest). We’re all wet. Most of the stage is soaked. There is no where to sit. The only lights are blazing spotlights so you’d go from two different extremes of blindness. It was a totally surreally fukt environment to be expected to produce rock music in. It was the first time we’d ever felt that we might not actually be able to play. Bizarrely enough, though, we got all the amps working (the stage crew really did help us out as much as they could), and, against all odds, the rain halted (mostly) and we played a rather spirited set. Weird. And to the credit of the concert-goers, the crowd maintained position from stage-front to the back fence through-out the entire ordeal.

Later in the eve I was the only band-member either 1. brave; 2. stupid; 3. duty-driven; or 4. ego-maniacal (choose any of the above) to do the Q+A after they showed “Not a Photograph” at a theatre in another part of town. Mark drove me there, and while I sipped highly-hopped beverages waiting for our film to end, he slipped in and out of two different screening rooms, alternately watching the Michael Jackson film “This is it”, and “Not a Photograph.” He said it was an interesting juxtaposition.

Jet Blue. Best fly I’ve had in a long time. Baustin to Austin. Good leg room. Tolerable free snacks.

Got picked up in a stretch limo – we always travel on the maximum stylization principal. We accept nothing less. (except the next day when 4 of us were in the back seat of a Camry….)

A couple hours and sleep-delays later we played an internet radio show for WOXY – we don’t like that kind of thing much, but we’re told it’s useful. Besides 3 of our own “songs”, we played our version of the Yardbirds’ astounding “Happenings Ten Years Time Ago”, their last hit, probably ’66. What’s most remarkable about this song is that it is 150% psychedelic, yet by referring to Clairvoyants and memory/sleep, it side-steps the actual use of psychedelic drugs. A very natural Burma cover.

We cut the interview portion as short as possible to make sure we caught The Jesus Lizard. Rockabilly meets King Crimson with Capt. Beefheart ranting stories. Or….. Led Zeppelin meets the Birthday Party. Or….. I could add another 501 comparisons, but you gotta give up and realize the more influences buried in there, the less each one weighs. At that point one just yelps: “They sound just like The Jesus Lizard”!

On the first beat Yow hurled himself into the audience and sang the entire first song on his back, held up by crazies. “Hello Dallas!” Guitarist Duane D. looked identical to Jimmy’s dentist and their bass man looked like he’d kill the goddam dentist if he even went near his teeth. As the sound swirled and crystalized, the rain started pouring down. We were warned that Barton Creek may flood, but no one prepared us for the influx of fetid animals crawling up the slippery grassy slope. Girls screaming with their legs covered with water-bugs, and our hands were useless in batting away hysterical birds and bats buffeted by the wind. Over the water skipped these insane lizards. Oh my god, those are The Jesus Lizards! The entire festival was shut down early, and we were glad to just get the fuck out of there and back to our hotel beds. An auspicious beginning for our short tour of duty.

RM

Starting this Sunday, November 8 at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX, Mission of Burma is hitting to road again, playing in Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles. Visit the tour page to get your tickets.

11.08.09

Fun Fun Fun Fest

Waterloo Park

Austin, TX

11.08.09 @ 9:30pm

The Alamo Ritz – Not A Photograph screening

Austin, Texas

Followed by a Q&A with Roger Miller

11.10.09

Doug Fir Lounge

Portland, OR

11.11.09

The Crocodile

Seattle, WA

11.12.09

WOW Hall

Eugene, OR

11.14.09

The Independent

San Francisco, CA

11.15.09

The Echo

Los Angeles, California