About Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, with singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and guitarist/clarinetist/sound generator operator Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak as the only constant members. The band's music has incorporated indie rock, psychedelic rock and American roots, amongst other forms. Mercury Rev have been closely associated with The Flaming Lips, and the two bands have shared historical ties.
Mercury Rev was formed in 1989 by students at the University at Buffalo, partially inspired by the drone music of composer/media studies professor Tony Conrad . The initial line-up was Donahue, Grasshopper, vocalist David Baker, bass guitarist/in-house producer Dave Fridmann, flute/French horn player Suzanne Thorpe and drummer Jimy Chambers. The band was initially formed to score its members' student films, and had a loose playing and recording existence. The band's initial music was a blend of experimental, psychedelic rock, drone and noise rock, which would gradually shift over time towards a melodic, ornate sound.
At this early stage, several members also had other musical interests which prevented consistent Mercury Rev activity. Donahue worked as a gig promoter for other bands' concerts in Buffalo, which brought him into contact with The Flaming Lips in 1989: he then toured with them as guitar technician before formally joining as lead guitarist in time to play on their 1990 album In a Priest Driven Ambulance. The latter album was co-produced by Dave Fridman, who went on to co-produce every Flaming Lips studio album to date with the exception of 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.
Mercury Rev's debut album was 1991's Yerself is Steam, followed by the "Car Wash Hair" single, both of which typified the band's early merging of psychedelic rock and noise rock. During this year, the band had begun to solidify and concentrate on more sustained effort. Yerself is Steam had been completed during Donahue's breaks from Flaming Lips activity in tour and in Oklahoma: following creative disagreements with the band's frontman Wayne Coyne, Donahue left The Flaming Lips in mid-1991, shortly after recording the Hit to Death in the Future Head album. This enabled him to return to Buffalo and concentrate full-time on Mercury Rev. Meanwhile, although Dave Fridmann remained the band's bass player, co-producer and co-composer in the studio, he often had to step back from his role as live bass player due to increasing demands on his time as a record producer. Bassist John DeVries substituted for Fridmann at an increasing number of live shows, including an Ireland-and-England tour in the autumn of 1992, with Gerald Menke taking over live bass duties by 1993.
Despite considerable critical acclaim, Mercury Rev's early releases gave them little more than cult popularity, although they did appear on the smaller second stage at some 1993 Lollapalooza stops. David Baker left Mercury Rev after their second record, Boces , citing musical and personal disputes; he later recorded albums as Shady and Variety Lights. With his departure, the thematically darker and musically experimental features of the band began to disappear.
The band's first post-Baker album, See You on the Other Side contained a variety of styles, including a sprawling psychedelic opening track and noise rock numbers like "Young Man's Stride" , but also more melodic songs, such as "Sudden Ray of Hope". By this time the live band included organist Adam Snyder and brothers Jason and Justin Russo of psychedelic rock band Hopewell
That year, the group also recorded and released the album, Paralyzed Mind Of The Archangel Void, under the moniker "Harmony Rockets". The album featured a single forty minute track of mostly instrumental psychedelic improvised music. It was rated four and half stars, out of five, by AllMusic.
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