Grasshopper (musician) - Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev

Mercury Rev properly began in 1989, with Grasshopper moving to electric guitar and the band playing along to footage of TV wildlife documentaries. The band's first two albums, Yerself Is Steam (1991) and Boces (1993) were intricate yet deafening soundscapes dominated by the feedback-strewn, heavily effects-processed guitars of Grasshopper and Donahue. The spirit of experimentation was manifested by the band's use of the Tettix Wave Accumulator, a home made tone generator of Grasshopper's invention. Boces, remembered by the band as a particularly troubled record, was recorded under the influence of the drug rohypnol. When asked by Melody Maker in 1993 what he liked most about the album, Grasshopper replied: "that it's done."

Chaos also manifested itself outside the studio: a legendary, oft-repeated story holds that either Donahue or singer David Baker tried to gouge the guitarist's eye out with a spoon. The band's first UK interview, with the now-defunct Melody Maker in 1991, contained this memorable exchange, reported by Chris Roberts:

I ask Grasshopper's mother, who must be about 50-odd, if she enjoyed the show. "Oh yes," she beams, "it induced orgasm." I'm sorry? "It induced orgasm." After 36 hours in the vicinity of Mercury Rev, nothing on earth should throw me. This does. "Can I take your photograph?" she asks. I run away and tell Grasshopper that his band has just sexually aroused his mother. "Uh-huh," he says, like I've just asked him if he wants a beer. "She's kinda cool. And she smokes a lotta dope."

The year 1995, however, saw the departure of Rev singer Baker and a radical change in direction for the band, which drew on Broadway, jazz and doo-wop influences helped along by Grasshopper's clarinet. The album See You on the Other Side, and resulting tour, saw the band virtually ignored.

With Mercury Rev in disintegration and Donahue suffering a breakdown, Grasshopper retreated to a Jesuit Retreat House monastery in Spain. "I was there for six months. Then I left. I mean, you get up at six AM, you make your bed...it was the complete opposite of everything I had been doing for the past six years," he recalled in 1998. Ten years later, he remembered being "pretty scrambled up inside and it just helped me to reflect and to bring some brakes on certain things in my life that were spinning out of control... For anybody who wants to go there, it's highly recommended. Just step out of reality for a second, empty yourself out, all the baggage."

Between Rev records, he also issued a solo record under the moniker Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets on the Beggars Banquet label. Orbit of Eternal Grace featured several Rev members, home-made electronic instruments and "N.Y. Avenue Playground", effectively a draft of "The Hudson Line", which would appear on the next Mercury Rev album. Around this time, he effected a radical change in appearance by cutting his bottle blond hair into a style which has remained constant since.

Grasshopper was also active in Harmony Rockets, a sprawling Mercury Rev side-project responsible for Willy Wonka theme covers and Paralyzed Mind of the Archangel Void, a full-length LP which contrasted ambient drones alongside full-on noise. "...Paralyzed Mind is nocturnal trance music that never gets monotonous, a stunning feat for a piece this long....In 2015 we'll be talking about this mercurial, revolutionary CD in the awed tones reserved for The Velvet Underground & Nico, Revolver, A Love Supreme, or Bitches Brew," claimed Alternative Press in 1996.

Reconvening and moving to the Catskill Mountains in these in-between years, the band attempted to record what they deemed likely to be their last chance. The resultant record, Deserter's Songs (1998), was a critical and commercial triumph, leading to an extensive and lengthy tour. With each of the band members in emotionally difficult waters, Grasshopper's contribution on the record drew from the heartfelt death of his uncle. His guitar style, particularly onstage, had evolved from the squalls of the early '90s and was now strongly influenced by the pentatonic blues, albeit retaining an avant-garde edge.

In 2001, Grasshopper was injured in a mugging attack which affected the recording of that year's All Is Dream album:

I was at the Jazz Festival in New Orleans, in this bar watching a Cuban band, with a friend of mine. We were the last ones there. We walked out and we just went around the wrong corner. It happened really fast. There were two guys. They had a gun on my friend and they cut me, and took our wallets. I was bleeding pretty badly. When I went to the hospital, the doctor said, "I don't think this is very good; three of your fingers might be paralyzed."

Making a full recovery, the guitar solo on the track 'Little Rhymes' was played with his arm in a sling. 2005's The Secret Migration was performed under less dramatic circumstances. Preparations for 2008's Snowflake Midnight album included a period of withdrawal from the guitar, as the band explored new directions with the introduction of software-based instrumentation.

Aside from music, Mackowiak's interests include film and modern literature, particularly of the Beat Generation, The Situationists, Minimalism, Fluxus, and Dada. He lives in Kingston, New York.