Alternative
Beggars Banquet · 13 November 2026
On 13 November Beggars Banquet put out a remastered reissue of “Boces”, Mercury Rev’s second album, on LP and CD. According to the label, it’s only available in Europe because of rights restrictions. The edition, catalogue number BBQ2727, reproduces the ten 1993 tracks, from the ten-minute-plus “Meth Of A Rockette’s Kick” to “Girlfren”; the label hasn’t announced any bonus material. The back of the vinyl notes that the original master was recorded on 35mm magnetic film.
The original came out in 1993 on Beggars Banquet in the UK and on Columbia in the US, and it was the band’s first record made with a major-label budget. The line-up was David Baker, Jonathan Donahue, Grasshopper, Suzanne Thorpe, Dave Fridmann and Jimy Chambers, and it was the last with Baker. After he left, the label notes, the band set aside some of the experimentation on the way to 1998’s “Deserter’s Songs”.
Mercury Rev formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1989. Their most recent album is “Born Horses”, released by Bella Union on 6 September 2024.
Text by Marçal Bonastre