
Mercury Rev
MINT FILMS 1991
A-side: ‘Car Wash Hair’
Not for the faint-hearted. Unhinged 30-minute wig-out radiates bad vibes.
In terms of experimental and anything-goes B-sides, this is hard to top. For a group that came with a baked-in surly reputation – early gigs would often fall apart due to inter-band beefing – this half-hour of discombobulating geeky wildness toyed with emotions of their new-found fans, while pushing the unloved CD single format to its limit. If the wonderfully woozy A-Side ‘Car Wash Hair’ nodded towards Galaxie 5000 at their most relaxed (Dean Wareham helped out on the recording), this uncredited B-side was a bracing insight into the Buffalo, New York’s band’s improvisational roots and early refuelling habits, finding their sound by creating long, improbable soundtracks to nature documentaries. A bizarre aural gumbo of scathing guitar loops, low sine waves and chopped-up dialogue – apparently from an Abnormal Psychology coursework video about schizophrenia – it’s a bad acid comedown on wax, its already uneasy ambience further soured by repeated screams of “I want to be inside you”. It’s a long way from the Mercury Rev of Deserter’s Songs – the band finding an even keel after jettisoning original singer David Baker in 1993, when he allegedly attacked guitarist Grasshopper with a spoon.