Yerself Is Steam

Last updated
Yerself Is Steam
Mercury Rev-Yerself Is Steam (album cover).jpg
Studio album by
Mercury Rev
ReleasedMay 14, 1991
Recorded1990–1991
Genre
Length49:19 (UK)
57:09 (US)
Label
Producer Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev chronology
Yerself Is Steam
(1991)		 Boces
(1993)

Yerself Is Steam is the 1991 debut album by Mercury Rev. The title is a mondegreen of the phrase "Your self-esteem", and is taken from a recurring lyric in the opening "Chasing a Bee". "Car Wash Hair" was released as a single to follow the album. "Very Sleepy Rivers" is supposedly about a serial killer, with the river acting as a metaphor for the killer's relative calm and sudden tendency to snap.

Contents

A music video for the song "Chasing a Bee" was shot at an abandoned infectious disease hospital that once housed "Typhoid Mary" on North Brother Island in New York City, and was directed by Jim Spring and Jens Jurgensen.

Dean Wareham made a guest appearance on "Car Wash Hair" and helped with recording, supposedly after Fridmann spent the band's advance on a holiday package.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [6]
Chicago Tribune Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [7]
NME 8/10 [8]
Pitchfork 9.3/10 [9]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Select 5/5 [12]
Sounds Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [13]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [14]

Rolling Stone labeled the album "slacker beat at its most extreme and hypnotic, a marvel of tortured self-absorption and compelling dissonance". [15]

In 2016, Pitchfork ranked Yerself Is Steam at number 16 on its list of "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time", with staff writer Stuart Berman commenting that "Yerself Is Steam is really a shoegaze album in the inverse: Where their fuzz-pedaling peers obliterated the human presence in rock music through a cloud of distortion, Mercury Rev foregrounded the claustrophobic, panicky unease of being trapped inside it." [5]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Mercury Rev (credited to David Baker, Jonathan Donahue, Sean Mackowiak & Suzanne Thorpe in the ASCAP Repertory [16] ).

No.TitleLength in artwork (*)Length
1."Chasing a Bee"4:277:11
2."Syringe Mouth"3:274:04
3."Coney Island Cyclone"3:272:37
4."Blue and Black"4:276:00
5."Sweet Oddysee of a Cancer Cell t' th' Center of Yer Heart"5:277:41
6."Frittering"4:278:48
7."Continuous Trucks and Thunder Under a Mother's Smile""2:270:43
8."Very Sleepy Rivers"12:2712:15
**13:15
9."Car Wash Hair (The Bee's Chasing Me)" (hidden track**) 6:44

Formatting notes

Lego My Ego

In 1992, Mint Films/Jungle re-released Yerself is Steam with a bonus LP/CD entitled Lego My Ego. The title is a parody of the Eggo waffles ad slogan, and is taken from a piece of voice tape at the start of "Frittering," where one musician tells another to "let go of my fucking ego" after they tell him how to play a song. It consists of rare tracks and a Peel Session. Mint Films released another edition in 2007 consisting of both CDs plus an all-region DVD of the videos for "Chasing a Bee" and "Car Wash Hair."

CD version

All tracks are written by Mercury Rev, except "If You Want Me to Say" by Sly Stone and "Shhh/Peaceful" by Miles Davis. "Blood on the Moon" has no writer's credit, but is presumably also written by Grasshopper.

No.TitleSourceLength
1."If You Want Me to Stay"A-side single, March 19924:08
2."Shhh/Peaceful" / "Very Sleepy Rivers"BBC live, June 199214:52
3."Frittering"BBC Peel session, 27 Aug 19915:18
4."Coney Island Cyclone"BBC Peel session, 27 Aug 19913:20
5."Car Wash Hair"A-side single, 19917:25
6."Syringe Mouth"BBC Peel session, 27 Aug 19913:11
7."Blood on the Moon"1990 motion picture Moonbuggy8:21
8."Chasing a Bee (Inside a Car)"BBC Peel session, 27 Aug 199110:09
Notes

LP version

Due to time constraints, the LP version eliminates the two previously released singles ("If You Want Me to Stay" and "Car Wash Hair"), and sequences all of the BBC Session tracks together on Side B.

Side A
  1. "Shhh/Peaceful" / "Very Sleepy Rivers" – 14:52
  2. "Blood on the Moon" – 8:21
Side B
  1. "Frittering" – 5:18
  2. "Coney Island Cyclone" – 3:20
  3. "Syringe Mouth" – 3:11
  4. "Chasing a Bee (Inside a Car)" – 10:09

Radio Whipped promo edition

Sony/Columbia released a promo double-CD version of the album in 1992. The first disc is the U.S. version of the album. The second disc is the U.S. "Chasing a Bee" CD single. A "Radio Whipped Sticker" on the back of the CD jewelbox numbers the nine tracks on the album as A, B, C, D, E, F, U, C, K, and the six tracks of the single as:

A. "Chasing a Bee" – 7:09
B. "If You Want Me to Stay" – 3:37
S. "Coney Island Cyclone" – 2:40
U. "Frittering" – 4:26
R. "Syringe Mouth" – 3:09
D. "Chasing a Girl (Inside a Car)" – 6:56

S, U, R, and D are the Peel Session recordings, and are actually one continuous track for 17:53. The run times for B, S, U and D are shorter than on Lego My Ego because they don't contain the unusual tape material that was added to these songs on it.

Personnel

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercury Rev</span> American indie rock band

Mercury Rev is an American rock band formed in 1989 in Buffalo, New York, with singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue and guitarist/clarinetist/sound generator operator Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak as the only constant members. The band's music has incorporated indie rock, psychedelic rock and American roots, amongst other forms. Mercury Rev have been closely associated with The Flaming Lips, and the two bands have shared historical ties.

<i>Hit to Death in the Future Head</i> 1992 studio album by The Flaming Lips

Hit to Death in the Future Head is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Flaming Lips, released on August 11, 1992, by Warner Bros. Records. "Talkin' 'Bout the Smiling Deathporn Immortality Blues " was released as the lead track on the EP Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin' Pigs Is Still Radical to promote the album. The title provided the inspiration for the name of the British band the Futureheads.

<i>Deserters Songs</i> 1998 studio album by Mercury Rev

Deserter's Songs is the fourth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev, released in late September 1998. British music magazine NME named Deserter's Songs album of the year for 1998. Limited edition copies of the album came in a brown cardboard envelope-like package, with a stamp on the cover postmarked with the release date, as well as two art postcards.

<i>All Is Dream</i> 2001 studio album by Mercury Rev

All Is Dream is the fifth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev. It was released in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2001, in France on August 28, 2001, and in the United States on September 11, 2001. The album's front cover features half of the 1991 painting Breakthrough Dreaming by artist and mystic Jennifer Hathaway.

<i>The Secret Migration</i> 2005 studio album by Mercury Rev

The Secret Migration is the sixth album by the alternative rock band Mercury Rev, released on January 24, 2005 in the UK. A limited edition of the American release of the album featured special packaging and included a bonus disc featuring b-sides, rarities, and live tracks.

<i>Going Blank Again</i> 1992 studio album by Ride

Going Blank Again is the second studio album by English rock band Ride, released on 9 March 1992 on Creation Records. It was produced by Alan Moulder, and peaked at No. 5 in the UK Albums Chart. In October 2009 the album was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of over 100,000 units.

Jungle Records is a British independent record label formed in 1982, specialising in punk rock, post punk, gothic and alternative releases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hopewell (band)</span> American rock band

Hopewell is an American rock band. The band was founded by Jason Sebastian Russo, of Hopewell Junction, New York. At 19, Russo joined Mercury Rev, and then struck out on his own with a band named after his hometown.

<i>20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986–2006</i> 2006 compilation album by The Flaming Lips

20 Years of Weird: Flaming Lips 1986–2006 is an updated version of the free compilation CD given away at the SXSW Film premier of The Flaming Lips documentary "The Fearless Freaks", a film by Bradley Beesley. It is a predominantly live compilation, recorded throughout the career of the Flaming Lips, though the first three tracks are recorded in the studio. These are: the introduction by Wayne Coyne, "Free Radicals" from the current album At War with the Mystics and "Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear", a previously unavailable track.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dean Wareham</span> American musician and actor (born 1963)

Dean Wareham is an American musician and actor who co-founded the band Galaxie 500 in 1987. He departed from Galaxie 500 in April 1991 and went on to establish the band Luna. Following Luna's dissolution in 2005, Wareham has collaborated on albums with fellow Luna band member Britta Phillips, forming the duo known as Dean & Britta. They have also ventured into film composition, notably contributing to the soundtracks of Noah Baumbach's films The Squid and the Whale (2005) and Mistress America. In 2014, Wareham released a self-titled album and in 2015, he reformed Luna.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Donahue</span> American musician

Jonathan Daniel Donahue is an American rock musician. He is best known as the frontman and a founding member of Mercury Rev, with whom he has released nine studio albums since 1991. He is also a former member of The Flaming Lips and recorded two albums with the group in the early 1990s.

<i>The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991–2006</i> 2006 compilation album by Mercury Rev

The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991–2006 is a double disc compilation album by the band Mercury Rev. Disc one compiles tracks from their first six studio albums, while disc two consists of covers, B-sides, and previously unreleased tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grasshopper (musician)</span> Musical artist

Grasshopper is an American musician with the band Mercury Rev. He has also appeared with Rev side-project Harmony Rockets, his own band Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets, and as a guest musician on numerous other recordings.

David Baker is an American musician best known as a founding member and the former lead singer of the indie rock band Mercury Rev, formed in Buffalo, New York in the late 1980s, and after as vocalist for Variety Lights.

"Goddess on a Hiway" is the first single from Mercury Rev's fourth studio album, Deserter's Songs. The single was first released on November 2, 1998, and then re-issued on August 16, 1999. Two music videos were produced for the song, one directed by Anton Corbijn, the other directed by James & Alex. B-sides include a cover of "I Only Have Eyes for You" featuring musician Sean O'Hagan.

"Holes" is the fourth single from Mercury Rev's fourth studio album, Deserter's Songs. The single was released in Australia only as a limited edition tour EP on July 7, 1999, although promotional CD singles were distributed to UK radio stations in 2006. The tour single included a live cover of "Caroline Says Pt. II" and featured Robert Creeley reading his poem "I Dreamt" over a Mercury Rev soundtrack.

<i>Snowflake Midnight</i> 2008 studio album by Mercury Rev

Snowflake Midnight is the seventh studio album from Mercury Rev. It was released on September 29, 2008 in the UK, and September 30 in the US.

Bill Whitten is an American musician and writer. He was the founding member, principal songwriter and singer/guitarist for St. Johnny He was also the singer/songwriter/guitarist for Grand Mal.

<i>The Light in You</i> 2015 studio album by Mercury Rev

The Light in You is the eighth studio album by American rock band Mercury Rev, released on September 18, 2015, by Bella Union. The Light in You is the band's first entirely self-produced and recorded album, as well as the first not to be produced by longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann.

<i>As the Love Continues</i> 2021 studio album by Mogwai

As the Love Continues is the tenth studio album by Scottish post-rock band Mogwai, released on 19 February 2021 on Rock Action Records in the UK and Europe, and on Temporary Residence Limited in the US. Its UK release date marked the 25th anniversary of Mogwai's first single, "Tuner/Lower". It was preceded by the single "Dry Fantasy", and the streaming of a live concert of the album played in full.

References

  1. ↑ Terich, Jeff (July 2, 2015). "10 Essential Neo-Psychedelia Albums". Treble. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  2. ↑ Shipley, Al (September 23, 2021). "30 Overlooked 1991 Albums Turning 30 This Year". Spin . Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  3. ↑ Phares, Heather. "Mercury Rev Biography, Songs, & Albums". AllMusic . Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Kot, Greg (2004). "Mercury Rev". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p.  538. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8 . Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  5. 1 2 "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time". Pitchfork . October 24, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  6. ↑ Ankeny, Jason. "Yerself Is Steam – Mercury Rev". AllMusic . Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ Kot, Greg (February 4, 1993). "Medicine: Shot Forth Self Living (Def American) / Mercury Rev: Yerself is Steam (Columbia) / Lotion: Head/She is Weird City/Peachtree (KokoPop single)". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  8. ↑ Williams, Simon (March 9, 1991). "Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam". NME . p. 30.
  9. ↑ Berman, Stuart (February 11, 2024). "Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam Album Review". Pitchfork . Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  10. ↑ Mongredien, Phil (October 2007). "Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam / Lego My Ego". Q . No. 255.
  11. ↑ Mackay, Emily (October 2007). "Yerself Is Steam/Lego My Ego | Mercury Rev". Record Collector . No. 341. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
  12. ↑ Linehan, Graham (August 1991). "Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam". Select . No. 14. p. 56.
  13. ↑ Robert, James (February 16, 1991). "Rev It Up". Sounds . p. 41.
  14. ↑ "Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam". Uncut . No. 125. October 2007. p. 99.
  15. ↑ Fricke, David (Dec 10, 1992). "On the Edge". Rolling Stone. No. 645/646. p. 177.
  16. ↑ "ACE Repertory". ASCAP. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  17. ↑ "A Feature About Nothing: The 1990s in Lists". Pitchfork . September 7, 2010. p. 2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.