Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Mercury Rev - Boces (1993)

Mercury Rev was formed in late 80s by several film students in Buffalo, NY. Initially, they simply composed soundtracks for experimental student films. Their academic mentor, minimalist composer Tony Conrad however, encouraged them to further their music.

1991 saw the release of their debut album, Yerself Is Steam. Their music, sprawling, noisy and psychedelic, found high critical acclaim, although the record sales were modest. The group members were fighting with one another due to substance abuse and musical differences, their live shows were also unpredictable. Thus the band's microclimate was very intense. Boces (1993) was an even more ambitious set of music than its predecessor. I once owned See You on the Other Side (1995), released after the ousting of their singer David Baker, but found it disappointing. No idea where it is at the moment...

The music here is wild, eccentric and experimental, at times moving into pure noise. Some tracks reach incredible levels of loudness (this is the band who got kicked off that oh-so-famous music tour for being too loud) with layer upon layer of instruments gradually being added. Oh yes, yet another album to crank up your system to. The lyrics are particularly strange - I suspect this album influenced my adolescent development into surreal weirdoness, and I guess that's a-okay. :-) Highly recommended dreamy psychedelic freak guitar pop!

    Tracklist
  1. Meth Of A Rockette's Kick (10:28)
  2. Trickle Down (5:03)
  3. Bronx Cheer (2:49)
  4. Boys Peel Out (4:28)
  5. Downs Are Feminine Balloons (6:29)
  6. Something For Joey (4:05)
  7. Snorry Mouth (10:54)
  8. Hi-Speed Boats (4:00)
  9. Continuous Drunks And Blunders (0:48)
  10. Girlfren (4:41)
      Total time: 53:45

      Mercury_Rev_Boces_192.rar

    posted by Paxjorge @ Wednesday, June 07, 2006

    6 Comments:

    At 6/08/2006 6:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I was lucky enough to see Mercury Rev when they opened up for Porno for Pyros on their first tour in Nashville. I had never heard of them before and was completely blown away by their show and went out and bought this album the next day. My fave song is "Something for Joey".

    Fave story about the show: it was the first time I ever "crowd surfed" at a concert. I was wearing some tie-string pants with a red paisley pattern and as I was passing over some girls, they tried pulling my pants off. in the process, I lost my car keys. However, during the intermission, some complete stranger found my keys, and had them passed through the crowd back to me. I will always remember that show.

     
    At 6/08/2006 8:06 AM, Blogger Paxjorge said...

    Cool, thanks for the anecdote! I really like Porno for Pyros, they're nasty stuff. So were they as loud as I'm supposed to believe?

     
    At 6/11/2006 12:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

    goog ol' times dude!

     
    At 6/11/2006 12:59 PM, Blogger Paxjorge said...

    Yep I remember that hilarious day! :-)))

     
    At 6/19/2006 2:52 AM, Blogger Escape Goat said...

    It wouldn't be right not to tell you I picked this one u and the Sundays. I'll probably get John Cage too.

    Thanks Man.

     
    At 7/08/2006 3:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

    You know they are cumming ON Dour-festival???

     

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