Boces by Mercury Rev

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