Burning Airlines - Mission: Control! (1999)

Speaking of J Robbins; during the last days of Jawbox he and Bill Barbot had been jamming with Pete Moffett and even toyed with the idea of bringing him into the band, but events moved on and Jawbox split up.

The next logical step was to continue what had been a jamming session into a band and 'hey presto' we have Burning Airlines. They promptly released a 7'', followed closely by this album. Soon after Bill Barbot left the band due to real life commitments and was replaced by Mike Harbin.

Things were looking ok and the band was touring extensively when in 2001 September 11th occurred and venues refused to book, or promote the band, due to the name. They'd actually taken the name from a Brian Eno song, but none the less this appeared to be a killing blow and they split in 2002.

They also released a second album in 2001 called Identikit and a couple of split singles, all of which are worth tracking down.

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Government Issue - Strange Wine ep (1989)

Ahhhh Government Issue......I love this band and the more time that passes the better they seem to get; they never date.

Formed in 1980 and taking their name from a line in a Black Market Baby song they released their first 7'' in 1981 on Dischord; a record that took me years to get into. They had a huge revolving door of personnel for a number of years until they hit their best line up, in my opinion, of: -

John Stabb - Vocals
Tom Lyle - Guitar
J Robbins - Bass
Pete Moffett - Drums

They released 6 albums, a number of 7'' and a few live albums.......this being classed as one of them although that's not strictly true as three of the tracks were recorded in the studio. I remember when they stayed ay my house and Tom Lyle asked me which was my favourite GI album, I answered Fun Just Never Ends, Stabb said this was his fave as well. Tom seemed perplexed as to why this was my favourite, but at the time it was the riffs; he's a great guitar player.

Today I couldn't pick a favourite, I love all their releases and they travel with me everywhere in some way, shape or form. Sadly they split up in 1989. I'd love to see them reform and start recording again; a hardcore band who evolved into something truly special.

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