Grasshopper (musician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mercury Rev | |
|---|---|
| Origin |  Catskill Mountains, New York |
| Genre(s) | Neo-Psychedelia Dream pop Noise pop Space Rock Experimental Rock Chamber pop Indie Rock |
| Years active | 1984–present |
| Website | http://www.mercuryrev.com/ |
| Members | |
| Jonathan Donahue Grasshopper Jeff Mercel Carlos Anthony Molina Dave Fridmann |
|
| Former members | |
| David Baker Suzanne Thorpe Jimy Chambers |
|
Grasshopper (born Sean Thomas Mackowiak) is an American musician with the band Mercury Rev. He has also appeared with Harmony Rockets, his own band Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets, and as a guest musician on numerous other recordings.
Contents |
[edit] Early Years
Mackowiak's early years have been coloured by a 1998 interview given to music publication NME, which claimed that he met Rev guitarist Jonathan Donahue in a reform camp for juvenile delinquents at the age of ten.[1]
In the early 80's, Mackowiak was a part time member of The People's Front, which played concerts in Fredonia and Buffalo, NY. There was a film made of the band but has since gone missing. The film showed the band in concert and in a mock documentary with the storyline predicting great success not in The US, but "across the pond" in England. The film ends with a crash that was a foreshadowing of the fate that befell the actual guitar player for the group, Kyle Gaszynski.
According to his Myspace profile, Grasshopper undertook a BA in Media Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo (1984-1988) and a master's degree in the same subject at New School University, 1990-1993.[2]
While studying at Buffalo around 1986/87, Mackowiak began to play bass guitar with avant garde group Shady Crady, an embryonic Mercury Rev incarnation which also featured Donahue. Other activities in the late 1980s included working in the law department of an audiovisual company, as a percussionist for local band Sunny in Chernobyl and as a medical research subject: "I did this thing at medical school where I got paid to take various drugs they were developing. You're in this controlled environment for 3 days and they give you all these drugs then suddenly stop then watch you suffer."[3] Mackowiak began to be known by his childhood nickname, derived from how his family's Polish surname translates into the Polish language.[4]
[edit] 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.
1995 saw the departure of Rev singer David Baker and a radical change in direction for the band, which drew on Broadway, jazz and do-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 monastery. "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'.[5]
Between Rev records, he also issued a solo record under the moniker Grasshopper and the Golden Crickets on the Beggar's Banquet label. 'Orbit of Eternal Grace' featured several Rev members, home-made electronic instruments and what was effectively a draft of 'The Hudson Line', which would appear on the next Mercury Rev album.
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.
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."[6]
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.
Aside from music, Mackowiak's interests include film and modern literature, particularly of the Beatnik era.
