Have you heard the one about the group of indie veterans from Buffalo, New York, and the nowreclusive 1960s singersongwriter who knocked Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band off the top of the Billboard Chart before her second album was wholly overlooked by the critics?
It’s a highly unlikely tale, but bear with me. Mercury Rev, led by the wonderful, sprite-like Jonathan Donahue, and Sean ‘Grasshopper’ Mackowiak, have been conjurers of dream-like psychedelic indie lullabies for 30 years, sailing under the mainstream radar for the best part of a decade before the sublime Deserter’s Songs, many record collectors’ album of the year in 1998, brought them wider popular acclaim.