Choose wisely

I like Pere Ubu.

I love Mission of Burma. Roger Miller's guitar playing puts them way over the top.

MoB

Pere Ubu does a lot of cool stuff, but David Thomas wears on me after awhile. Burma never wears on me.

I luv dem Burms. Always and forever.

One can make a tape where they mix up songs from The Modern Dance and Invisible Hits, and that is a hella solid tape.

Pere Ubu.

Nothing personal.

Both groups are brilliant but I choose Burma because 'Vs.' reaches a level of excellence that has rarely (if ever) been surpassed.

I was telling someone recently that whenever I get bored with music or think that I need to re-visit a foundational thing, I go to Wire, Gang Of Four, Burma, The Fall, Joy Division, Ramones, Television.

I think Burma belongs in the heaviest of the heavyweight classes.

Burma without question. Not a fair fight.

Both bands were influential and original. Burma happens to know how to write a damn song. PU were cool but more of an endurance listen to me.

Pere Ubu probably have more material that is good or interesting, but I can't relate to David Thomas as a man and I don't care about most of it.



On vs. alone I would take Burma.

I've returned to OnoffOn over the last couple of years and I love it so much.

losthighway wrote: an endurance listen

Perfect.

File both (along w/ Wire) in the 'I get that they're great but I don't actually like the music at all' category. Way too smart-arty for me.

Despite the fact MoB can and did rock way more, there's an hysterical / distressed edge to those early Pere Ubu singles and a real bloody minded obstinacy present across the discography that makes me vote PU for the weirdness factor.

I would have voted for Burma at one point but rarely find myself going back to it. Their strengths: the pop singalong anthem qualities, also made me kind of get sick of it after a while. The Modern Dance, Terminal Tower (singles comp), and Dub Housing still fascinate in a 'how did this even get made' sort of way. Ubu.