Mission of Burma Vs. Nomeansno

btw both choices are good choices, i just wanted a poll where any result would make me happy, one would just make me happier.

this is going to be a lopsided MoB victory but I prefer Nomeansno's music, it's just that simple. Dig Burma obv they are great but man that No Means No One album (I never know whether it's called "One" or "No One"), as late as it is, that shit fucked me right up, and "Wrong!" is great, and "Dance of the Headless Bourgeoisie" - just love that band, even in the moments where I think "ok guys this isn't working" it still kinda works.

this is one of those polls that i start where i worry that i am the only dude that hears the similarity

in the interest of not looking like a crazy person here is a xpost from the nomeansno thread:
http://www.youtube.com/v/VTNr8i2ort0&fs=1&hl=en

btw did not include minutemen because srsly why just set myself up for even greater crushing failure on ilx poll

I love MoB but NMN are closer to my heart.

lol jj nomeansno are like a genuine cult band though! rejoice (not for them obv., the pleasure of the cult band belongs only to the cult): as great as they are, you'll always be in the elite for knowing it!

MOB cuz, i dunno, i like their songs better. i get into like wrong and small parts and even sex mad from time to time, but i don't carry those songs around with me as personal totems. i don't sing them to me on the bus. or not often anyway. both are better live, but i relate more to where MOB are/were coming from. i am insufficiently angry for nomeansno, i guess...

heh re: nomeansno angry vibe - i always feel like sometimes peeps miss the sweetness and humor underneath the loudness and bombast

case in point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKQ4yHXkUOU

haha although this was not my intention, i should probably retitle this "mission of burma vs. nomeansno poll: post about mission of burma here so i can try to talk you out of it while still respecting why you think you are making the right decision."

Love Burma but tempted to vote for Nomeansno just because they're so inexplicably ignored by most people who are into more 'classic' indie rock/post-punk despite the fact that they rule and are AMAZING live

yeah, i mean, you can't be the hanson bros w/out a sense of lolz. song is fucking badass. makes me wanna change my vote, cuz MOB never cut it up like that. plus pic is beyond cool.

okay, i'm full of shit (u talked me out of it) cuz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0pzupF3FpU

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLFpJuZ8zI

just one of the best rock n roll albums anyone ever made ever and nothing MOB ever did comes close

trem two, pfft

yousonofabitchGO

I think maybe a big point of resistance with NMN is that the vocal delivery & lyrics are kind of hard to pin down, but they really sound like they're about something - you listen to an NMN song, and you think, is the speaker being held up for ridicule, or am I supposed to relate to him, or what's the deal? and it's almost never clear. it's really bizarre, something you sort of have to forge of a way of relating to. Burma's not trad rock dynamic on this stuff, either, but is more abstract most of the time; the question doesn't come up, and besides, it doesn't seem as often like you the listener are being addressed/confronted/implicated by MoB.

nb am not married to this idea it was just a thought as I remembered my first confused-yet-exhilarated listen to "a little too high"

no, it's a good idea, JD. MOB = introspective dude feeling things, letting u in on the trip. NMN = angry bald weirdo flippin out on ISSUES and telling u what's up. much harder to relate to, get comfortable with. but if you let that go and just ride the waves, NMN will give you the chills. i really need to reacquaint myself with NMN, cuz they were an early hc love of mine, one of my first real punk shows (with DOA at tacoma's community world theater!), and i honestly haven't listened to them in like 10-15 years. god knows why...

no i think theres something there, most nmn stuff seems very THIS IS ME RIGHT NOW somehow in the presentation, there isnt any detachment on the face of it, but theres a ton of distance kinda hiding behind the scenes i think?

i mean for obv example "dance of the headless bourgeoisie" is a super direct almost character study thing, but uh thinking dude is too old to be in the kidnapping game at this point.

xpost

uh the song not the album as a whole btw

are you hip to how they're touring in the fall

09.10.10 Olympia, WA Capitol Theater
09.11.10 Portland, OR MusicFest Northwest @ Dante's
09.12.10 Tacoma, WA Hell's Kitchen
09.17.10 Oakland, CA Uptown Night Club
09.18.10 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
10.07.10 Seattle, WA Neumo's
10.08.10 Missoula, MT The Badlander
10.09.10 Bozeman, MT Zebra
10.10.10 Billings, MT The Railyard
10.12.10 Denver, CO Three Kings Tavern
10.13.10 Kansas City, MO Record Bar
10.14.10 Columbia, MO Mojo's
10.15.10 Chicago, IL Reggie's
10.16.10 Madison, WI High Noon Saloon
10.17.10 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club
10.19.10 Fargo, ND Aquarium
10.20.10 Regina, SK The Distrikt
10.21.10 Saskatoon, SK Amigo's
10.22.10 Edmonton, AB Starlite Room
10.23.10 Lethbridge, AB Slice
12.03.10-12.05.10 Minehead, UK ATP curated by Godspeed You Black Emperor

I gotta say you look at that routing and think "what a bunch of badasses" - no NY, no SF, no LA, those are big markets where you can draw a crowd...NMN keepin it extra-real @ Mojo's

10.17.10 Minneapolis, MN Triple Rock Social Club

this is going to be so goddamn awesome

will go see em at neumos. i mean, i'm seeing the gories there only a couple days after, why not make a week of old guys beating the shit out of shit

I was 100% hoping that I was gonna be the guy breaking the news to you jjj :)

the question here is whether i am enough of a dork to go to the madison show the night before

because madison is fun

that venue is kinda weird, really well-lit joint not near anything - fun show though!

i've cut the twining cord, i've shot the turtledove

ok tbf the dork part is not in question really lets be honest. i just need to figure out if i can find some poor fool to transport my boozy self back from wisco at the end of the night.

xpost ok wait now i am intrigued w/ the idea of seeing them in fargo.

haven't played there but I hear Fargo shows can jump off like psycho-style

http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=677iuK4xZC0

was supposed to be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=677iuK4xZC0&feature=related

plus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Vpcjiy60o

NOMEANSNO. Easiest question I've ever had to answer. They were amazing on the Why Do They Call Me Mr Happy? tour and can't wait to see them again at Xmas UK ATP.

to keep the home fires burning, this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fa/Nomeansno_Peoples_Choice.jpg/200px-Nomeansno_Peoples_Choice.jpg

is the best "greatest hits" cover art ever.

actual real in my living room lolz

oh shit that is actually too small for the punchline to be legible

http://img13.nnm.ru/0/4/2/d/8/042d8714a5609e9d59fb081ecb624254_full.jpg

way funnier than ausfart

love nomeansno, my favorite band during one particularly dark period in my teens

can't wait to see them again at Xmas UK ATP.

― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 29 July 2010 08:19 (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^yeah although I prob tend towards MoB in this hot contest, in the interests of balance I should probably not be voting until after the above has taken place

so easy to say MOB is the problem, but then after u think about it, how is it not NBN?

B = M (lol)

have long been of the opinion that 'Body Bag' by NMN is way overdue to get picked up by postpunk/dancepunk/(word to) Optimo/bootleg edit/etc types, on account of the fact it ~swings~

think this is true, but not body bag alone. NMN ripe for breakbeat harvesting, but no one knoes/cares. funky ass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnqXxlHAiIc

First saw them on the Wrong tour. Nomeansno forever.

i've cut the twining cord, i've shot the turtledove

― a CRASBO is a "criminally related" ASBO (contenderizer), Thursday, July 29, 2010 4:13 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I'VE SHUT OUT THAT PRECIOUS LIGHT THAT SHINES FROM ABOVE!

I've never heard Mission of Burma outside of their reunion stuff (which is great), but I waited 13 years in between buying my first nomeansno tape and actually being in the same town at the same time to see them live. I scanned music listings in the local paper every week religiously specifically to see if nmn had booked a gig within 100 miles of me. Finally got to see them in 2006 and I was really nervous that they wouldn't be as energetic as they were on Live & Cuddly. "Oh man, these guys are pretty old." I was so, so wrong. Now I don't even scan the weekly music listings anymore because I've seen what I came to see.

I've only seen either band once live - MoB on their 1st reunion tour which was awesome, they played 2 sets and played pretty much everything they did in their 1st incarnation, don't think there was any/much new stuff though.

NoMeansNo I saw last year and they were amazing.

This is pretty much impossible. I probably like individual MoB songs better than anything NMN have done but I like more NMN songs overall. If that makes sense.

xp: (by which I mean, I saw nmn, they were fucking awesome and represent the apex of the live musical experience for me)

NMN were the first band I saw post-moving away from my scene-free home for university purposes, in '98 - I didn't know anyone and was mad nervous about going to a weird sticky venue on my own, so drank a half bottle of vodka to quell the fears and spent most of their performance at the front thinking I was gonna throw up on Ron's shoes

Mission of Burma I admire. NoMeansNo are something more. Finally saw them in 2006 also and goddamn did they absolutely kill. By chance I was listening to "The Fall" last night.

"Do you know the meaning of
THIS IS LOVE
THIS IS LOVE"

NMN are much more interesting and sharper than MoB, which basically play straight (though great) post punk.

Voted for them both
Never realised NoMeansNo were such kids.

NoMeansNo was kind of doing that sound that really came out on Touch & Go/AmReptile bands quite early on.

I hear them being closer to that stuff maybe than Burma, which was a bit more pop with the klanging guitar.

Can't go wrong either way.

NoMeansNo was kind of doing that sound that really came out on Touch & Go/AmReptile bands quite early on.

I hear them being closer to that stuff maybe than Burma, which was a bit more pop with the klanging guitar.

yeah, this. no means no were very doing something very similar to what the jesus lizard wound up with (once they ditched the drum machine and got their sound together). ridiculously tight, metallic, traces of jazz and even funk, tension & release structures, very catchy but never quite pop. burma had more in common with the "college rock" of their day: trad 60s/70s guitar pop mussed by punk.

on reflection, realized something. when earlnash talked about "that sound that really came out on Touch & Go/AmReptile bands" relative to NMN, i knew exactly what he meant - it made sense to me. i think of "that sound" and those labels as being related, too. but it's a false cognate. the only bands that really justify the association are the jesus lizard and helmet. flagships for the labels at the time, sure, but hardly representative of most of the bands umbrellaed (unfortunate past tense of the verb "umbrella"). 80s touch and go bands tended not to be so fiendishly tight or square with trad metal/hc aesthetics (butthole surfers & big black being the other two luminaries), while am rep bands were typically WAY more noisy and crude.

Listening to NMN now, most obvious comparison I can think of is Shellac.

who, yeah, = touch & go band, but i still hesitate to describe that as "the touch & go sound". more likely to think of rave records or something, what with victim's family and more fiends.

I always think of them as a distillation of certain strands of the SST back-catalogue - the funkiness of the Minutemen or Tar Babies, the jazziness of Saccharine Trust or Universal Congress Of, the twisted punk metal of Black Flag... except I think NMN pre-dated almost all those guys - amirite?

or shit, just alternative tentacles...

but chaim poutine otm, jazzy experimentalism + fiendish hc tightness = SST. and nomeans no were contemporaries of that stuff, not predecessors.

Didn't mean predecessors, just wondering who was releasing records first.

BTW one band that rivals or maybe excels both of these in terms of longevity/greatness that works in a similar sphere = the Ex.

well, minutemen were active & important before NMN came into being. as were black flag, of course, even in their twisted metal phase. 1st NMN to get any attention in the US = sex mad, '86, roughly contemporaneous w saccharine trust surviving you always ('84).

and shit yeah, the ex, godfathers of this kind of experimental post-punk/hc whateverthefuck

Yes can definitely hear some Minutemen there, perhaps some of the noisiness of Flipper, without their shambolic looseness?

maybe another pointer, outside punk genre = fripp/levin/belew king crimson circa discipline, beat & three of a perfect pair

and like magma, univers zero, etc

Year of first singles:

Black Flag - 1978
Minutemen - 1980
NoMeanNo - 1980
Mission of Burma - 1980
The Ex - 1980
Flipper - 1980

5-way tie for last

fair point. haven't heard the v. early NMN material, though, so i can't compare it to the minutemen, burma, flag, flipper and ex stuff i have heard. but case is made for their being equally seminal, not just a band who took off from where others trod

and shit, 1980 was the year, huh?

also: killing joke - s/t (1980)

I get the impression that NMN and The Ex took quite a few years to morph into something special and important etc, whereas those other bands were kind of a big deal almost from day one - but I might be buying into crypto-mythology after the fact idk

well, minutemen were active & important before NMN came into being. as were black flag, of course, even in their twisted metal phase. 1st NMN to get any attention in the US = sex mad, '86, roughly contemporaneous w saccharine trust surviving you always ('84).

The Minutemen were a staple for me when I first heard NMN but it was the 'punka' one on that album - 'Dad'- that blew me away. And I was lucky enough to have non abusive, but fairly disconnected parents. Or was it me being the spacey fucked up one? He he.

Oh I think you're 100% right basically, the only point I think I had in the first place is that I always forget just how long NMN have been around. xp

holy shit I just got this EP of outtakes from the No Means No One album -- fucking A, these tracks are as good as the stuff that made the album. Band was on fire in 2001.

I agreen on what has been said on those SST bands. NoMeansNo had that mathy precision and hard edged guitar that was kind of the rep of some of those early 90s T&G/Qstick/AmRep bands.

NMN keepin it extra-real @ Mojo's

!!!

i should go to this, i guess?

I get the impression that NMN and The Ex took quite a few years to morph into something special and important etc

Hmm I dunno, the Ex's early stuff is a bit of a Crass knock off (I do love that 1st album tho) so I can see why people would say that, but NMN even their very early stuff is pretty out there, at least their 2nd single is, I don't think I've ever heard the 1st one.

Hm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrW_bESyfx8

Wow, sounding like huge fans of Devo and the whole Ralph Records thing there.

I think from Wrong forward NMN are never less than "really good." Tape Store - yeah I would go.

Last time I saw 'em the atmosphere of the venue put me off, but I can't blame the band for that. They are the rockingest old dudes you'll ever see.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I once saw a Mission of Burma reunion show at First Ave then drove to Madison that night (about four hours away) feeding on the energy of what I saw.

ha i forgot i started this poll

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

AWESOME

hahahahahaha YES!!!!

sweet

Perfect result, despite my personal preference.

This could not have finished any better, it's true.

WOW!

both bands would be so happy to see this too. Peter Prescott is a big NoMeansNo fan, and Tom Holliston is a big Mission Of Burma fan.

I saw No Man (the Roger Miller one) open for NoMeansNo in '91, so this goes way back.

where is the dude who'd come here and say he didn't vote and would broke the tie?

Peter Prescott is a big NoMeansNo fan

this makes so much sense

I didn't see the vote, and would cast my ballot for MOB (saw 'em 5 times in the early '80s and had 'em up at our college radio station)! But I probably do need to listen to NoMeansNo some more.

I gather I'd freaking love both these bands, right?

"I Need You" is NoMeansNo's most accessible song that closest fits the model of this past decade's love for modern neo-post-punk-dance-whatever stuff. If you love the latter and are new to NoMeansNo, start with "I Need You".

(Also, "I Need You" appears in an early version on the 0 + 2 = 1 1/2 which is this year's companion release to 0 + 2 = 1)

LJ, you should definitely check out no means no. basic delivery may be a bit too meat & potatoes for your tastes (?), but underneath that, they're prog as fuck.

aw heartwarming results by two bands that did it The Right Way

bands like this remind me of why i am basically a rockist, kinda

result still heartwarming. is there a better cdn rock album than Wrong? I kinda think not.

i'm not judging you i'm judging me