Pitchfork

By the time Boston post-punk icons Mission of Burma got around to recording their first album, 1982's Vs., they wanted it to sound more like their cataclysmic live shows, Michael Azerrad writes in Our Band Could Be Your Life. The studio version of "Weatherbox" veers from the crowd-pleasing surge of 1980's "Academy Fight Song" 7" and 1981's Signals Calls and Marches EP into rumbling percussion, abrasive guitar-scratching, and a midsection filled with various feedback tones and distortion. Only at the end does the song open up into ringing power chords and shining harmonies. With the underground at the time splintering between the limited palette of hardcore on one side, and the dorm-ready jangle of Mission of Burma heirs R.E.M. on the other, it's easy to hear why Vs. fell on mostly deaf ears at the time. As Matador gets set to reissue the band's entire Ace of Hearts catalog, they've posted a previously unreleased live version of "Weatherbox", which will appear as a bonus track on the remastered edition of live album The Horrible Truth About Burma. Pounding, screeching, and ultimately blissful, the recording indicates that Vs. really did capture a lot-- but not all-- of the urgent noise of Burma's performances.

MP3:> Mission of Burma: "Weatherbox (Live)"
[from The Horrible Truth About Burma: The Definitive Edition; due 03/18/08 on Matador]