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| IN
A FUNNY WAY |
| Windows
Media |
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| SECRET
FOR A SONG |
| Windows
Media |
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| ACROSS
YER OCEAN |
| Windows
Media |
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| 4/30 |
Indio,
CA |
Coachella |
| 5/01 |
San
Francisco, CA |
The
Fillmore |
| 5/03 |
Seattle,
WA |
Showbox |
| 5/04 |
Portland,
OR |
Aladdin
Theater |
| 5/06 |
Vancouver,
BC |
Commodore
Ballroom |
| 5/08 |
Salt
Lake City, UT |
Club
Sound |
| 5/09 |
Denver,
CO |
Fox
Theater |
| 5/11 |
Kansas
City, MO |
Madrid
Theater |
| 5/12 |
Minneapolis,
MN |
The
Quest |
| 5/13 |
Chicago,
IL |
Vic
Theater |
| 5/14 |
Detroit,
MI |
Majestic
Theater |
| 5/16 |
Toronto,
Ont |
Kool
Haus |
| 5/18 |
New
York City |
Webster
Hall |
| 5/19 |
New
York City |
Webster
Hall |
| 5/20 |
Boston,
MA |
Avalon
Ballroom |
| 5/22 |
Philadelphia,
PA |
Theater
of Living Arts |
| 5/23 |
Washington,
DC |
9:30
Club |
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LIMITED
EDITION DOUBLE CD ALSO AVAILABLE
ON TOUR WITH DOVES!
Limited Edition 2-disc set featuring 9 hard-to-find and previously
unavailable live tracks in a really beautiful package. Limited
to 10,000 units. Tracks:
1) The Black Swan - B-side from the "In A Funny Way"
UK CD single
2) My Love - Live from KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic"
- previously unavailable
3) Afraid - A stunning cover of the haunting Nico song, which
appeared on the limited edition "Across Yer Ocean"
UK CD single
4) Isolation - A cover of the classic Lennon song, performed
live on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic," available
on the extremely limited "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp"
UK CD single
5) Black Forest - Live from KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic"
- previously unavailable.
6) Observatory Crest - recorded live on the BBC, from the "Little
Rhymes" German CD Single
7) Streets Of Laredo - from the "Little Rhymes" German
CD Single
8) Diamonds - Live on WFUV - previously unavailable
9 ) Mirror For A Bell - From the limited edition "Across
Yer Ocean" UK CD single
History tells us you’d be a fool to take MERCURY REV for
granted. No two of their records are alike, because each Mercury
Rev record reflects the shifting perspectives and impulses of
the people who made it. People change over time, consciously
or not, and that’s how it should be, because time changes
people.
Mercury Rev are not afraid to let loose what’s inside
them, regardless of what the consequences may be, or whether
each new missive necessarily makes sense in the context of what
has come before. They’ve created their own world, their
own logic. What’s beyond question is that once you’re
inside, you’re there for the duration.
Y’see, they’re just like us. But who is the ‘they’
of which we speak? Today, Mercury Rev officially numbers three:
Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper and Jeff Mercel. To this core,
we must add Dave Fridmann. Dave played bass with Mercury Rev
in their formative days, then left to concentrate on his work
as a producer. He’s been behind the desk for all their
albums, and remains a key creative element in the music Mercury
Rev make.
“Nothing is outside the realm of possibility,” says
Jeff, who joined Rev as a drummer but is now looking forward
to playing keyboards on the band’s forthcoming tour. “There’s
nothing that can’t be tried, nothing that shouldn’t
be tried. It may not be on the tape at the end of the recording
session, but there is no reason to inhibit yourself in that
way. And sometimes you find the strangest combinations are the
ones that are the most beautiful.”
Jeff’s perspective on Mercury Rev is very apposite. When
he signed up for duty, during the sessions for 1998’s
Deserter’s Songs, he was joining a band with
an already tumultuous legacy. Of the original line-up, only
guitarists Jonathan and Grasshopper remained. Founding members
David Baker (vocals), Jimy Chambers (drums) and Suzanne Thorpe
(flute) had all departed, for various reasons, but mostly because
each had calculated that their lives might be better for not
being in this band any longer. Baker, who had instigated Rev’s
formation at the end of the ’80s, left following the fractious
tour in support of second album Boces (1993). Along
with its predecessor, 1991’s Yerself Is Steam,
Boces posited Mercury Rev as some kind of deranged
Janus-faced musical experiment, alchemizing abject chaos from
some very simple, beautiful songs. And some other songs which
weren’t even beautiful to begin with.
Without Baker – and with a sense of nothing left to lose
– Mercury Rev made the glorious cosmic fantasia of See
You On The Other Side (1995). But by this point, the world
wasn’t listening, and the soul-sapping experience of playing
such awesome music to so very few people took its toll. A trail
of calamity reached some kind of tragic-comic peak on a single
day in London, when their van was broken into and some equipment
stolen. Then, their T-shirt seller left the tour’s merchandise
revenue in a taxi. They watched as £5000 drove away.
That they can now laugh at such instances is testimony to the
resilience of the friendship between Grasshopper and Jonathan,
and their absolute faith in the redemptive powers of music.
Deserter’s Songs was an astonishing renaissance,
Rev’s cinematic refraction of the history of American
popular song through the individuals’ own personal filters.
It was rapturously hailed by fans old and new, giving Rev reason
to believe once more. They followed it with the orchestral grandiloquence
and poise of All Is Dream (2001), and watched smiling
as the world smiled back. Where once Mercury Rev gigs were mandatory
for the chance to see the lead singer standing at the bar heckling
his own group (as David Baker was wont to do), now they became
communal outpourings of wonder at the glorious properties of
the band’s music.
The new Mercury Rev album is called THE SECRET MIGRATION. Work
began in the autumn of 2002, mere weeks after their last world
tour ended. Now with a studio in their Catskill Mountains base,
a couple of hours up the Hudson River from New York City, Grasshopper,
Jeff and Jonathan had the luxury to bat around ideas without
having to worry about the ticking of the clock. After maybe
nine months, they invited Dave Fridmann to join them, at which
point recording began in earnest. All agree that having their
own studio space for the first time had a significant effect
on how the album evolved.
“Before we make these records, I always have this idea
in my head,” says Jonathan, “and this one was gonna
be the same way I thought All Is Dream was, and the
exact same as Deserter’s Songs – I thought
they were all gonna be very quiet, acoustic, piano ballad-y,
two-in-the-morning, reflective records. All of them. I realized
as soon as I spoke to Dave Fridmann about them you could see
them flying away, and I just gave up. How did it turn out the
way it did? I don’t have the faintest idea.”
If Deserter’s Song was autumn and All Is
a Dream winter, then The Secret Migration is spring.
The album is infused with a hopeful spirit and exhilarating
sound…happy and alive. |
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