Day After Day #64: That's When I Reach for My Revolver

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

That's When I Reach for My Revolver (1981)

One cool thing about music is there's always something great to discover way after the fact. That's the way it was for me with Mission of Burma. The Boston post-punk legends had already called it a day before I had even heard of them. We moved to New Hampshire about three months after the band played their famous March 1983 farewell shows at the Bradford Hotel in Boston.  

The band formed in 1979 with Roger Miller on guitar, Clint Conley on bass, Peter Prescott on drums and Martin Swope on tape loops. They were inspired by punk, but also by avant garde and dissonant music. Miller, Conley and Prescott all wrote and sang songs in the band, bringing different sensibilities and sounds, but they avoided rock cliches and tropes. The band was like a battering ram, throttling listeners with waves of sound that didn't quite sound like any of their contemporaries. 

Burma's best-known song, "That's When I Reach for My Revolver," is the first track on their 1981 EP Signals, Calls, and Marches. Written by Conley, the song is an anthemic ripper that builds slowly, with Conley's wavering voice gaining strength as the music progresses.

"Once I had my heroes/Once I had my dreams/But all of that has changed now/They've turned things inside out/The truth is not that comfortable, no."

The band kicks in with the rousing chorus, with Conley defiantly raging: "That's when I reach for my revolver/That's when it all gets blown away/That's when I reach for my revolver/The spirit fights to find its way."

Mission of Burma released two singles, an EP and an album before splitting up in 1983 because Miller had developed tinnitus. The band was popular in the Boston area but more of an underground act elsewhere. But their legend lived on, with many major artists citing them as an inspiration including R.E.M., Husker Du, Pixies, Big Black, Fugazi and the Replacements. Rykodisc and Taang! Records kept the band alive by reissuing their old recordings.

Miller and Prescott continued playing music; Miller with quieter acts like Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and Prescott sticking with the loud stuff in Volcano Suns, Kustomized and The Peer Group. Conley produced the first Yo La Tengo album, but essentially retired from music, working instead as a producer on the Boston TV newsmagazine Chronicle.

I started hearing "Revolver" on Boston rock stations (occasionally) over the years, which got my attention. Eventually, I picked up a cassette compilation of the band's initial output, and later bought the EP and the 1982 album Vs. Alt-rock bands coming through Boston would often cover "Revolver"; I remember hearing a simulcast of Soul Asylum playing the Orpheum and they encored with it. The Catherine Wheel recorded it as a b-side in 1992, and then none other than Moby included a cover on his 1996 album Animal Rights that went to #50 on the UK Singles Chart. At that point, I bet most of the people who heard the Moby version thought it was his song; I remember hearing it on the radio and thinking it was Bush.

Interest in the band was renewed in 2001 when Michael Azerrad included Burma as one of the 13 artists in his book Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991. Conley began playing music again in the band Consonant, and then he, Miller and Prescott reunited Burma in 2002 (Swope did not participate and Bob Weston provided tape loops). They had planned on just a handful of shows--including two shows at Avalon in Boston, one of which I was able to snag a ticket for--but after selling out five gigs decided to make it a full-time thing. All told, the band released four more excellent studio albums and toured regularly over the next 14 years, playing their final show in Germany in 2016. The official announcement didn't come until 2020, but it was pretty obvious they were done for a while before that.

Mission of Burma's second act was unexpected but I'm glad it happened. I saw them several times over the years, and indeed, a lot more people got to see them than in their first incarnation. They deserved that extended victory lap.