― Shane Murphy, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Haven't heard all of Boces but I love Bronx Cheer.
― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 2 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― cash lone, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― gareth, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ian, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― dan, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― stevo, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ronan, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― hstencil, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― o. nate, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Paul, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Deadman, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 3 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Clarke B., Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― bnw, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― David Gunnip, Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Thursday, 4 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Lego My Ego.
― christoff (christoff), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 19:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 20:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― t\'\'t (t''t), Wednesday, 18 December 2002 22:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 19 December 2002 07:33 (twenty-one years ago) link
'Yerself is steam' - the sound of the record is great. 'Chasing a bee' really sets the album up.
I think I marginally prefer 'All is dream' to 'Deserters Songs' out of the later stuff - it's just that bit more coherent thematically.
Saw them recently and enjoyed it immensely, but wish I'd seen the earlier incarnation as well.
― James Ball (James Ball), Thursday, 19 December 2002 10:30 (twenty-one years ago) link
I love Yerself is Steam and Deserter's Songs for entirely different reasons, but I find both See You On The Other Side and All Is Dream unbearably cloying and melodramatic.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 19 December 2002 12:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 20 February 2004 19:02 (twenty years ago) link
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drd300/d308/d30857n3478.jpg
― christoff (christoff), Friday, 5 March 2004 18:38 (twenty years ago) link
Search out, if you can, the UK single of "Carwash Hair" on CD -- "Carwash Hair" itself, very different and lovely demos of "Chasing a Bee" and "Coney Island Cyclone" and an untitled half-hour noise/collage piece that's surprisingly...well, catchy, almost.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 3 February 2005 23:47 (nineteen years ago) link
for some reason, no record store in nyc will buy the grasshopper cd from me.
― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 3 February 2005 23:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Friday, 4 February 2005 00:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 4 February 2005 00:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 4 February 2005 00:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 7 August 2005 10:18 (eighteen years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 7 August 2005 10:19 (eighteen years ago) link
Haha I was going to revive this and I did last time! Oh man. Yes. Boces is awesome. I get it out a few times a year and love the crazy psychrock messy gloriousness of this album. Yrself is Steam, also great.
― Trayce, Thursday, 14 June 2007 09:22 (sixteen years ago) link
OLDOLDOLDOLDOLDOLD
Boces is amazing, one great final track away from perfection (maaaaan, if it had ended with Frittering)...and Yerself Is Steam is almost as good.
Deserter's Songs is almost unlistenable, barring 'Tonite It Shows'. All Is Dream, fortunately, is a considerable improvement.
What I've heard of SYOTOS is fairly glorious, but I don't actually own it.
― Just got offed, Thursday, 14 June 2007 10:35 (sixteen years ago) link
I took me years to realise 'Yerself Is Steam' was a pun, or play on words :(
― onimo, Thursday, 14 June 2007 10:46 (sixteen years ago) link
Same here!!! I felt so stupid :(
― Trayce, Thursday, 14 June 2007 10:53 (sixteen years ago) link
Now you, go to my Bell Hollow thread~!
― Trayce, Thursday, 14 June 2007 10:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I'd go with Middle-Aged Mercury Rev - "Boces" and "Deserter's Songs" are both completely brilliant. SYOTOS has some serious dud moments, but is redeemed by "Empire State" and "Peaceful Night".
Newest Rev stuff just makes me...sad. I tried listening to "Hello Blackbird" and it sounded like the background music/soundtrack to a book on tape.
I took me years to realise 'Yerself Is Steam' was a pun
I glanced upthread just as I was about to post this, and just had my MIND BLOWN. I feel like an idiot.
― cavendish, Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:13 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't think of another band who, having seen them live, I totally went off almost instantaneously.
"Yerself Is Steam" is the best - the long version with the extra tracks. "Boces" is rubbish except for a few tracks. Never really got into "See You" but I tried listening to it recently and it didn't make too much of an impression. I think you had to be there for "Deserters Songs", it seems to be be pretty much unlistenable to me now. I bought "All Is Dream", played it once and never played it again.
― Tom D., Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Define "new". I find "Deserter's Songs" their best ever, but that album is now 9 years old and they haven't quite managed to follow it properly.
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 14 June 2007 13:35 (sixteen years ago) link
I think you had to be there for "Deserters Songs", it seems to be be pretty much unlistenable to me now.
Could this be true? I find it hard to believe. Loved the record when it came out but havent pulled it out in a year so. Will reassess this weekend.
― kwhitehead, Thursday, 14 June 2007 16:28 (sixteen years ago) link
Deserter's Songs is almost unlistenable UH. Although they pushed it much further out live, which is probably tainting my memories of it. Live it was v. v. good
― stet, Thursday, 14 June 2007 16:31 (sixteen years ago) link
re: Yerself is Steam
I rocked the Poster Children's "If You See Kay" for several months before "getting it"...
― henry s, Thursday, 14 June 2007 16:54 (sixteen years ago) link
The problem is, between that and The Soft Bulletin, you can hear what would become ten years of unlistenable, tedious BS on the part eight million bands who heard those albums and thought they were the invention of rock and roll.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 14 June 2007 16:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Yep
― Tom D., Thursday, 14 June 2007 17:01 (sixteen years ago) link
So yeah, you had to be there. I heard it right when it came out and loved it, and really have no desire to listen to it ever again. (This said "Goddess on a Hi-Way"'s line about 'we explode like two bugs on glass' is an all time winner.)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 14 June 2007 17:09 (sixteen years ago) link
Yeah I'm curious about all the Flaming Lips comparisons. Ive listened to Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi and I can kinda hear it I guess.
― Trayce, Thursday, 14 June 2007 21:48 (sixteen years ago) link
The Flaming Lips connection never held water for me. If anything, new Mercury Rev sound like Supertramp filler tracks.
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 14 June 2007 22:17 (sixteen years ago) link
I have deserters songs and I never listen to it, did they just keep heading off into noodly oblivion?
― Trayce, Thursday, 14 June 2007 22:28 (sixteen years ago) link
the connection is jonathan donahue and david fridmann
― hstencil, Thursday, 14 June 2007 22:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I was about to say, there's a pretty huge connection, actually! That said Elvis's point re: Supertramp is spot on.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 14 June 2007 23:50 (sixteen years ago) link
if there's one thing i can't stand--it's up
― cutty, Monday, 5 November 2007 23:18 (sixteen years ago) link
up up up up up up
― Just got offed, Monday, 5 November 2007 23:25 (sixteen years ago) link
genius
― cutty, Monday, 5 November 2007 23:30 (sixteen years ago) link
a rare example of lyrics, song-title and album-cover working together to complete a (beautifully warped) psychological jigsaw puzzle
― Just got offed, Monday, 5 November 2007 23:34 (sixteen years ago) link
Although they pushed it much further out live, which is probably tainting my memories of it. Live it was v. v. good
otm. when i saw them in the summer of 1999 i was completely obsessed with deserters songs. when they played "tonite it shows" live it took me a good verse-and-a-half to figure out what the fuck song it was; that's how different the arrangement was from that on the record. and it was fucking blinding.
so i love deserters songs and all is dream (which i was lucky enough to hear before its official us release date of September 11, 2001), but the secret migration was basically self-parody. the david baker-era records definitely have their moments, but he's far too cutesy for me to tolerate for long.
i don't know where the deserters-songs-as-the-reinvention-of-rock-n-roll notion came from...probably from the uk music press, desperate for some distant sonic relation to pet sounds.
― Lawrence the Looter, Tuesday, 6 November 2007 04:03 (sixteen years ago) link
I loved and cherished Mercury Rev in their various incarnations up to and including Deserter's Songs. For all the freewheeling lunacy David Baker brought to the table, and two stunning humdingers right out of the gate (Yerself and Boces), the band seemed to be maturing gracefully, and all the better for it, with Donahue at the helm.
But then came All is Dream and the technicolor dadrock rut. Donahue let the success of Deserter's Songs go to his head and melancholic whimsy soured overnight into cloying self-indulgence, perfectly encapsulated by Dream's overstuffed mystical-shit sleeve design. And yet there was an even more ostentatious record, and one more hideous New Age abortion of a cover design, down the pipeline still.
Well, I'm sad (but not surprised) that, based on this report, the potential for a return to form doesn't seem likely with these next two LPs. Rather, with song titles like "A Squirrel and I (Holding On... and Then Letting Go)," it looks as though Donahue would like to lead us further into the kaleidoscopic surrealism of his own ass. I can only imagine what the cover will look like.
Here are the tracklists. They're pulling an NIN and giving one away for free. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on ol' Hippie Jonny:
Snowflake Midnight (the pay one):
01 Snowflake in a Hot World 02 Butterfly's Wing 03 Senses on Fire 04 People Are So Unpredictable (There's No Bliss Like Home) 05 October Sunshine 06 Runaway Raindrop 07 Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower 08 Faraway From Cars 09 A Squirrel and I (Holding On... and Then Letting Go)
Strange Attractor (the free one):
01 Love Is Pure 02 Taken up Into Clouds, Changed and Rained Down 03 Pure Joie De La Solitude 04 Persistence and the Apis Mellifera 05 Fable of a Silver Moon 06 Loop Lisse, Loop 07 In My Heart, a Strange Attractor 08 Incident on Abeel Street 09 Af Den Fader Kommer Den Sol 10 Because Because Because 11 Nocturne for Norwood
― Pillbox, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:03 (fifteen years ago) link
i think i'm "agog" at this.
― banriquit, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:05 (fifteen years ago) link
I've heard both. They fail to constitute a stunning return to form.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
:( if he's being serious
also plz to babelfish the tracklists
― Just got offed, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:23 (fifteen years ago) link
i like see you on the other side best
― jhøshea, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:24 (fifteen years ago) link
01 snowflakes 02 Butterfly' which are in the hot world; The people of feeling 04 people of 03 will not be able to predict quite to, s wing fires (There' Does not like s, from 07 dreams 08 of the young girl is distant with the escaper raindrop flower of 06 where anyone happy) October 05th sunshine at the house 09 squirrels and I (… Catches above and making after that goes) 01 loves with 02 clouds which are pure to adopt, changes and like expense 03 Pure Joie De La Solitude 04 stubbornnesses which pour and Apis Mellifera from heart of repetition 07 of 05 emergence 06 repetitions Lisse of month, 11 Nocturne in Attractor Abeel distances which are strange Af oyster fader Kommer oyster Sol 10 because of 08 events 09 in because for Norwood in because
― Dingbod Kesterson, Monday, 23 June 2008 15:25 (fifteen years ago) link
11 Nocturne in Attractor Abeel distances which are strange Af oyster fader Kommer oyster Sol 10 because of 08 events 09 in because for Norwood in because
this reads like the last garbled transmission before apocalypse
― Just got offed, Monday, 23 June 2008 16:43 (fifteen years ago) link
say what you will about The Secret Migration, but I think "Vermillion" is maybe the best track they've done in the last ten years. so so so good.
― stephen, Monday, 23 June 2008 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
BOCES!!!
― stevie, Monday, 23 June 2008 19:18 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost: stephen - I liked "Vermillion" too (not quite as much as you, tho). I'd also pluck "In a Funny Way," "Nite and Fog," "Spiders & Flies" & "Tides of the Moon" from the detritus for a Rev compilation or something. There are probably a handful of other defensible tracks as well, but it's difficult to focus on the qualities of those albums when they're so overwhelmed by all that sweeping grotesquery.
The most depressing part of the whole thing is that the band are totally squandering their secret weapon: Grasshopper's devastating guitar freakouts. Remember those? They always seemed to climax gorgeously at just the right part of the song, usually by mangling some leitmotif with feedback and sending it skyrocketing. That's the kind of grandiosity I'd like to see from them, not JD crooning about twinkly stars amid tympani drums and harps. Combine the two approaches, sure, but relieve Grasshopper of cello duty and give the man his guitar back. I'm no rockist or anything -- just being sensible.
― Pillbox, Monday, 23 June 2008 20:10 (fifteen years ago) link
i'd agree with all that ^^
& sometimes it's sensible to be rockist :)
― stephen, Monday, 23 June 2008 20:17 (fifteen years ago) link
09 A Squirrel and I (Holding On... and Then Letting Go)
hahaha
― teflon monkey, Monday, 23 June 2008 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link
I hear they're still an amazing live band, and I'm sure a lot of their recent material sounds better dirtied up a bit. I haven't seen them since 1998, but I'll check em out at ATP this September (pauses to daydream about MBV). As long as they rock the fuck out of "Chasing a Bee" (which I hear they still do) and maybe "Frittering" (less likely, but still possible), I will be more than happy.
― Pillbox, Monday, 23 June 2008 20:25 (fifteen years ago) link
I'll check em out at ATP this September
oh! you're going too, huh?
― stephen, Monday, 23 June 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
shhh, don't ge too excited. You'll scare Kevin away.
Yeah, some friends in NYC got tix and one is mine. I couldn't afford to spring for the accomodations at the time, tho, so I'm just kind of hoping something works out. I'll probably be sleeping in a car, but fuck it. The roster of bands at that show reads like a bulleted list of some geek fantasy my teenage self would have dreamt up in 1997 (so as to include Mogwai, otherwise 1994 or so). I still won't believe it until I'm personally witnessing the opening blast of "Only Shallow." The rest of the bands are just the icing on the cake.
― Pillbox, Monday, 23 June 2008 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I couldn't afford to spring for the accomodations at the time, tho, so I'm just kind of hoping something works out.
yeah same here ^^
i have no idea what i'm gonna do; a lot of the cheap(er) hotels in monticello are booked already, so who knows? i may call a weekend or two before and see if anyplace has had cancellations/has new openings.
― stephen, Monday, 23 June 2008 21:59 (fifteen years ago) link
also, i'll have the girlfriend with me so sleeping in a car is pretty much out of the question.
― stephen, Monday, 23 June 2008 22:00 (fifteen years ago) link
I think an underrated tune from Secret migration is "First time Mother's Joy". Lovely harmonies.
― Freedom, Tuesday, 24 June 2008 09:27 (fifteen years ago) link
Sometimes "Frittering" is the only song you can hear when it's 3AM and you're feeling a bit melancholy, and the praise upthread for it is correct. The way the voice trails off at the end of most of the lines is the human equivalent of a wounded or lonely animal howling at the moon.
― Cunga, Monday, 23 March 2009 06:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Frittering kills me every time.
― 2 ears + 1 ❤ (Pillbox), Monday, 23 March 2009 06:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Just listened to this earlier tonight. Stunning.
― ilxor, Monday, 23 March 2009 06:18 (fifteen years ago) link
What do we call that old-timey style of singing the female backing vocalists usually emulate on their songs? Best epitomized on "Endlessly." It sounds pre-WWII and from out of the early cartoon soundtracks.
― Cunga, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 04:38 (fourteen years ago) link
mellotronny
― mince lice (electricsound), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 04:42 (fourteen years ago) link
What happened? I used to have Yerself is Steam AND Boces, but they're gone! Oh no.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 09:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Sounds like a musical saw or theremin, to me.I don't have a copy of yerself is steam anymore and that makes me sad cuz sometimes I need to hear "Frittering" and "Coney Island Cyclones."
― Trip Maker, Tuesday, 1 September 2009 16:04 (fourteen years ago) link
o shit yeah they had a musical saw when i saw them on the DS tour
― mince lice (electricsound), Tuesday, 1 September 2009 23:53 (fourteen years ago) link
this looks pretty sweet: http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=3059the recording, not the beard.
― tylerw, Friday, 7 May 2010 15:55 (thirteen years ago) link
even if their recent music hasn't grabbed me, i've always enjoyed them live.
I'm a Rev-head from wayback when they were still entangled with the Flaming Lips, and for me there's no contest here. Search: Yerself Is Steam, Boces, See You on the Other Side [VERY under-rated IMO], Carwash Hair, Deserter's Songs. Destroy: everything after that! I was flat-out appalled at the tepid loungey whine of All Is Dream, and what I've heard from more recent releases hasn't really motivated me to rejoin the fold.
― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 7 May 2010 16:55 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i dunno -- I need to give Secret Migration another chance. I didn't really come to a conclusion on it. Couple of friends said it was their bes since Deserter's, but that might not be saying much. Honestly, though, these guys need a serious reissue campaign of the early stuff -- I think they'd have a resurgence if younger kids heard stuff like Yerself, Boces and See You On The Other Side.
― tylerw, Friday, 7 May 2010 17:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Reissues would be fantastic! IMHO, Secret Migration radiates lame MoR-ness, but another listen is always a good thing.
― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 7 May 2010 17:58 (thirteen years ago) link
haha, i realized I meant Snowflake Midnight, not Secret Migration ... Secret Migration I did come to a conclusion on -- sucks!
― tylerw, Friday, 7 May 2010 18:02 (thirteen years ago) link
The Secret Migration has, like... two good tracks?
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, 7 May 2010 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah maybe. a lot of it is soooo bad though. I liked All Is Dream, though I haven't listened to it in forever.
― tylerw, Friday, 7 May 2010 18:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought All is Dream was the one with two good tracks (mainly the first one)
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 7 May 2010 18:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I want to listen to Chasing a Bee right now.
― Trip Maker, Friday, 7 May 2010 18:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I liked all is dream but didnt care much for what came after.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Friday, 7 May 2010 18:11 (thirteen years ago) link
I really like All Is Dream, hate Secret Migration, and Snowflake Midnight grew on me.
― Fastnbulbous, Friday, 7 May 2010 18:53 (thirteen years ago) link
dunno about this live recording, strings sound really out of tune
― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 7 May 2010 20:28 (thirteen years ago) link
ooh too bad. haven't listened yet, but the description sounded good.
― tylerw, Friday, 7 May 2010 20:40 (thirteen years ago) link
Mercury Rev's first two albums are two of the greatest psychedelic rock albums I know. See You On The Other Side was OK. Deserter's Songs was OK. That's as far as I'll go. What they're doing now is bottom of the barrel stuff.
― horizontal hold, Saturday, 19 January 2013 20:53 (eleven years ago) link
well, yes. but I think you're being generous to Deserter's Songs
― imago, Saturday, 19 January 2013 20:55 (eleven years ago) link
Why? It's probably better than The Soft Bulletin and at least comparable to it. I'm wondering if people would rip it so much if it didn't come from Mercury Rev. The major downfall of post-David Baker Mercury Rev is Jonathan Donahue's falsetto voice. He didn't seem to sing like that on the first three records. It's grating.
― horizontal hold, Saturday, 19 January 2013 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
no their downfall was being schmaltzy and boring
― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, 19 January 2013 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
Really kicking myself for having lost all the early live MR I'd managed to collect when the hard drive they were on crashed. Wish somebody'd reseed them to Dime.
Always liked that David Baker era, possibly plus the lp afterward. The solo lp as Shady was pretty cool too.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 19 January 2013 21:59 (eleven years ago) link
can someone suggest the best OLD rev youtube stuff to watch - i never managed to see them in their prime
― a la recherche du tempbans perdu (NickB), Saturday, 19 January 2013 22:23 (eleven years ago) link
The solo lp as Shady was pretty cool too.
Huh! Never knew that existed. It's on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/7jWizxSOaZZ7uDGCd5Wn6H
Looking that up, also found David Baker has a new band. Also on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/1QBoxeY3NcUIZ3lNw3Tl4l
― john. a resident of chicago., Saturday, 19 January 2013 22:27 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, the Shady album is pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe1x-oApWt4
― horizontal hold, Saturday, 19 January 2013 22:37 (eleven years ago) link
First MR I heard was Deserters Songs, which I love, but I dig the Baker-era to a degree. Too much of the time his approach strikes me as third-rate David Thomas, but the noise makes up for it.
All Is Dream is decent, but after that, whew, a serious plummet.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Saturday, 19 January 2013 22:47 (eleven years ago) link
I think David Baker's influence on the band is overstated. Yes, their best albums were the first two. But all he did was contribute vocals.
― horizontal hold, Saturday, 19 January 2013 22:50 (eleven years ago) link
I find the 'early Rev good, post-SYOTOS Rev the WORST SHITTY SHIT EVER' mentality kind of hysterically over the top
― 'Separate Lives', by Phil Collins & Marilyn Manson (PaulTMA), Saturday, 19 January 2013 23:06 (eleven years ago) link
If anything I find AID a slight improvement over DS - it takes a few more risks. Early Rev is total genius, let alone 'good'!
― imago, Sunday, 20 January 2013 00:06 (eleven years ago) link
I'm currently playing Yerself - Boces - SYOTOS and am very happy. "Frittering", jesus.
Still love DS, however.
― Mule, Sunday, 20 January 2013 00:28 (eleven years ago) link
"Yerself" doesn't do much for me production-wise-- I'm not a fan of Fridmann in general and that record is especially sonically squashed. Vocals and guitar annoy me, they pop out in this frustratingly intrusive way. I dunno, I've heard rehearsal space recordings from psych bands that sound pound-for-pound deeper and more interesting that this record. I don't think I've ever switched off a record in frustration more often.
I've listened to "Boces" a bunch and I like it!
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:14 (eleven years ago) link
i've been listening to yerself and boces a lot lately, and they sound as amazing as ever. syotos never did much for me, weirdly. i should probably try again. i liked deserter's songs okay enough at the time, but all is dream was so bad it actually kinda made me hate deserter's almost instantly when i went back to listen to it. ("wait...this is just as corny and pompous and twee...") "schmaltzy and boring" is otm. it's like shitty self-serious indie rock being smothered in 100,000 pounds of icky saccharine incidental movie music from the 40s. i wouldn't check out the newer ones on a bet.
― let's go do some crimes (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:24 (eleven years ago) link
their live shows around the deserters period were incredible
― dutch tl;drs (electricsound), Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:25 (eleven years ago) link
what do they even do now? didn't grasshopper and donahue do some harmony rockets shows semi-recently, i.e. maybe they've moved beyond the i-want-to-be-willie-nelson-in-space stuff?
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:28 (eleven years ago) link
say what you will about the flaming lips but they never did fully lose their love of noise (it's kinda hard to imagine mercury rev recording a collaboration with lightning bolt at this point), and i'd probably take dippy self-aggrandizement and obnoxious omg wtf lol antics as a way to stay in the spotlight over the rev's slow petering out into "worthy of a two-and-a-half-star review in rolling stone" release pattern/ongoing rep-tarnishing.
― let's go do some crimes (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:32 (eleven years ago) link
what do they even do now?
― horizontal hold, Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:39 (eleven years ago) link
Bizarre. I pulled out Boces and played it for the first time in years pretty much at the exact time last night that this revive came up. Oh well - Boces is fantastic. YIS is one of the all time evers - Frittering - my god. I've not heard the 3rd much at all - I know I have it but I've not put much effort in.
There's a lot of strange stuff on Spotify - was there a lot of post - DS albums? Hmm.
― kraudive, Sunday, 20 January 2013 01:56 (eleven years ago) link
Never heard of this before: http://open.spotify.com/album/3kDihlAmqg2HS9wSAVq0C4
― 'Separate Lives', by Phil Collins & Marilyn Manson (PaulTMA), Sunday, 20 January 2013 02:13 (eleven years ago) link
They have a few obscure releases from the '90s. I know they have a 7" live split with Spiritualized.
― horizontal hold, Sunday, 20 January 2013 02:23 (eleven years ago) link
their live shows around the deserters period were incredibleotm, the one i saw (late 98?) was outta site.
― tylerw, Sunday, 20 January 2013 02:47 (eleven years ago) link
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, January 20, 2013 1:14 AM (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I did hear that YIS was recorded with no 2 members in the studio at the same time, might be a bit of an exaggeration but I think it was mainly individual overdubs done at different times. Don't think they'd played live until after that was recorded. something like their 6th gig was a Dylan support or so I heard. Think they'd all been involved in an art project or something which meant they weren't really a band until after it was recorded. & they picked their name from a Chris Roberts review where the 2 words appeared out of a field of text Exploding Plastic Inevitable style or at least that 's the way I'm remembering reading it at the time they emerged.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 20 January 2013 12:10 (eleven years ago) link
― tylerw, Saturday, January 19, 2013 9:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
OTM seconded. Saw them in the summer of '98; "Tonite it Shows" live was a wonder to behold.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Sunday, 20 January 2013 15:43 (eleven years ago) link
I saw them about that time and hated them with a hatred rarely matched before or since... hold on, hwne was "Soft Bulletin"?
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 January 2013 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
... 1999, yes so it was around that time because the Flaming Lips were supporting them and absolutely annihilated them
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Sunday, 20 January 2013 15:50 (eleven years ago) link
@ Stevolende that is very interesting!
― friday goodness thank it's (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 20 January 2013 16:09 (eleven years ago) link
something like their 6th gig was a Dylan support or so I heard.
That's true. Here's a quote from David Baker from back in like 1993:
We did play one show with Bob Dylan. I don't think anybody at that show remembers us playing except for the fact that there were six people on the stage making them deaf. It was at Yale University. We played our regular stuff for 2000 people who didn't know we were going to be on. We figured it was the wrong thing to do to play with him because we're not like him. But we figured that it would make sense. The crowd was old and young. It was the young republicans sitting there getting mad, and screaming at me afterwords, yelling 'You fucking shattered my ears' or something. And then this old guy, maybe about 50 years, grabs me and I'm going 'Oh shit, maybe this is big mistake.” But he goes 'That was fucking awesome. I haven't heard anything like that since Hendrix.' So it was the older people, the ones who talked to us, who seemed to like it. The younger ones were saying 'That's not music.'
― horizontal hold, Sunday, 20 January 2013 19:03 (eleven years ago) link
I just remembered what I think the art project was, think it was films, nature/wildlife films and possibly specifically subaquatic ones.So the future members of at least the 1st Mercury Rev were a pool, or part of a pool of local musicians doing film soundtracks which is why they were coming in at different times and overdubbing. The films provided the original supposed coherence, if I have the picture right.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 20 January 2013 19:33 (eleven years ago) link
There was some relationship/collaboration with Tony Conrad too, right? Or am I remembering that wrong?
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Sunday, 20 January 2013 20:05 (eleven years ago) link
'That was fucking awesome. I haven't heard anything like that since Hendrix.' So it was the older people, the ones who talked to us, who seemed to like it. The younger ones were saying 'That's not music.'
This rules.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Sunday, 20 January 2013 20:06 (eleven years ago) link
As much as I like it Deserters' is like half a record, counting up the incidental tracks
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 20 January 2013 21:37 (eleven years ago) link
There is something very stilted and dead about all Mercury Rev to me, if you ever loved The Olivia Tremor Control you don't need any of this fucking rinse.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Monday, 21 January 2013 00:20 (eleven years ago) link
what
I like OTC fine but they are way more retro pastiche than Mercury Rev ever was
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 21 January 2013 00:33 (eleven years ago) link
Which goes to show that retro pastiche>>>>>standard widely acceptable overproduced retro with cloying pity me schtick.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Monday, 21 January 2013 01:10 (eleven years ago) link
Uhhh, wut? Have you actually heard any early Mercury Rev?
― emil.y, Monday, 21 January 2013 01:22 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, I kind of feel like we've suddenly begun talking about some other band called Mercury Rev. Maybe there were two.
― dlp9001, Monday, 21 January 2013 01:33 (eleven years ago) link
"Pity me schtick" is not something I've ever associated with (any incarnation of) Mercury Rev.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 21 January 2013 01:38 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry folks I will stay off this thread. I just immensely dislike them and shouldn't even be on here. For what it is worth I bought Yersrelf Is Steam when I was a teenager and hoyed the fucking cassette in the bin after 2 days.
― Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Monday, 21 January 2013 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
O_o
― john. a resident of chicago., Monday, 21 January 2013 03:33 (eleven years ago) link
"it's not time for the real live sign, it's not time for these fears of mine" *wall of feedback*
― Cunga, Monday, 21 January 2013 04:58 (eleven years ago) link
"The Dark is Rising" is some old sad sack down by the river stuff tho. There's that Neil Young influence that's kind of mopey.
― Cunga, Monday, 21 January 2013 04:59 (eleven years ago) link
I can definitely hear the Neil influence, but I always interpreted the tone of that song as winking/wistful, rather than wallowing.
― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, 21 January 2013 05:09 (eleven years ago) link
Single link argument for BOCES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8h2VvMgwIF4
― ma ck ro ma ck ro (mackro mackro), Monday, 21 January 2013 06:15 (eleven years ago) link
"Something For Joey" live from the Phoenix Festival (1993)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tDKrWsSBSg
― ma ck ro ma ck ro (mackro mackro), Monday, 21 January 2013 06:22 (eleven years ago) link
David Baker also produced the one and only Comet album "Chandelier Musings" (1996). Here's the closing track from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0dRvYZjAMk
― ma ck ro ma ck ro (mackro mackro), Monday, 21 January 2013 06:24 (eleven years ago) link
Mercury Rev >>>>> Olivia Tremor Control
― horizontal hold, Monday, 21 January 2013 06:54 (eleven years ago) link
I once thought that the name of a good box set of early Rev would be: "Emotion Recollected in Insanity"
― Cunga, Monday, 21 January 2013 09:04 (eleven years ago) link
New Mercury Rev...
https://soundcloud.com/bella-union/01-the-queen-of-swans/s-PeV2u
MERCURY REV ANNOUNCE NEW STUDIO ALBUM - THE LIGHT IN YOU - OUT SEPTEMBER 18 VIA BELLA UNION
http://files.ctctcdn.com/2950a13a001/bb6408aa-b17d-4d65-9cdc-253d574ee4f2.png
The Light In You tracklisting: The Queen Of SwansAmelieYou've Gone With So Little For So LongCentral Park EastEmotional FreefallComing Up For AirAutumn's In The AirAre You Ready?SunflowerMoth Light Rainy Day Record
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, 19 June 2015 17:06 (eight years ago) link
was there not a major shake up in the line-up leaving only Grasshopper and JOnathon wassisface as there from Yerself days and everybody else leaving. So the band on See You On The Other Side is still basically the old band, een with Baker having departed and whatever after that as a newer band?
I love the early line up anyway, wish I hadn't lost all the live stuff I'd managed to get hold of by them when a harddrive crashed. Seems way too familiar a story from a couple of years back, lost a load of stuff by several bands that I'd been dying to get before getting it then it vanished overnight.
Do still have the Roskilde 92 thankfully.
― Stevolende, Friday, 19 June 2015 21:33 (eight years ago) link
lol self-parody tracklist
this band needs to stop
― imago, Friday, 19 June 2015 21:55 (eight years ago) link
I love everything they did from Yerself Is Steam to All Is Dream but this new song is not great. Sounds like something from The Secret Migration. They should have changed things up a bit more. I was hoping this album would be their Embryonic.
― Kitchen Person, Friday, 19 June 2015 22:03 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I really, really wanted this to be good but that song has shot down my expectations.
― cwkiii, Friday, 19 June 2015 22:56 (eight years ago) link
I love both Yerself Is Steam and Deserters Songs but really dislike everything else they did, kinda feel like those are the only two you need. See You On The Other Side is way tweer than DS. Remember All is Dream being just unlistenably melodramatic and soft focus and never bothered with anything else.
― Matt DC, Friday, 19 June 2015 23:56 (eight years ago) link
there's quite a major one missing from that summary
― imago, Friday, 19 June 2015 23:58 (eight years ago) link
Boces wasn't really considered major at all the last time I bothered paying much attention to Mercury Rev (about 14 years ago). I remember loving Bronx Cheer and being faintly underwhelmed by the rest and have never really bothered to go back.
The first one is the only one I ever get the urge to play these days, but even then I still really love it.
― Matt DC, Saturday, 20 June 2015 00:07 (eight years ago) link
Boces>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>everything else
― cwkiii, Saturday, 20 June 2015 04:27 (eight years ago) link
It's really weird to see a band grow and change so much from album to album only to end up at fucking All Is Dream and be like "OK, cool, let's just do this forever."
― cwkiii, Saturday, 20 June 2015 04:30 (eight years ago) link
I think All Is Dream is a great album but it would have been nice if they'd developed from that sound. The Secret Migration was such a boring retread of that album. Judging by this new single the new album could well be the same. Maybe the album is more varied. I can't believe after seven years away they thought this was good enough.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 20 June 2015 13:51 (eight years ago) link
https://open.spotify.com/track/58sbCIxg0nsjJ1MfbCWWX9
― PaulTMA, Monday, 3 August 2015 11:57 (eight years ago) link
Was just listening to this. It isn't horrible. At all. I'm not sure what to think.
― dlp9001, Monday, 3 August 2015 15:05 (eight years ago) link
The big crashing Coldplay drum pattern was not exactly what I was hoping for. Surely The Secret Migration is not anyone's favourite Rev album? I liked Snowflake Midnight just fine. Probably alone there.
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 6 August 2015 12:26 (eight years ago) link
Tears of Silver pic.twitter.com/qXZqP8sgXA— grasshopper (@mercuryrevvd) July 15, 2017
― Dancing on the Pylons, Saturday, 15 July 2017 18:17 (six years ago) link
Was surprised to see they were playing a small club in my town last week, and despite hating just about everything since All is Dream I got a ticket out of curiosity & nostalgia. And I gotta say they pulled it off, it was pretty good!
I wasnt sure what to expect having never seen them live, I wasnt even sure if it would be just Jonathan & Grasshopper blooping around w/keyboards or what, but it was a 5-piece rock band, heavy on guitars with a few Yerself Is Steam songs and even a tune from Jonathans tenure in the Flaming Lips. Idk how it would have played at a fest or something, probably wouldnt have worked on a big stage, but in a small club to 100 people I was very pleasantly surprised.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Wednesday, 21 September 2022 16:36 (one year ago) link
Yeah when I saw them a few years ago for the first time at last, for a Deserter's Songs tour, it was very enjoyable. They've found a niche and it works well for them.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:20 (one year ago) link
I loved teh David Baker years and glad to see taht at least Spotify has a couple of live sets from that era around.Not seen them in like 29 years apat from on TV. There was a good 3 song set on something in 99 I think on the bBC part of a larger celebration.Haven't listened to their later stuff much but those first 3 or 4 plus whatever live sets from the time and the mopping up compilations that came out at teh time are all great.
I heard the live set that came with caribou's Swim cd when i bought it in Rough Trade when it was current and it reminded me really heavily of that early era MR. The Caribou Vibration Ensemble, not sure if there is any more of that stuff anywhere that sounds that similar to that set with Marshall Allen cos I think they went through a number of different lineups live but do hear similarities with taht specific set.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 21 September 2022 17:57 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMZ9E6ZK81g
― MaresNest, Sunday, 30 October 2022 12:24 (one year ago) link
i know i asked this on another thread
but does anyone know where the cover art from BOCES or Something For Joey single comes from? i know the yerself is steam artwork is an edited photo of patricia highsmith and SYOTOS is a still taken from a 70s 7-up commercial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocjyyScBdsc
― syringemouth, Friday, 25 November 2022 14:56 (one year ago) link
also some cool rev knowledge to behold
the car wash hair cover art has lettering thats falling down. that was actually an accident. someone bumped the table they were using to glue the letters on and they just dried that way. jonathan told mooneyham he liked it so they stuck with it.
― syringemouth, Friday, 25 November 2022 15:10 (one year ago) link
Their pre Deserter’s Songs artwork was incredible.
― Cow_Art, Friday, 25 November 2022 16:17 (one year ago) link
i also vaguely remember reading that the 30 or 40 minute track on the car wash hair ep is a mashup of random movie dialogue with actual recordings of one of the band members during a psychiatric visit
take it with a grain of salt since i have no way of verifying this
― syringemouth, Friday, 25 November 2022 17:04 (one year ago) link
that would fit with its title ('lego my ego')
― imago, Friday, 25 November 2022 17:09 (one year ago) link
anyway they should have changed the name after baker left
― imago, Friday, 25 November 2022 17:10 (one year ago) link
Not posting it, but if you search Youtube for (ahem) 'Lionel Richie's Dick' you can see the video from which that psychiatric hospital section is taken... pretty harrowing stuff of course
― PaulTMA, Friday, 25 November 2022 18:13 (one year ago) link
Supposedly from an HBO documentary on schizophrenia that the band had a tape of
― PaulTMA, Friday, 25 November 2022 18:14 (one year ago) link