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Boces

1993 studio album by Mercury Rev

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

Boces is the second album by American indie rock band Mercury Rev, released on June 1, 1993. It was their final album with original frontman David Baker, who was asked to leave shortly after the supporting tour concluded. The title is derived from the Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) system of vocational schools in New York.

During a performance at Lollapalooza on the supporting tour, the band were forced off the stage for playing too loud.

01Music

Boces contains music that has been characterized as "dreaming musing[s]" as well as "thrashy freakouts." Some of the material has been categorized as jazz-pop. The album's instrumentation additionally incorporates flutes, harps, brass and choir.

02Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic
Entertainment WeeklyB+
NME8/10
Q
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Select4/5
Uncut8/10

Heather Phares of AllMusic wrote that "With Boces, Mercury Rev took everything that made Yerself Is Steam such an impressive debut and made their second album even more so...Mercury Rev never released another album as joyfully, unselfconsciously creative as Boces; after chief weirdo David Baker departed, the band pursued other fascinating directions, but this album remains one of the highest points of its career."

03Track listing

All tracks are written by Mercury Rev according to the liner notes; actual writing credits from the ASCAP Repertory are listed below.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Meth of a Rockette's Kick"David Baker, Jimy Chambers, Jonathan Donahue, Dave Fridmann, Sean Mackowiak, Suzanne Thorpe10:29
2."Trickle Down"Baker, Chambers, Donahue, Fridmann, Mackowiak, Thorpe5:04
3."Bronx Cheer"Baker, Donahue, Fridmann2:49
4."Boys Peel Out"Baker, Donahue, Fridmann, Mackowiak4:28
5."Downs Are Feminine Balloons"Baker, Donahue, Fridmann, Mackowiak, Thorpe6:29
6."Something for Joey"Baker, Chambers, Fridmann, Mackowiak, Thorpe4:06
7."Snorry Mouth"Baker, Chambers, Donahue10:55
8."Hi-Speed Boats"Baker, Fridmann, Mackowiak4:00
9."Continuous Drunks and Blunders"Baker, Donahue, Fridmann, Mackowiak0:48
10."Girlfren"Baker, Chambers, Donahue, Fridmann, Mackowiak, Thorpe4:41

04Personnel

Mercury Rev
Additional musicians
  • Julie Baker, violin
  • C. Gavazzi, French horn
  • Jim Burgess, trombone
Watch videos about BocesExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Boces, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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