SINCE bursting onto the scene in 1989 from Buffalo, New York, Mercury Rev has carved out a legacy as audacious explorers of the farthest reaches of artistic perception. This band doesn’t just play music; they conjure colours, sounds, and visions that feel tantalisingly out of reach for us mere mortals.
The Guardian called them “a rarity in indie rock: a band who have continually evolved their sound, pushing at the boundaries of what rock music actually means over 25 years, borrowing from jazz, funk, doo-wop, techno, folk, and more along the way.”
Rolling Stone extolled their “majestic chaos,” while the BBC couldn’t get enough of their “shimmering psychedelic pop, immersive indie-rock, [and] spectacularly engrossing passages of sumptuous instrumentation.”
Their 1991 debut, ‘Yerself Is Steam’ earned a spot on Pitchfork’s Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time.
In 1997 Mercury Rev appeared on the Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole, then starting work on their fourth album.
To focus on their music, Donahue and Grasshopper relocated to the Catskills, where they wrote songs inspired by their new home base and their favourite children’s music, and returned to songs written during the band’s infancy.
Working at Tarbox Road studio with Fridmann — who was also recording the Flaming Lips’ The Soft Bulletin at the time — Mercury Rev were joined by the Band’s Levon Helm and Garth Hudson as they replaced the feedback and distortion of their previous music with strings, horns, and woodwinds.
While they were recording, Mercury Rev signed to V2 Records, which released Deserter’s Songs in September 1998. For the first time, the group matched their sizable critical acclaim with commercial success: The album was a hit in Europe and Ireland snagging NME’s Album of the Year and finding a home in Pitchfork’s 100 Favorite Records of the 1990s, Melody Maker’s All Time Top 100 Albums, Uncut’s 200 Greatest Albums of All Time, and countless “1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die” lists.
Mercury Rev released their new album ‘Born Horses’ in September.
Emerging from the mystical landscapes of upstate New York, Mercury Rev’s ninth album is a mesmerising blend of psych-jazz-folk-baroque-ambient sounds. Like the currents of the Hudson River, the album carries the essence of dreams, fears, and hopes, intertwining organic and electronic elements—guitars, keys, brass, strings, woodwind, and drums—all underpinned by a voice of pure incantation.
As Grasshopper puts it, the album taps into the spirit of Blade Runner, blending nostalgic echoes with a futuristic twist.
Mercury Rev’s journey is more than just a collection of studio triumphs. Their eclectic musical collaborations with legendary artists, along with major festival and network television performances worldwide, have cemented their place as one of America’s most pioneering groups.
Mercury Rev will play Dolans Warehouse on Monday October 28.
