MERCURY REV - BMHOF CLASS OF 2023

This indie-rock band, formed in Buffalo, gained wide critical and commercial acclaim withmajor-label and movie-soundtrack releases in a unique combination of styles from Psychedelic to Americana. 

In the Buffalo News, music critic Jeff Miers called them “the greatest indie band to come out of Buffalo,” with a progressive take on art-rock traditions. 

Mercury Rev was started in 1989 by a group of University at Buffalo students, who were inspired by drone-music pioneer Tony Conrad, at that time a UB professor. The initial lineup consisted of singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue, guitarist/clarinetist/sound generator Sean “Grasshopper” Mackowiak, singer David Baker, bassist/producer Dave Fridmann, Suzanne Thorpe on flute and French horn, and drummer Jimy Chambers. The band was originally formed to create soundtracks for its members’ student films. 

In these early stages, Donahue was also a concert promoter, and became a guitar technician with the psychedelic band Flaming Lips, before he joined them as a full-time member in 1990. Dave Fridmann also became the Lips’ long-time co-producer. 

In 1991 Mercury Rev released their debut album, Yerself is Steam, and Donahue left the Flaming Lips to return to Buffalo and concentrate fully on his own group. However, Fridmann maintained his Flaming Lips duties, and bassist John DeVries and Gerald Menke often replaced him at live shows. The band appeared on the 1993 Lollapalooza tour and recorded a second album, Boces, after which David Baker departed.

After further changes in personnel and musical styles, Mercury Rev relocated to Donahue’s birthplace of Kingston, New York, where they worked with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of The Band and shifted their focus closer to roots and acoustic music. 1998’s album Deserter’s Songs was named the New Music Express Album of the Year, and the band gained popularity as art-rock icons in Europe while maintaining cult status in the United States. 

The band has continued to record and tour in the new century, with core members Donahue and Mackowiak. The 2021 Mercury Rev touring band also featured bass player Chris Heitzman, drummer Don McCreevy and keyboard player Marion Genser. Their song "Holes" was featured in the movie Sing 2.