music.wikisort.org - Group

Mercury Rev is an American indie rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York.[5] Original personnel were David Baker (vocals), Jonathan Donahue (vocals, guitars), Sean Mackowiak, known as "Grasshopper" (guitars, clarinet), Dave Fridmann (bass guitar), Suzanne Thorpe (flute) and Jimy Chambers (drums).

Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev at All Tomorrow's Parties in 2004.
Background information
Origin	Buffalo, New York, United States
Genres	Indie rock[1] chamber pop[2] neo-psychedelia[3] avant-pop[4] psychedelic pop[4]
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Jungle Rough Trade Columbia Beggars Banquet V2 Yep Roc
Members	Jonathan Donahue Grasshopper Ted Young Chris Heitzman Marion Genser Don McGreevy
Past members	David Baker John DeVries Jeff Mercel Gerald Menke Suzanne Thorpe Jimy Chambers Justin Russo Jason Russo Adam Snyder Michael Schirmer Dave Fridmann Paul Dillon Carlos Anthony Molina Jason Miranda Jesse Chandler
Website	mercuryrev.com

History

The first years with David Baker

The band's members met while students at the University at Buffalo. Buffalo media studies professor Tony Conrad was a strong artistic influence on co-founder Grasshopper.[6] The band was initially formed to score its members' student films.[7]

With their early records, Mercury Rev offered experimental, psychedelic rock, which gradually shifted to a melodic, ornate sound. Mercury Rev is often compared to The Flaming Lips,[8] and share close ties: soon after the band's formation, Donahue also joined the Flaming Lips as second guitarist and appeared on two of their albums; and since the 1990 album In a Priest Driven Ambulance, Dave Fridmann has co-produced every Flaming Lips studio album to date except 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.

Despite considerable critical acclaim,[9][10][11] their early releases never gave Mercury Rev more than cult popularity,[8] though they appeared on the smaller second stage at some 1993 Lollapalooza stops. Baker left after their second record, Boces (1993), citing musical and personal disputes; he later recorded an album as Shady. With his departure, the thematically darker and musically experimental features of the band began to disappear.[4]

Transitional period

The band's first post-Baker album, See You on the Other Side (1995) contained a variety of styles, including a sprawling psychedelic opening track and noise rock numbers like "Young Man's Stride" (for which a music video was released), but also more melodic songs, such as "Sudden Ray of Hope".

That year, the group also recorded and released the album, Paralyzed Mind Of The Archangel Void, under the moniker "Harmony Rockets". The album featured a single forty minute track of mostly instrumental psychedelic improvised music. It was rated four and half stars, out of five, by AllMusic. The group performed it again in the Don't Look Back concert series in 2009.

Wide critical and commercial success

Beginning in the late 1990s, the band based itself in Kingston, New York where Donahue was born.[7]

The 1998 release of the acclaimed[12][13][14][15][16] Deserter's Songs (which featured appearances by Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of The Band) made Mercury Rev unexpected pop stars. In the UK, NME magazine made Deserter's Songs their Album of the Year.[17] Donahue's earnest, high-pitched vocals and concentration on relatively concise, melodic songs gave the band's material an entirely new feel and much increased popularity (Deserter's Songs spawned three UK Top 40 singles: "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp", "Opus 40" and "Goddess On A Hiway").

All Is Dream was issued in 2001 and became the band's highest charting album in the UK to date (#11). It included "Little Rhymes", "Nite And Fog" and "The Dark is Rising," which reached No. 16 in the UK Singles Chart.[18] David Bowie producer Tony Visconti arranged strings for the album.

Later years

Mercury Rev's The Secret Migration was released on January 24, 2005. It featured the UK Top 40 single "In A Funny Way" (#28). The album itself reached #16 in the UK Albums chart. It was followed up in 2006, by a compilation album, The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991-2006 and the film soundtrack album Hello Blackbird.

The band released a pair of albums on September 29, 2008: Snowflake Midnight, and a free MP3 album of instrumentals, Strange Attractor.

The Light in You was released on October 2, 2015 through Bella Union, their first studio album in seven years. It reached #39 on the UK albums chart. [19] Mercury Rev's most recent album, a reworking of Bobbie Gentry's seminal album The Delta Sweete, was released in February 2019.[20] The album features instrumentation by Mercury Rev and a female guest singer unique to each song. Lucinda Williams, actress Carice van Houten, Beth Orton and Norah Jones were among the vocalists. The album was another UK Top 40 hit in the UK for the band (#32).

"Holes" was covered by The National's lead singer Matt Berninger in 2020.

Trivia

In 2021 "Holes" was featured in the popular Sing 2 movie. Other movies in which the band's songs can be heard are Gunpowder Milkshake (2020, "Goddess On A Hiway") and Love And Monsters (2020, "Opus 40").

Band members

• Jonathan Donahue – vocals and guitar
• Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak – guitar, keyboards, clarinet, tettix wave accumulator
• Ted Young – live sound
• Marion Genser - Mellotron, Vox Organ
• Chris Heitzman – bass
• Don McGreevy - drums

Discography

Albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions								Certifications (sales thresholds)	Sales
		UK [21]	US Heat. [22]	AUS [23]	BE (Wa) [24]	BE (Fl) [25]	FRA [26]	NOR [27]	SWE [28]
1991	Yerself Is Steam Released: 14 May 1991 (re-issued in 1999) Label: Jungle/Columbia	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1993	Boces Released: 1 June 1993 Label: Beggars Banquet	43	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1995	See You on the Other Side Released: 19 September 1995 Label: Beggars Banquet	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void (as 'Harmony Rockets') Released: 10 October 1995 Label: Big Cat	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1998	Deserter's Songs Released: 29 September 1998 Label: V2	27	—	85	—	—	36	15	38	BPI: Gold[29]	US: 49,000[30]
2001	All Is Dream Released: 11 September 2001 Label: V2	11	17	36	—	46	27	4	55	BPI: Gold[29]
2005	The Secret Migration Released: 24 January 2005 Label: V2	16	—	66	48	27	30	27	—
2008	Snowflake Midnight Released: 29 September 2008 Label: V2/Yep Roc	52	14	—	94	48	150	—	—
2008	Strange Attractor Released: 29 September 2008 Label: Self-released	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2013	Inner Autumn Outer Space Released: 2013 Label: Self-released	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2015	The Light in You Released: 2 October 2015 Label: Bella Union	39	—	—	152	77	66	—	—
2019	Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited Released: 4 February 2019 Label: Bella Union	32		—	—	—	184 [31]	—	—

Compilation albums, live albums and soundtracks

• 2002 - Instant Karma - A Tribute to John Lennon (song, "Isolation")
• 2004 - " Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered"
• 2006 - The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991-2006
• 2006 - Hello Blackbird (soundtrack to the film Bye Bye Blackbird)
• 2006 - Back to Mine (compiled by Mercury Rev, includes exclusive new track "Cecilla's Lunar Expose")
• 2009 - The Peel Sessions
• 2011 - Beyond The Swirling Clouds - An Evening At Barrowland Ballroom Recorded live on March 6th 2005 at Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow.
• 2012 - Live In Brixton '92

Singles and EPs

• 1992 - "Lego My Ego'" (re-released with 1999 re-issue of "Yerself Is Steam")
• 1992 - "Car Wash Hair"
• 1992 - "If You Want Me to Stay"
• 1993 - "The Hum Is Coming From Her"
• 1993 - "Chasing a Bee"
• 1993 - "Bronx Cheer"
• 1993 - "Something for Joey"
• 1995 - "Everlasting Arm"
• 1995 - "Young Man's Stride"
• 1998 - "Goddess on a Hiway" - UK No. 51
• 1998 - "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" - No. 26
• 1999 - "Opus 40" - No. 31
• 1999 - "Holes" (Australia only)
• 1999 - "Goddess on a Hiway" - No. 26 (1999 re-issue)
• 2001 - "Nite and Fog" - No. 47
• 2002 - "The Dark Is Rising" - No. 16
• 2002 - "Little Rhymes" - No. 51
• 2004 - "Secret for a Song" (internet download only)
• 2005 - "In a Funny Way" - No. 28
• 2005 - "Across Yer Ocean" - No. 54
• 2008 - "Senses on Fire"
• 2009 - "Butterfly's Wing"

Other contributions

• Acoustic 05 (2005, Echo) - "First Time Mothers Joy"
• Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy (2009, Mezzotint) - "Sailors and Animals" (Miracle Legion cover)

See also

• List of dream pop artists

References

External links

• Official website
• Mercury Rev at AllMusic
• Mercury Rev at WorldMusicDatabase
• V2Music: Mercury Rev
• Review of 'Butterfly's Wings'
• Silvertone Series No. 2 Mercury Rev in Russia. An interview for Podstantsiya.ru

На других языках

---

[de] Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev ist eine US-amerikanische Rockband, die 1989 von David Baker (Gesang), Jonathan Donahue (Gitarre), Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak (Gitarre), Dave Fridmann (Bass), Suzanne Thorpe (Flöte) und Jimmy Chambers (Schlagzeug) in Buffalo, New York gegründet wurde.

---

- [en] Mercury Rev

---

[es] Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev es un grupo de rock estadounidense, formado a finales de los años 80 en Buffalo, New York. La formación original estaba compuesta por David Baker (cantante), Jonathan Donahue (voces, guitarra), Sean Mackowiak también conocido como "Grasshopper" (guitarras y clarinete), Suzanne Thorpe (flauta), Dave Fridmann (bajo) y Jimy Chambers (batería).

---

---