Mercury Rev on MBE

New York trio Mercury Rev returned to MBE with a new batch of songs from their album “Snowflake Midnight.” As the set geared up, a few words were thrown around in the studio – cinematic, magical, art rock …even a comparison to early Genesis. I first got turned onto this band thanks to the soundtrack to the movie "Laurel Canyon" and their tune “In a Funny Way.” It’s one of those songs I’ve literally listened to over and over.

Jason delved into a bit of their history and I learned some fun facts. Mercury Rev singer Jonathan tells Jason they began playing along to nature shows on TV and made, what I believe to be, the first “platypus” reference during an MBE interview. He explains that the band has never been geared to the verse chorus verse, “let’s make sure this sticks in someone’s head” type of songwriting and that for this current album, many of the songs started as 40-minute long pieces. When the band gets in the studio, he says, their job is more to erase a record rather than record one. It was an intriguing interview and a solid set of music.

Check it all out here

RR