Editing Mercury Rev (section)

==History==
===Formation (1989–1990)===
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]] (then working as a teacher at the university, and a strong artistic influence on co-founder Grasshopper).<ref name="conrad">{{cite news |last1=Miers |first1=Jeff |title=Mercury Rev found magic in UB professor Tony Conrad's alchemy |url=https://buffalonews.com/entertainment/mercury-rev-found-magic-in-ub-professor-tony-conrads-alchemy/article_554f2fc9-f5e8-566e-a309-6b44958c5294.html |access-date=23 July 2021 |work=[[The Buffalo News]] |date=April 23, 2018 |language=en}}</ref> The line-up gradually coalesced around Donahue, Grasshopper, vocalist/keyboard player [[David Baker (singer)|David Baker]] and flute/French horn player Suzanne Thorpe; subsequent additions were bass guitarist/in-house producer [[Dave Fridmann]] (a music production student at SUNY Fredonia, who began by recording the band and subsequently added enough bass guitar and sonic effect parts to make himself a full band member), and a late addition in the form of drummer Jimy Chambers (who joined towards the end of initial recording sessions to "effectively serve as the frame around Mercury Rev's musical splatter").<ref name=pitchfork-yis>[https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/mercury-rev-yerself-is-steam/ ''Yerself is Steam - Mercury Rev - 1991''] - retrospective review by Stuart Berman in ''Pitchfork'', 11 February 2024</ref>

The band was initially formed to score its members' student films,<ref name="sisario" /> and had a loose playing and recording existence. The band's initial music was a blend of [[experimental rock|experimental]], [[psychedelic rock]], drone and [[noise rock]]. David Baker recalls "we were in Buffalo, sitting there thinking, there's no hope of us being a band, we're not going to be [[Guns N' Roses]]. What we did wasn't considered real, because it wasn't being covered by ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' or ''[[Rolling Stone]]'', so we could just be whatever we wanted to be. We'd take the microphone and record pots and pans or guitar and make our own little world. I mean, we knew the context, we knew who Bowie was, we knew who all the bands were, but we didn't put them with us. We were just making music. It was, 'Us? Are we in a band?' Well, none of us live in the same town, we just meet in the studio and have a great time together doing stuff."<ref name=quietusbaker2013>[https://thequietus.com/interviews/david-baker-mercury-rev-interview/ "From Mercury Rev to Variety Lights: David Baker Interviewed"] - interview with David Baker by Stuart Huggett in ''The Quietus'', 12 June 2013</ref>

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 Fridmann, who went on to co-produce every Flaming Lips studio album to date with the exception of 1993's ''[[Transmissions from the Satellite Heart]]''.<ref name="Trouser Press" /><ref>{{cite news|first1=Ben|last1=Hewitt|access-date=2019-08-08|title=The Flaming Lips – 10 of the best|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/mar/24/the-flaming-lips-10-of-the-best|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 March 2016|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

===The David Baker years: ''Yerself is Steam'' and ''Boces'' (1991–1993)===

Mercury Rev's debut album was 1991's ''[[Yerself is Steam]]''. Once referred to as "soundtracks to actual movies, composed by a band that didn't really exist," it originated as the collective's attempts to devise and perform musical scores for student films showing in local galleries, or for existing nature documentaries which they'd watch on television and jam to.<ref name="pitchfork-yis" /> It was followed by the "Car Wash Hair" single, a more straightforward song typifying 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. Fridmann, meanwhile, had produced the band's early recordings as part of his university coursework, meaning that Mercury Rev could access and use the SUNY Fredonia studios in off-hours and at cheap rates.<ref name="pitchfork-yis" />

As they began to play live (and across a greater spread of venues and events), the band began to make a name for themselves as creators of powerfully experimental, often chaotic psychedelic music, with ''Pitchfork'' later recalling "in their formative years, Mercury Rev really did sound like a careening bus headed towards a fiery crash — one where half the people on board were frantically fighting each other for control of the wheel, and the other half were in the back obliviously singing nursery rhymes as the whole bucket of bolts went up in flames... [It was] less a melding of disparate sounds than a battle royale of oppositional ideologies: order and anarchy, ecstasy and terror, purity and perversion."<ref name="pitchfork-yis" />

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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep00/articles/dave.htm |website=Soundonsound.com|title=Mercury Rising}}</ref> 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.<ref name=revshownotes>[https://defgav.com/rev/revshownotes.html "random notes of mercury rev's life on the road..."] on Mercury Rev Gigography</ref><ref name=revufaq>{{Cite web|url=https://www.defgav.com/rev/faq.html|title=Mercury Rev FAQ|website=Defgav.com|access-date=Sep 8, 2024}}</ref>

Despite considerable critical acclaim,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archivedmusicpress.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/chris-roberts-reviews-mercury-revs-yerself-is-steam-16th-february-1991/ |title=Chris Roberts reviews Mercury Rev's Yerself Is Steam, 16th February 1991 &#124; Archived Music Press |website=Archivedmusicpress.wordpress.com |date=21 February 2009 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.fastnbulbous.com/mercury_boces.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923124310/http://www.fastnbulbous.com/mercury_boces.htm|date=September 23, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Heather Phares |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/see-you-on-the-other-side-mw0000176204 |title=See You on the Other Side - Mercury Rev &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits |website=[[AllMusic]] |date=1995-09-19 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref> Mercury Rev's early releases gave them little more than [[cult following|cult]] popularity,<ref name="Trouser Press"/> although thanks to early British press interest they secured a prestigious slot at the [[Reading Festival]] for their third-ever gig,<ref name="pitchfork-yis" /> and later appeared on the smaller second stage at some 1993 [[Lollapalooza]] stops.

The band's second record, ''[[Boces]]'', was recorded during 1992 and 1993, with the band's collective creative approach in full flow. David Baker later recalled "[Jimy Chambers] was really into a lot of '60s music; Dave Fridmann, his background was more jazz. He used to put Steely Dan on a lot of the time. Suzanne was of the mind set of trying to conquer all these guitars with her flute. I thought people should be able to put their thing into the mix because it is better to have everything in... The drummer was writing a song, the bass player was writing a song and it would get blown up by someone else. Jonathan was a major song writer and I did a lot but everybody got to contribute... There were pre-ideas and songs brought in but I don't think anybody would have been allowed to tell people what to do. They knew their song was going to get blown up. Maybe you don't bring in a song that you weren't ready for somebody to blow up."<ref>[https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/mercury-rev-boces-anniversary-review/ "A Circus of Colour & Light: Mercury Rev’s Boces 25 Years On"] - article/interview by Ben Cardew in ''The Quietus'', 18 October 2013</ref>

Later in 1993, the band embarked on a tour to support the release of ''Boces'', including some [[Lollapalooza]] shows during the summer. At the Lollopalooza gig at Greenwood Village, Colorado on 26 June, the band were forced off the stage for being too loud and "out of control" following an objection by the Mayor of Denver.<ref name="pitchfork-yis" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Jonathan Donahue (mercury Rev)|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/jonathan-donahue-109-guide_festivals_us_09/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920113534/https://www.vice.com/print/jonathan-donahue-109-guide_festivals_us_09|url-status=live|archive-date=2016-09-20}}</ref>

David Baker parted company with Mercury Rev after the ''Boces'' tour, citing musical and personal disputes.<ref name="quietusbaker2013" />

Baker remained on good terms with the band,<ref name="quietusbaker2013" /> and would later record albums as Shady and Variety Lights. With his departure, the thematically darker and musically experimental features of Mercury Rev began to disappear, with the music gradually shifting over time towards a melodic, ornate sound.<ref name="AMbio">{{cite web|author=Jason Ankeny |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mercury-rev-mn0000408696/biography |title=Mercury Rev &#124; Biography & History |website=[[AllMusic]] |date=2001-09-11 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref>

===Transitional period: ''See You on the Other Side'' (1995–1997)===

The band's first post-Baker album, ''[[See You on the Other Side (Mercury Rev album)|See You on the Other Side]]'' (1995) contained a variety of styles, including a sprawling psychedelic opening track and noise rock numbers like "Young Man's Stride" (for which a music video was released), but also more melodic songs, such as "Sudden Ray of Hope". By this time the live band included organist Adam Snyder and brothers [[Jason Sebastian Russo|Jason]] and [[Justin Russo]] of psychedelic rock band [[Hopewell (band)|Hopewell]] (as bassist and keyboardist respectively).<ref name="revufaq" />

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]]. (Fourteen years later, in 2009, the group would revisit it for performance in the [[Don't Look Back (concert series)|Don't Look Back concert series]].)

''See You on the Other Side'' failed to sell well, a situation which helped to trigger a destructive period for the band during which they fell into debt, came into conflict with their record label, lost their manager and lawyers, and parted company with drummer Jimy Chambers.<ref name=Halpin>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827073432/http://raggedwords.com/features/interview/interview-mercury-rev |archive-date=2013-08-27 |url=http://raggedwords.com/features/interview/interview-mercury-rev| title=Interview: Mercury Rev On The Record That Brought Them Back From The Brink|first=Padraic|last=Halpin|date=May 16, 2011|access-date=August 20, 2012|publisher=Ragged Words}}</ref><ref name=Cameron>{{cite web |url=http://defgav.com/rev/articles/nmenov98.html|title=The Untold History Of America's Most Pioneering Band|first=Keith|last=Cameron|date=November 1998|access-date=August 20, 2012|website=New Musical Express}}</ref> Donahue and Grasshopper, in particular, were failing to communicate with each other and struggling with their individual drug and relationship problems.<ref name="Halpin" /><ref name="Cameron" />

While Grasshopper retreated to a Jesuit guest house in upstate New York, Donahue began to listen to records of children's music and to write simple melodies on piano (in contrast to the band's former psychedelic/electric compositional approach.<ref name=Mulholland>{{cite web |first=Garry |last=Mulholland |date=May 23, 2011 |title=Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs |url=http://www.uncut.co.uk/mercury-rev/mercury-rev-deserters-songs-r-review |website=[[Uncut (magazine)|Uncut]] |access-date=August 20, 2012 |archive-date=March 16, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316034936/http://www.uncut.co.uk/mercury-rev/mercury-rev-deserters-songs-r-review |url-status=dead }}</ref> At the same time, he was invited to guest on a [[The Chemical Brothers|Chemical Brothers]] track called "[[The Private Psychedelic Reel]]".<ref name=Turner>{{cite magazine|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/06311-mercury-rev-interview-deserter-s-songs|title=Jonathan Donahue On The Troubled Birth Of Mercury Rev's Deserter's Songs|first=Luke|last=Turner|date=May 23, 2011|access-date=August 20, 2012|magazine=[[The Quietus]]}}</ref> This in turn inspired him to repair his musical and personal friendship with Grasshopper.<ref name="Cameron" /><ref name="Turner" />

===Breakthrough albums: ''Deserter's Songs'' and ''All is Dream'' (1998–2001)===
Mercury Rev relocated to Donahue's birthplace of [[Kingston, New York]],<ref name="sisario">{{cite news |last1=Sisario |first1=Ben |title=Just Your Standard Rock Band: Guitar, Drums and Electroencephalograph |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/arts/music/10merc.html |access-date=23 July 2021 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=9 September 2008}}</ref> and began recording in the [[Catskill Mountains]]. The personnel for the album was a loose core of Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper and Suzanne Thorpe, joined by Dave Fridmann and by former drummer Jimy Chambers, and augmented by local musicians (including two former members of [[The Band]]: [[Garth Hudson]] and [[Levon Helm]]). The involvement of the latter shifted the band's musical focus closer to roots and acoustic music. At the secondary recording and mixing stage, Donahue, Grasshopper and Fridmann opted not to use their previous method of distorted guitar and electronic overdubs and instead began to use strings, horns and woodwinds, resulting in more of a [[chamber pop]] sound while retaining a psychedelic tinge.<ref name="Halpin" /><ref name=Inglis>{{cite web |url=https://www.soundonsound.com/people/dave-fridmann-producing-flaming-lips-mercury-rev| title=Dave Fridmann: Producing Flaming Lips & Mercury Rev|first=Sam|last=Inglis|date=September 2000|access-date=August 20, 2012|website=[[Sound on Sound]]}}</ref>

The 1998 release of the resulting ''[[Deserter's Songs]]'' album met with acclaim, and made Mercury Rev unexpected pop stars.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jason Ankeny |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/deserters-songs-mw0000043055 |title=Deserter's Songs - Mercury Rev &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/musicreviews/album.php?albumid=615]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521145154/http://www.fluffhouse.org.uk/musicreviews/album.php?albumid=615|date=May 21, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Nme.Com |url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/mercury-rev/203 |title=NME Reviews - Deserter's Songs |website=Nme.com |date=2005-09-12 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref><ref>[http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19842/Mercury_Rev_Deserters_Songs] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081021163144/http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/19842/Mercury_Rev_Deserters_Songs|date=October 21, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Sinclair |first=Tom |url=https://ew.com/article/1998/09/25/deserters-songs/ |title=Deserter's Songs |website=EW.com |date=1998-09-25 |access-date=2015-12-04 |archive-date=2014-12-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216222207/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,284989,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In the [[United Kingdom|UK]], ''[[NME]]'' magazine made ''Deserter's Songs'' their [[NME album of the year|Album of the Year]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907194846/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 7, 2012 |title=Rocklist.net...NME Lists Menu Page |website=Rocklistmusic.co.uk |date=1992-05-09 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref> Donahue's earnest, high-pitched vocals and concentration on relatively concise, melodic songs gave the band's material an entirely new feel and much increased popularity (''Deserter's Songs'' spawned three UK Top 40 singles: "[[Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp]]", "Opus 40" and "[[Goddess on a Hiway|Goddess On A Hiway]]").
 
Both Suzanne Thorpe and Jimy Chambers left Mercury Rev following the recording of the album, with the tours promoting ''Deserter's Songs'' featuring the return of the Russo brothers and Adam Snyder (although all three would depart the live band during 2000). Jeff Mercel, who'd played on ''[[Deserter's Songs]]'', also joined as touring drummer, and would soon become a full band member.<ref name="revufaq" /> Although Thorpe would return as a guest player for ''All is Dream'',<ref name="revufaq" /> she would subsequently concentrate on academic research and emerge as a Deep Listening instructor, university lecturer and electro-acoustic improviser, as well as becoming part of "pirate-punk" band The Wounded Knees.<ref>[https://www.suzannethorpe.com/the-wounded-knees Wounded Knees page] on Suzanne Thorpe homepage</ref> Thorpe has also returned for occasional band revisitations of the Harmony Rockets project, including one at the 2009 [[All Tomorrow's Parties (festival)|All Tomorrow's Parties]] festival in England.<ref name="revshownotes" /><ref>[https://www.suzannethorpe.com/bio Biography] on Suzanne Thorpe homepage</ref><ref>[https://www.suzannethorpe.com/mercury-rev Mercury Rev page] on Suzanne Thorpe homepage</ref> Chambers would later form the band Odiorne.<ref name="revufaq" />

By 2001, the band's nucleus was Grasshopper, Donahue and Mercel, with Fridmann remaining as co-producer and studio bass player. The ''[[All Is Dream]]'' album was issued in 2001 and became the band's highest-charting album in the UK to date (#11). It included "Little Rhymes", "Nite and Fog" and "The Dark is Rising," which reached No.&nbsp;16 in the [[UK Singles Chart]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/music/newsid_1785000/1785755.stm |title=The Official UK Top 40 | work=BBC News | date=January 27, 2002 | access-date=May 12, 2010}}</ref> David Bowie producer [[Tony Visconti]] arranged strings and provided [[Mellotron]] parts for the album, which also featured contributions from Jason and Justin Russo. However, the Russo brothers did not join the band on tour this time, their places being taken by bass player Paul Dillon and by multi-instrumentalist Carlos Anthony Molina on keyboards, augmented by second keyboard player Michael Schirmer.<ref name="revufaq" />

===''The Secret Migration'', ''Snowflake Midnight'' and others (2004–2014)===
[[Image:Mercury Rev at Tel Aviv 11.jpg|right|thumb|220px|Film Music Live Improvisation for the short movie ''[[The Red Balloon]]'']]
Carlos Anthony Molina had become a full Mercury Rev member by the time of Mercury Rev's fifth album, ''[[The Secret Migration]]'', which was released on January 24, 2005, and on which he played both keyboards and bass guitar. The album featured the UK Top 40 single "In A Funny Way" (#28). The album itself reached #16 in the UK Albums chart. Jeff Mercel moved to keyboards for the subsequent tours, with his place on drums being taken on live dates by Jason Miranda.<ref name="revufaq" />

''The Secret Migration'' was followed up in 2006, by a [[compilation album]], ''[[The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991-2006]]'', and the film soundtrack album ''Hello Blackbird''. The band released a pair of albums on September 29, 2008: ''[[Snowflake Midnight]]'', and a free MP3 album of instrumentals, ''Strange Attractor'', following which Jeff Mercel left the band (although he would rejoin them on tour in 2011 to promote the double-disc reissue of ''Deserter's Songs''). Former [[Midlake]] keyboardist Jesse Chandler was recruited to Mercury Rev in 2014.<ref>[https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2022/05/06/jesse-chandler-pneumatic-tubes-and-ghost-box-records/ "Jesse Chandler, Pneumatic Tubes and Ghost Box Records"] - article by Bob Fischer in ''Electronic Sound Magazine'' #86, February 2022 (reproduced in ''The Haunted Generation'', 6 May 2022)</ref>

===Recent activity: ''The Light in You'', ''Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited'', ''Born Horses'' (2015–present)===
Mercury Rev's first studio album in seven years, ''[[The Light in You]]'', was released on October 2, 2015, through [[Bella Union]]. It reached #39 on the UK albums chart.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-light-in-you-mw0002853351/credits |title=The Light in You - Mercury Rev &#124; Credits |website=[[AllMusic]] |date=2015-10-02 |access-date=2015-12-04}}</ref> This was the first Mercury Rev album not to be co-produced by Dave Fridmann. At this point the band were officially a duo of Donahue and Grasshopper, with Molina, Miranda and Chandler still regularly contributing but as part of a set of support musicians.

Although Molina and Miranda's involvement with the band had ceased by 2016, Chandler had become a full member of Mercury Rev by the time that the band released ''[[Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete Revisited]]'' in February 2019. This was a reworking of [[Bobbie Gentry]]'s 1968 album ''[[The Delta Sweete]]'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mercury Rev {{!}} Bella Union |url=https://bellaunion.com/artists/mercury-rev/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124409/https://bellaunion.com/artists/mercury-rev/ |archive-date=2019-02-09 |access-date=2019-02-08 |website=Bellaunion.com |language=en-US}}</ref> featuring instrumentation by Mercury Rev and a different female guest singer on each song. [[Lucinda Williams]], actress [[Carice van Houten]], [[Beth Orton]] and [[Norah Jones]] were among the vocalists. The album achieved a Top 40 position in the UK charts, peaking at #32.

2021 saw further changes to the Mercury Rev line-up, with second keyboard player Marion Genser joining the band as a full-fledged member.

On June 4, 2024, Mercury Rev announced their latest studio album, ''[[Born Horses]]'', which was released on September 6, 2024. The first single from the album, “Patterns,” was also released on the day of the announcement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Corcoran |first=Nina |date=2024-06-04 |title=Mercury Rev Announce New Album Born Horses, Share Video for New Song "Patterns" |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/mercury-rev-announce-new-album-born-horses-share-video-for-new-song-patterns-watch/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Mongredien |first=Phil |date=2024-09-06 |title=Mercury Rev: Born Horses review – a lush and serene return |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/sep/06/mercury-rev-born-horses-review-a-lush-and-serene-return |access-date=2024-09-30 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref> The band's line-up changed again that year, with Joe Magistro taking over on drums, and guitarist/flugelhorn player J.B. Meijers (who'd already made some band contributions in 2018) joining.