Boces by Mercury Rev

Stand up for this album, won'cha?

And I guess Kate never did get to the thread.

They played Carwash Hair at Sonic Cathedrals on Thursday which made me VERY VERY happy but Yerself Is Steam (oh yeah, steam engines at Cambridge Museum of Obsolete Technology, yeah) is not as good as BOCES which is still the best Mercury Rev Album ever especially since it was partially funded the NYS cooperative board of education services, heh.

I used to play MOARK when I worked at a record store becuase it starts off so pretty, then gets so crazy it would drive the Yuppies out of my department. Excellent.

Never being able to see the David Baker era of the band bugs the shit out of me to this day. At least, though, it was out of my hands -- they didn't play anywhere near LA during those years.

The thing about YIS is that although Chasing A Bee, Sweet Oddysee, Frittering and Very Sleepy Rivers are fantastic, entirely original compositions, the shorter songs on that album in my opinion are (easily) bettered by the shorter songs on Boces, whilst the longer tracks on that album more or less match those on Yerself, which is why I prefer the later of the two.

No.

And if they do genuinely hate it, then I'm going to have to side with David Baker. Many great albums were recorded in high-tension, non-amicable situations and for the band to turn their back on their most adventurous, successful (IMO) achievement is a tragedy. Do they even play MOARK at gigs nowadays?

It was also my first Rev album, long before YIS, so my liking of the two will probably even out after time, regardless.

After growing to love BOCES, when I got back to YIS it just seemed too meandering. Funny that BOCES - which has such long epic meandering songs that it makes Can look like they have ADD - was the most focused of the early Rev albums.

m.

"Bronx Cheer" is phenomenal. The rest hasn't jelled for me yet.

This is a terrific wacked-out journey. "Meth of a Rockette's Kiss" etc.... Their weirdness factor went way down when Dave Baker departed, but I also have a soft spot for See You On the Other Side, which may be a bit less 'classic' but a more 'lost.'

beside 3-4 fillers - great record - with better songs than Steam imo

except Frittering

but yeah, Boces is the superior record overall. Meth Of A Rockette's Kick blew my young mind in about seventeen different euphoric directions - it never fully recomposed

So that's why you like Oceansize, then...

^^^important post

I'm good at those, huh?

Just kidding, anyway. And I concur about "Rockette" being something else...

Picked up a single over the weekend from this album I had completely missed all those years ago, namely "Bronx Cheer" -- the US version, which logically enough has the B-sides from the UK "Something for Joey" single where the US "Something for Joey" single had other tracks entirely. The fact that the Rev released songs entitled "There's Spider Eggs In Bubbla Yhum" and "Pop Rocks + Soda = Kaboom" makes me so happy.

Found the rough audience video from their 1993 show at the Phoenix Festival that year; there's cleaner audio due to radio/B-side releases elsewhere but if you want to enjoy David Baker in full flight:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL94B5E81559DB82EF&feature=mh_lolz

havent listened to this stuff in aaaaaages but this was the only m-rev period i was into, i was also into marijuana at the time

Well there ya go.

yeah these guys got really boring starting with deserters songs

Man, this revive got me to go listen to "Frittering" again, what a cool song. Never bothered with anything that didn't have D. Baker in the band, just seemed like a different beast.

It took me a while to appreciate See You On the Other Side in full but it and the Harmony Rockets album (and even Deserter's Songs, which I enjoy as a one-off as opposed to setting the tone for everything that followed) showed that even post-Baker there was a lot going on. Grasshopper's solo album in 1998 or so was also fun.

Yeah, maybe someday I'll get to them ...

I really like both of the Baker lps & his solo thing Shady. I think Boces was all recorded by the band in the same room at the same time as opposed to Yerself is Steam which i'd at least heard was mainly recorded one at a time with nobody having the same agenda. i think it might also benefit from having had the band play out several times before its recording which i think YIS didn't. Think YIS was more of an art project and Boces more of a band, from what I recall of reading things around the time it appeared and maybe the same things again since.

I thought Boces was a mental institute upstate in nNew york so may be remembering that wrong.

I finally managed to get several early live sets together over the last few years only to have the hard drive they were aon become inaccessible last year. It's now saying it needs formatting. Have hoped I'd be able to retrievwe contents but not had anywhereto transfer them to so not tried. & now hoping I haven't left it too late now.

Ned OTM about the post-Baker stuff

Shady is great! I really, really wish I could have found the interview I did with him when it came out -- he was a hilarious, friendly interviewee, would talk to him again any time.

Here's your real life Boces:

http://www.boces.org/wps/portal/BOCESofNYS

Ned are you stalking me? I got this album out this weekend for the first time in years.

I was gonna explain BOCES to ppl who have never lived in Upstate NY but I see he got there first.

They called the album BOCES bcuz IIRC they got some money out of the Educational Board to record the thing, can't recall how.

Hahah had never heard that but that would hilarious. And I could see it! No stalking here, I was just startled to see that "Bronx Cheer" EP, and happy to get it! Great cover art of course, "Stereo Prophetic" was the tag on the spine for this one:

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-796564-1159821810.jpeg

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-796564-1164984592.jpeg

I should scan in the art on the CD itself.

Oh yeah, reverse of the booklet/slip:

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-796564-1164984612.jpeg

I think I've got just about all the actual CD singles covering the first three albums aside from "The Hum is Coming From Her"/"So There" now. I don't have the actual "If You Want Me to Stay" single but I did end up with the Rough Trade Japan comp for the singles club with that on it so at least there's the B-side too.

BOCES funded a lot of weird shit. They paid for my first comic - training on the printing press, clearly!

This album is such a time & place for me - ironically after I moved down to NYC (this year, make NYC a state!) It's so the sound of working the night shift at the record shop.

hah, i love this record. i saw them play portsmouth on the tour and it remains the most comprehensively fucked musical episode i have ever witnessed ,it must have been in the final months of baker's tenure, no one could have endured that unbridled madness for long. i think at least three people were crying onstage.

The fact that the Rev released songs entitled "There's Spider Eggs In Bubbla Yhum" and "Pop Rocks + Soda = Kaboom" makes me so happy.

YES!

Great cover art of course

I had this & remember really digging the cover art as well - it was like a close-up photo of a bunch of balloons or lollypops iirc

it was boobs iirc

That was the album, "Bronx Cheer"'s cover is upthread a short distance.

odd how their flawless visual aesthetic went wrong the moment they turned aor

^ otm (but i think you mean mor)

havent listened to this stuff in aaaaaages but this was the only m-rev period i was into, i was also into marijuana at the time

― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Monday, May 21, 2012 8:00 AM

Man, this revive got me to go listen to "Frittering" again, what a cool song. Never bothered with anything that didn't have D. Baker in the band, just seemed like a different beast.

― grandavis, Monday, May 21, 2012 8:40 AM

saw them on tour for yrself is steam in 91 and chatted with david afterwards. seemed like a pretty cool guy.

b
there was only supposed to be that one part

This is such an important record to me. I see all its faults and yet it is still pretty close to a perfect cultural artifact in a personal sense. Even just looking at the cover is guaranteed to make me instantly 15% more happy and it's not because of the boobs.

like

though i literally havent listened to this in at least 15 years

Listen to it!

Boces and See You On The Other Side especially are my go-to albums of Mercury Rev's best output

all true, but yrself is steam is better

"Bronx Cheer" = rule
later Mercury Rev = crap.

these days I actually think See You On the Other Side is the best

I like career midpoints, I've realized

Reflections from Mr. Baker

http://thequietus.com/articles/13628-mercury-rev-boces-anniversary-review

ooh cool!

would have YIS a few notches ahead of it now, but fuck me what a formative experience this record was

“'Trickle Down' was me trying to express what it was to be nervous.”

aye. might be my favourite track nowadays

I was thinking about doing a Pixies vs Mercury Rev poll a few weeks back but didn't have the time. I do think however that YIS/Boces might be a better one-two punch than SR/Doolittle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQp_7U_4KQ

the band live at Phoenix, chemically enhanced?

It's on my Patreon -- and subscriber-only -- but I've just put up a transcription of an interview I did with Jonathan Donahue back after Boces was first released.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/31541916

Think its pretty great ap0art from Girlfren.
1st lp by an active band as opposed to a bunch of individuals coming in to record over each other at different times.
& I do love the general sound, I think the Caribou Vibration Ensemble touch on something similar on the live lp that came out with Swim.
Wish there was more of it.
& I need to make sure that my early live sets are still on a usable hard drive.

It's their best album imo. I love the unhinged creepiness of "Girlfren"

speakin of the cover art for boces… does anyone know where its from?

They never took down a Boces poster from the front window of my local record shop after it was released. Being about 12 at the time, always wondered what the hell it was, perhaps some kind of rave record