Old Mercury Rev or new?

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.

lol self-parody tracklist

this band needs to stop

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.

Yeah I really, really wanted this to be good but that song has shot down my expectations.

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.

there's quite a major one missing from that summary

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.

Boces>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>everything else

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."

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.

https://open.spotify.com/track/58sbCIxg0nsjJ1MfbCWWX9

Was just listening to this. It isn't horrible. At all. I'm not sure what to think.

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.

Tears of Silver pic.twitter.com/qXZqP8sgXA

— grasshopper (@mercuryrevvd) July 15, 2017

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.

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMZ9E6ZK81g

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

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.

Their pre Deserter’s Songs artwork was incredible.

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

that would fit with its title ('lego my ego')

anyway they should have changed the name after baker left

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

Supposedly from an HBO documentary on schizophrenia that the band had a tape of