Mercury Rev : Photo: Tore Sætre / Wikimedia through Creative Commons License
It's 1995 and a rock group from Buffalo, New York, release their third album 'See You On The Other Side'. Mercury Rev were enjoying life as an underground group after the releases of their first two albums. They were signed to Beggars Banquet, who were responsible for Gary Numan and the Cult, and their release that year got good reviews. The only thing that was missing was their lead singer. Dave Baker had left the group before they started recording the album. While the group managed to stay on, it was after the release and touring that things were starting to look bleak.
Mercury Rev left their label, some members left the band, they agreed to part ways with their manager and the remaining members fell into depression. Now lead singer, Jonathan Donahue, had a fall out with his wife leading them to split up and Sean 'Grasshopper' Mackowiack spent a few months doing missionary work in order to find another hobby. 1996 came around and it seemed like Mercury Rev was over...
...And then the Chemical Brothers arrived.
The Chemical Brothers consisted of two men, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands.Around the time Jonathan was at his lowest point, the brothers were at the peak of their success. 'Dig Your Own Hole' was about to be completed and they deejayed around the world with two number one singles in their hands. One featuring Oasis guitar maestro, Noel Gallagher, in the song 'Setting Sun'. Before they packed up, they decided to feature one more artist to the album. The brothers phone up Jonathan, they were fans of Mercury Rev's earlier work, especially with their first album 'Yerself Is Steam' and wanted him to either sing vocals or play an instrument on the album. Jonathan quickly agreed. This was unexpected for him but he felt overjoyed to know that someone out their loved his music and wanted him to be part of their project no matter big or small.
The song the Chemical Brothers and Donahue wrote was called 'The Private Psychedelic Reel', a 9 minute track at the end of 'Dig Your Own Hole' with the clarinet being played by Donahue. The album would release and gained positive views around the world, many praising the musical direction and the artists that took part. The acclaim from the press gave Jonathan Donahue hope to make one more album as Mercury Rev. He phoned up Grasshopper and convinced him to try one last time to make an album come Hell or high water. Grasshopper agreed.
1997 was a quiet yet productive year for Mercury Rev. New members joined in and the duo had now become a sextet. Their producer, David Friedmann, came back to help with the album; he had produced their first three albums and was willing to get the album finished. Jonathan came up with an idea. Instead of laying guitars over guitars to make a slow psychedelic and distorted sound, he convinced the band and producer to bring in a more magical sound with an orchestra full of strings, violins and woodwind flutes.
Mercury Rev decided that this album's main theme would be 'letting things go and saying goodbye to start a new life'. This theme can be heard in the last track on the album 'Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp' with the last lyrics on the album, "Waving Goodbye / I'm not saying Hello". Before the album would be finished, V2 records (Virgin's alternative music label at the time) signed the group after the Chemical Brothers recommended the band to them. After this, V2 cautiously gave Friedmann and the band money to help them buy new equipment to finish the album, finalise the artwork and make a music video to go along with it. The album was finished and a name was given, 'Deserter's Songs'. It took many months to complete the project in the Summer of 1998.
Interesting to note, the album was recorded at the same time with the Flaming Lips; a group that Jonathan Donahue was part of until he left in 1992 due to creative differences. The Flaming Lips were also in the same boat as Mercury Rev and were also making their 9th album named 'The Soft Bulletin'. As Mercury were done with the studio, the Lips would take their place and switch around vice versa. It was a coincidence that would benefit both bands.
September 1998. 'Deserter's Songs' was ready for release. The Group were taking a break before getting ready would perform in Texas later that month. But while they relaxed, Grasshopper called Donahue on his phone. It turned out that while he was shopping in a British Supermarket, he heard heard 'Goddess On a Highway' on the speakers. Grasshopper cried with tears of joy. The band had no idea what was going on. It was revealed that Jonathan's friends, the Chemical Brothers, had an early copy of the album from V2 and they started telling music journalists and magazines that 'Deserter's Songs' was a modern masterpiece. This took Mercury Rev a surprise. months ago, the band were uncertain about their future and were ready to leave the music industry. 'Deserter's Song's gained critical acclaim that got glowing reviews from the press and the fans.
Now, they were the new musical superstars. Mercury Rev found themselves on the shelves of supermarkets and music stores along with Britney Spears, Boyzone, N-Sync, Celine Dion and many more. 'Goddess...' entered the UK Singles Charts at #51 and the album entered the album charts at #56. More people started buying the album and it climbed up the charts at #27 in 1999. Mercury Rev had finally found themselves and were amazed how they managed to get there. The next two singles from the album, 'Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp' and 'Opus 40' both made the UK top 40, the latter being one of their most popular songs with it's nostalgic yet futuristic music video directed by Anton Corbijn. 'Goddess On A Highway' was re-released by popular demand and reached #26 in the UK.
While 1995 to 1998 were years on uncertainty for the band, Donahue and the gang were relieved to be back on the minds of the music press and enjoyed every single moment. All thanks to two DJs from the UK giving Jonathan a chance to enjoy making music again. "It had the feeling of rebirth" Donahue remembers, "of going down to the grave for quite a while and lying down there in the darkness and the quiet, and then someone pulls you up and shakes the dirt off you and says 'no, you thought you were dead, but you're not.'"
As the millennium arrived, Mercury Rev stuck around, even to this day. In 2001, they followed up their last album with 'All Is Dream'. It became their highest charted album in the UK at #11 and also gained them their highest charting single. The song was called 'The Dark Is Rising' and reached as high as #16 in the British hit-parade. Six albums later, the group is still alive. Their last album, an re-imagining of Bobbie Gentry's 'The Delta Sweetie' was a collaboration with many female singers such as Norah Jones, Hope Sandoval, Phoebe Bridgers and many more.
Mercury Rev would not be here if they did not take a chance and try one last time to make an album in 1998. But they did. And it worked out well. Who knew that 'trying' could get them somewhere?
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