Mercury Rev - New Albums, New Tour Dates

On Monday, September 29th, Mercury Rev release their new album, Snowflake Midnight, which is accompanied by a second album, downloadable for free, entitled Strange Attractor. We are being treated to a double burst of the Rev's unique brilliance, subtlety and beauty, on the same day, at the same time, in the same dimension of this ever etheral existence of ours.

For full details of the albums, go to either http://www.mercuryrev.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/mercuryrevmusic, where all the details reside, including information about track titles and how to obtain the Strange Attractor download.

Ah, the hell with it, here are the track titles for your viewing pleasure:

Snowflake Midnight

"Snowflake in a Hot World"
"Butterfly's Wings"
"Senses on Fire"
"People are So Unpredictable (There's No Bliss like Home)"
"October Sunshine"
"Runaway Raindrop"
"Dream of a Young Girl as a Flower"
"Faraway for Cars"
"A Squirrel and I (Holding On...and Then Letting Go)"

Strange Attractor

"Love Is Pure"
"Taken Up into Clouds, Changed and Rained Down"
"Pure Joie de la Solitude"
"Persistence and the Apis Mellifera"
"Fable of a Silver Moon"
"Loop Lisse, Loop"
"In My Heart, a Strange Attractor"
"Incident on Abeel Street"
"Af Den Fader Kommer Den Sol"
"Because Because Because"
"Nocturne for Norwood"

What has also been announced, and is just as exciting as two new albums, are Mercury Rev's tour plans, which include twenty-nine concerts, eleven of which are in the UK, one in America, and seventeen in the EU and Switzerland.

Three nights in Northern England are the personal highlight for me, and I will be attending the shows at Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham, bringing to nine, the number of times I will have seen The Rev, with only The Doors at ten surpassing them in terms of my gig attendance. I suspect it is merely a matter of time before The Rev surpass even the mighty mighty Doors in my affections, having been The Doors of my generation, with the same originality, talent, beauty, terrors, and eerie otherworldliness that Jim Morrison and co. brought to the world 43 years ago.

It is so rare to see and hear such great talent, and I have been lucky enough to have met most of the these two sets of musicians who possess it. Thank God one set is still completely alive, active and creating new music and religious and spiritual experiences for those with the minds open enough to get it. Jonathon Donahue, you have been well missed here, as have your compadres of The Rev. Welcome back, my home is your home, always.

The Rev's 2008 Tour Schedule

7 Aug 2008: 22:00: For Noise Festival: Lausanne Pully, Switzerland

9 Aug 2008: 20:00: Beatday 08: Copenhagen, Denmark

12 Aug 2008: 20:00: Kilkenny Arts Festival: Kilkenny, Ireland

14 Aug 2008: 20:00: Pukkelpop 2008: Kempische Steenweg in Kiewit-Hasselt, Belgium

29 Aug 2008: 20:00: Hydro Connect Festival: Inverary Argyll, Scotland

13 Sep 2008: 20:00: End Of The Road Festival: North Dorset, UK

21 Sep 2008: 20:00: ATP New York 2008: Monticello, New York, USA

31 Oct 2008: 20:00: Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland

1 Nov 2008: 20:00: Roisin Dubh, Galway, Ireland
2 Nov 2008: 20:00: Vicar St., Dublin, Ireland

4 Nov 2008: 20:00: Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK
5 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Manchester, UK
6 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Leeds, UK
7 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Birmingham, UK
9 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Newcastle, UK
11 Nov 2008: 20:00: Corn Exchange, Brighton, UK
12 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Bristol, UK
13 Nov 2008: 20:00: Shepherds Bush Empire, London, UK
14 Nov 2008: 20:00: Academy, Oxford, UK

16 Nov 2008: 20:00: Den Atelier, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

17 Nov 2008: 20:00: Luxor, Koln, Germany
21 Nov 2008: 20:00: Lido, Berlin, Germany

22 Nov 2008: 20:00: Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands

24 Nov 2008: 20:00: Ancienne Belgique, Brussels, Belgium

25 Nov 2008: 20:00: Elysee Montmartre, Paris, France
26 Nov 2008: 20:00: La Vapeur, Dijon, France

27 Nov 2008: 20:00: Bikini, Barcelona, Spain
28 Nov 2008: 20:00: Joy, Madrid, Spain

29 Nov 2008: 20:00: Aula Magna, Lisbon, Portugal

Tuesday 20th May 2008 - MGMT

Well, much overdue as usual, is my write-up of my attendance at the relatively recent MGMT gig at Manchester Academy 2.

I'm frankly running out of superlatives to describe the music I watch and listen to. I have good taste, I know that. My gig sheet reads like a who's-who of left-field indie nobility. From MGMT to Mercury Rev, from The Doors to Neil Young, from The Arcade Fire to The Shins.

MGMT quite easily have hussled their way into the bracket of great indie outfits. They have the 3 minute usual songs, joyous, explosive, tintillating even, with guitar riffs to make the ears buckle under the pressure of them. But MGMT also have those odd amazing 14-minute rambling spectacular rock odyssey to rely on, so when you think you have them figured out, you don't. They just delight in messing with your head a little.

I guess that's my problem. Music is the primary device via which I allow the world to mess with my head. And last Tuesday, with nothing else outside of music having messed with my head for a long time, I felt almost bored by the pleasure, having felt it all too often, all too often, all too fucking often. There I was, living in this perfect little indie bubble, with my gloriously original music to listen to, my gloriously original TV to watch on my PC, my gloriously original movies to watch, again on the PC and my glorious supportive friends to rely on to be around and experience some little elements of my little world. And I was pretty fucking frustrated, despite everything appearing peachy.

Then a wonderful thing happened to me shortly afterward. When life is going so well that you're bored, you'd better prey somebody rattles your bird cage for you, because if they don't, you will. And if you're anything like me, you'll rattle it so hard, that the door will flip open and the budgie that is your sanity will go flying away, and you'll really fuck your life up. Strained metaphor admittedly, but I think you get what I mean.

Anyway, as a result of the fucked up apple cart/bird cage/end of tranquility, I'm beginning to feel less frustrated, less hemmed in by the happiness. I have a little desire again, to get a fucking move on, to stop arsing around, sniffing the flowers, exclaming the joy of my so-called existence, celebrating the fact that those holding the levers of power are dropping their precious gifts my way, to start actually enjoying great things, like MGMT, like Daniel Johnston to come in July, Neil Young, fuck me The Sugars, Jenny Owen Youngs, The Shins, The Doors, and all the rest of the psychadelic fruitloop musicians I love and adore.

Try canning this experience and you'll only fuck it up. If I'd known this previously, I'd have fucked around with my life way sooner.

Apologies if you're a first time reader, you don't know me, and you don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Any intelligent person only needs his cage rattling once. Rattle it twice and fuck knows what mess will come flying out...lol

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, free at last. Martin was right.