MERCURY RISING by Our Rocktalk writer
There's and old proverb which states that "for every hurdle you surpass the greater life's rewards become"> In that case it is little wonder that Mercury Rev eventually wound up making a record as timelessly perfect as Deserter's Songs.
This is a band who have overcome enough trauama and internal conflict to make Bill Clinton's neverending troubles look like a walk in the park.
There's been nervous breakdowns, splits, fights, and mental torture, just to start on the list. LIttle wonder that one member, Grasshopper, sought blessed relief in the calm of an upstate New York monastery for a few months.
It's been a long harrowing trip since they made their debut in 1991 with the avant-grunge of Yerself Is Steam, but with Deserter's Songs they have gained their reward for managing to endure the strife and emerge on the other side.
"We have done some masterpieces in the past, but for each one of them we've an amazzing failure," the band's singer and chief songwriter Jonathan Donahue told Rocktalk. "In fact there's way more failures than there is masterpieces, but at least we admit that. The failures tend to teach you more anyway, you learn from your mistakes."
They were always the best kind, though, caused by overstretching for greatness or experimenting just too far, rather than being blinkered in their musical approach.
You may also forgive them for losing some of their perspective when things all around them were constantly falling to pieces. Always a fraught set-up, the band all but disintegrated at several stages around the time of their second album Boces in 1994, and singer David Baker eventually was forced to depart for the sake of everyone's sanity.
Now the band are far more settled, and contrary to the romantic notion of the artist creating genius through suffering, Jonathan says it is exactly the opposite.
"Things within the band now are as close as they;ve ever been to the mood around the time we were starting out and making Yerself Is Steam," he said. "The whole process then is was a lot of fun and very exciting and this is easily as close as we've been in eight or nine years. Now we're actually enjoying each other's company."
"A Lot of people have that misconception that going through bad depressions or similar experiences automatically results in some masterful work. Life doesn't work like that. When you're stuck in those low points you are just trying to get through them and get through life. You're not thinking about music at all."
Here's hoping they stay healthy if they keep making records like Deserter's Songs. It is the one record made this year that can comfortably stand alongside the greats of the past. Filled with tremendous songs, it is shot through with the same timeless quality that has been captured in the past on everything from Forever Changes to the Stone Roses. It also has direct links to the past with the prescence of the Band's Garth Hudson and Levon Helm who lend it a touch of patented old Americana. That is one of the facets of the record that has been seized upon, but Jonathan insists it is only a small part of Deserter's Songs.
"It has been a misconception of this record that it's trying to dig out that traditional old American sound. More than anything I think it reflects America as being made up of all these other cultures. There are some old Americana influences working their way through, but it isn't just about that, there's lots of European influenecs and stuff from around the world. You know there's classical influences in there, Christmas Carols, everything. I think we've just picked up stuff up that our moms would play on the radio when we were children."
It is a chain which will be now continued, with everyone from 60's veterans to clubbers playing out Deserter's Songs. The latter will be further drawn in by the release in January of the Chemical Brothers' remix of the album's closing track, Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp.
On the face of it, it is a strange collision, but they' collaborated in the past with excellent results, Jonathan playing on the Chemicals' epic Private Psychedelic Reel, and the return of the favour reaps similar dividends.
"I'm not a big fan of remixes at all," revealed Jonathan. "Sometimes they work but I think in the past they've been used to sell records that have done poorly in the first place, so basically the Chemical Brothers were the only ones we trusted to do it for us. They were the only choice."
And so one year closes with triumph for Mercury Rev, and they are already setting rockets on the launchpad for 99.
One of the early highlights, thankfully, should be their first show in Scotland in too long, when they play Glasgow's G2 on January 14. More than any other show we can think of, we would seriously recommend your attendance.
Reproduced from the Dundee Courier and Advertiser , December 1998.