Mercury Rev Made Me Cry
I can’t remember the first time I heard a song by Mercury Rev, or how I found them. I probably saw a copy of Yerself is Steam in a record store - probably Chaos records in Stephens Point - and was drawn to the cover art. I loved it immediately. When I find new music I like, I usually listen to the same song over and over and I know I listened to Chasing a Bee and Frittering thousands of times on my hifi - my parents' receiver and record player and these huge cool speakers I got at Goodwill.
The music coming out of those speakers sounded spiritual, from another dimension. The slow fade in on Frittering was like it’s always been playing, always will play. Their music felt ancient and eternal. And playful. No one captures the dynamic between beauty and chaos, harmony and discord better than Mercury Rev. These are elemental pop songs broadcasting from deep intuition. Frittering is a masterpiece. Simple, elemental, like the sound of a mountain trying to express itself. Mercury Rev defined a foundational aesthetic for me, and how I understand and appreciate music. They are perfectly mysterious, and their music panders to no-one. It sounds exactly like it’s supposed to sound. It is raw, yet ornate. Loose and organic, but intricate and constructed. This is underground music on an almost religious canon level. They’ve been with me ever since. When I went through a classical music phase, I listened to Nocturne in C# Minor
Sometimes I'm scared to listen to songs like Frittering, they cut me so deep and make me feel so much. It's hard to do that while driving or trying to work. Like taking drugs that influence emotional volume, amplifying deep unformed instincts.
I saw them last night for the first time and cried when they played Holes.
The entire performance was magical. The energy they created and shared - I could feel decades of cities, venues, and crowds, and a lifetime of earned emotions internalized and then focused out. It sounded and felt like a band at their peak, in total command of what they wanted to say. We got to meet them at the merch table! We got a record signed and got to tell them we loved them. That’s the first time I really felt star struck. How do you express to someone that their music has been a part of you for your whole life and is rooted deep in your subconscious and has provided context for everything? It's like trying to thank God for making a mountain, or the ocean. Anyway, thank you Jonathon and Grasshopper and thank you to Marion and the rest of your beautiful band. You make existing better.
