This week Mission of Burma released one of the most anticipated records in recent memory–ONoffON (Matador) is the seminal Boston postpunk outfit’s first new studio album in 22 years. Plenty of rock reunions embarrass everyone involved, but MoB’s return to the stage and studio has been a success with fans and critics alike–and for Chicago producer and musician Bob Weston, who’s been working with the band since early 2002, it’s been a dream come true. “I hate to say they’re my favorite band, because that always changes,” he says. “But they are in my top three rotating favorite bands of all time, probably fighting it out with Fugazi and the Beatles.”
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Mission of Burma had called it quits in 1983 after just one full-length, 1982’s Vs., in part because their stage volume was aggravating Miller’s tinnitus–but in the years that followed they’d become almost legendary. After Michael Azerrad highlighted the group in his 2001 indie-rock history, Our Band Could Be Your Life, public interest crested and Mission of Burma decided to re-form for a string of east-coast gigs.
After the success of the first Burma reunion concerts, jokingly christened the “Inexplicable 2002” tour, the group continued gigging, doing only short jaunts as a concession to Miller’s condition–he now plays wearing shooter’s earmuffs, separated from Prescott’s drum kit by a Plexiglas baffle. After a year and a half they’d written an album’s worth of new material, and as Weston recalls, “Roger’s like, ‘Well, we’ve got a bunch of new songs we’re playing live; we should either record them or there’s no use doing this anymore.’”
Weston’s time with Mission of Burma on the road and in the studio has been a unique opportunity for him to combine his two lifelong pursuits: “Music and behind-the-scenes tech stuff–I’ve been drawn to those two things since I was a little kid,” he says. “I vividly remember in elementary school always wanting to run the filmstrip projector. I was always the AV geek.”
Of course, now that ONoffON is out, Weston will spend at least a couple months focusing on his beloved Burma. “People have to keep reminding me, ‘You know, you’re in Mission of Burma.’ I still can’t believe it,” he says. “I feel like I’m the Forrest Gump of underground music. I just keep falling into these really great situations.”
