Burning Airlines formed in 1997, as frontman Robbins' previous band, Jawbox, was grinding to a painful close. He and Moffett had played together before as the rhythm section of HarDCore stalwarts Government Issue; Moffett had recently returned to DC after a stint in L.A. playing in the band Wool. It was only natural that Robbins looked to Moffett, a badass drumming wunderkind and one-man music school, to form a new band to expand on the ideas that had refused to stop flowing with the demise of Jawbox. Former Jawbox guitarist Bill Barbot was soon enlisted to add his rhythmic humor to the bass end, and the three began playing shows and writing the songs that eventually became Mission: Control!, the group's well received and critically acclaimed debut CD. As the record was released, however, it became clear that the recently married (and appropriately grown-up) Barbot could not tour to support it. Enter old friend and bass guitar prodigy Mike Harbin, who, along with Robbins and Moffett, subsequently flogged the Mission:Control! songs on the road for a year and a half in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan.
Identikit is the second record by Burning Airlines, and the first featuring Harbin's tricky-catchy melodic bass writing. It was recorded in bursts over a 6-month period in the second half of 2000, and mixed in the first days of 2001 with veteran producer and long-time compadre John Agnello, at Arlington, Virginia's Inner Ear studio (the record-making home of Fugazi and countless other DC post-punk luminaries).
Not only is it a great album but it is also a brave album. Identikit hits a nerve of paranoid energy that runs through all of us to create a genuinely empathetic listening experience. Jawbox had this same power and this had led to both Robbins' and Jawbox's almost legendary status on the American underground music scene.