― Scott Seward, Friday, 4 April 2003 16:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
― SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Friday, 4 April 2003 16:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Brandon Gentry (Brandon Gentry), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 4 April 2003 17:21 (twenty-one years ago) link
― gazuga (gazuga), Friday, 4 April 2003 19:49 (twenty-one years ago) link
― John Bullabaugh (John Bullabaugh), Friday, 4 April 2003 19:52 (twenty-one years ago) link
I don't really understand its reputation for "difficultness"... it sounds of a piece with the wonderful "Yerself Is Steam" to me.
― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 4 April 2003 20:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Jesse Fox (Jesse Fox), Saturday, 5 April 2003 05:57 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 5 April 2003 06:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
Stand up for this album, won'cha?
― Scourage (Haberdager), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marmot (marmotwolof), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:45 (seventeen years ago) link
And I guess Kate never did get to the thread.
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Thursday, 24 August 2006 22:54 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― steal laptop, drive to cambridge, drink (tissp), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Scourage (Haberdager), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link
No.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 August 2006 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Scourage (Haberdager), Sunday, 27 August 2006 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:34 (seventeen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:41 (seventeen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 27 August 2006 20:55 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Scourage (Haberdager), Sunday, 27 August 2006 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Sunday, 27 August 2006 22:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Sunday, 27 August 2006 22:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Monday, 28 August 2006 12:36 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Goldene Schnitt (kate), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 09:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Goldene Schnitt (kate), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 09:46 (seventeen years ago) link
m.
― msp (mspa), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 11:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― Goldene Schnitt (kate), Tuesday, 29 August 2006 11:46 (seventeen years ago) link
"Bronx Cheer" is phenomenal. The rest hasn't jelled for me yet.
― Vanilla Douche (res), Friday, 21 May 2010 00:43 (thirteen years ago) link
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.'
― ImprovSpirit, Friday, 21 May 2010 15:15 (thirteen years ago) link
beside 3-4 fillers - great record - with better songs than Steam imo
― Zeno, Friday, 21 May 2010 15:17 (thirteen years ago) link
except Frittering
― Dan, Dan, DARRAGH (acoleuthic), Friday, 21 May 2010 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― Dan, Dan, DARRAGH (acoleuthic), Friday, 21 May 2010 15:26 (thirteen years ago) link
So that's why you like Oceansize, then...
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:03 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^important post
― Dan, Dan, DARRAGH (acoleuthic), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm good at those, huh?
― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Friday, 21 May 2010 16:08 (thirteen years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
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, 21 May 2012 15:00 (eleven years ago) link
Well there ya go.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 15:34 (eleven years ago) link
yeah these guys got really boring starting with deserters songs
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 21 May 2012 15:36 (eleven years ago) link
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, 21 May 2012 15:40 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 15:46 (eleven years ago) link
Yeah, maybe someday I'll get to them ...
― grandavis, Monday, 21 May 2012 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Monday, 21 May 2012 15:55 (eleven years ago) link
Ned OTM about the post-Baker stuff
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 21 May 2012 15:57 (eleven years ago) link
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 Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:08 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:27 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:33 (eleven years ago) link
Oh yeah, reverse of the booklet/slip:
http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-796564-1164984612.jpeg
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 16:36 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― They have fangs, They have teeth! (White Chocolate Cheesecake), Monday, 21 May 2012 16:41 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― cw, Monday, 21 May 2012 19:12 (eleven years ago) link
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
― Apartment of Evil (Pillbox), Monday, 21 May 2012 20:20 (eleven years ago) link
it was boobs iirc
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Monday, 21 May 2012 20:30 (eleven years ago) link
That was the album, "Bronx Cheer"'s cover is upthread a short distance.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2012 20:32 (eleven years ago) link
odd how their flawless visual aesthetic went wrong the moment they turned aor
― cw, Monday, 21 May 2012 20:35 (eleven years ago) link
^ 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 AMMan, 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
― A Little Princess btw (s1ocki), Monday, May 21, 2012 8:00 AM
― 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.
― spextor vs bextor (contenderizer), Monday, 21 May 2012 20:37 (eleven years ago) link
bthere 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.
― /\ /\ Delete post (admrl), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 17:25 (eleven years ago) link
like
― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 17:37 (eleven years ago) link
though i literally havent listened to this in at least 15 years
Listen to it!
― /\ /\ Delete post (admrl), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 17:51 (eleven years ago) link
Boces and See You On The Other Side especially are my go-to albums of Mercury Rev's best output
― 'Separate Lives', by Phil Collins & Marilyn Manson (PaulTMA), Wednesday, 19 September 2012 23:14 (eleven years ago) link
all true, but yrself is steam is better
― nostormo, Thursday, 20 September 2012 19:17 (eleven years ago) link
"Bronx Cheer" = rulelater Mercury Rev = crap.
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 20 September 2012 19:36 (eleven years ago) link
these days I actually think See You On the Other Side is the best
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 September 2012 19:38 (eleven years ago) link
I like career midpoints, I've realized
― stop swearing and start windmilling (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 20 September 2012 19:39 (eleven years ago) link
Reflections from Mr. Baker
http://thequietus.com/articles/13628-mercury-rev-boces-anniversary-review
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 18 October 2013 15:12 (ten years ago) link
ooh cool!
― HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Please don't hesitate (imago), Friday, 18 October 2013 15:14 (ten years ago) link
would have YIS a few notches ahead of it now, but fuck me what a formative experience this record was
― HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Please don't hesitate (imago), Friday, 18 October 2013 15:17 (ten years ago) link
“'Trickle Down' was me trying to express what it was to be nervous.”
aye. might be my favourite track nowadays
― HAVE YOU SEEN ME? Please don't hesitate (imago), Friday, 18 October 2013 15:29 (ten years ago) link
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
― nypc blue (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 19 October 2013 11:31 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPQp_7U_4KQ
the band live at Phoenix, chemically enhanced?
― Stevolende, Saturday, 19 October 2013 12:55 (ten years ago) link
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
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 19:03 (four years ago) link
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.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 20 November 2019 21:31 (four years ago) link
It's their best album imo. I love the unhinged creepiness of "Girlfren"
― The World According To.... (Michael B), Thursday, 21 November 2019 13:03 (four years ago) link
speakin of the cover art for boces… does anyone know where its from?
― syringemouth, Thursday, 27 October 2022 12:06 (one year ago) link
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
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 27 October 2022 12:43 (one year ago) link