Grapthar's Song of the Day: Mission of Burma - 'Max Ernst'

in a while, and was listening to them today in the car, so it seemed like the obvious choice. I was first introduced to them from a friend of mine a decade or so ago, and became absolutely hooked on their early releases. Later on, I delved into their full discography, and found that I really liked their later releases too, though they are quite different in a lot of ways. The band was first formed in 1979, in Boston, MA by Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass), Peter Prescott (drums) and Martin Swope (tape manipulator/sound engineer) (Source, Wikipedia - Mission of Burma). The group were heavily influenced by the punk scene that had happened a few years earlier in the UK, and was still burgeoning in the US, though they always had a penchant for trying new things, and pushing boundaries, which is very much reflected in their songwriting.

elements from the punk world, but took the harmonies and song structures into much more complex places. With members all handling vocal and songwriting duties, there is a lot of variability between the tracks, with each providing something super unique to their releases. This song was released as a bonus track for various later releases of their debut EP Signals, Calls, and Marches, which in my opinion, is their most solid release, back to front. Every track is incredible, and unique, including the bonus tracks, which I am surprised weren't included on the EP. The songwriting is unbelievable, and is definitely a testament to the band's ability. This song uses some super interesting dissonances, and a really wild key change, where the tonic just moves by a half step, before returning to the main riff that we begin the track with.