Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Formed: late 1980's

Members:
Jonathan Donahue -vocals, guitar, sounds
David Fridman -bass, vocals
Jimy Chambers -drums, electric piano
Suzanne Thorpe -flutes, french horn
Grasshopper -sounds

Bands in the family :
Harmony Rockets, Shady, Flaming Lips, The High Llamas

Notes:
Debuted with Yerself Is Steam in 1991 while Fridman (as co-producer) and Donahue (as support guitarist) were helping The Flaming Lips with Hit to Death in the Future Head. A number of tension-ridden tours began to take their toll on the members' long-flagging morale, but failed to mar 1993's splendid Boces. Two years later, the band ousted the volatile Baker (who went solo as Shady), recorded See You on the Other Side and a chaotic, improvisatory album under the name Harmony Rockets. Deserter's Songs is their latest release.

Links:
Interview with Mercury Rev

With See You On the Other Side, Mercury Rev ease away from the darker overtones of their previous efforts and aim for something more resplendent and wistful. This change of vision can perhaps be attributed to the absence of David Baker's morose influence, and Jonathan Donahue's assumption of his role as principal songwriter for the band.

The mood he's evoked on this album is one of sensuous, sun-drenched languor. The blissfully ebullient "Sudden Ray of Hope," with its chirping flutes and memorable melody, recalls an afternoon stroll through a park full of gently breezed leaves. The idyllic harmonies of "Racing With the Tide" and "Kiss From an Old Flame," echo the glittering pop perfected by The Beach Boys on their legendary album, Smile. "Empire State (Son House In Excelsis)" begins with an impatienly twinkling piano, then blossoms into an angelic, labyrinthine polyphony.

The garish symphonic arrangements you've come to expect from Mercury Rev still abound on See You On the Other Side, but stylistically, the album is closer to florid rococo, than to the gloomy, gothic excesses of 1995's Boces.

If you like Mercury Rev, check out:
Mercury Rev Deserter's Songs
Mercury Rev Yerself Is Steam
Mercury Rev Boces
The Flaming Lips Clouds Taste Metallic
Spiritualized Pure Phase
The Velvet Underground The Velvet Under Ground and Nico
Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets Orbit of Eternal Grace

psst...you might wanna check out our indie rock abode for more features on (guess what) indie rock bands.

--p