Artist · chart history
Mercury Rev
Band Buffalo United States Formed 1989
Mercury Rev formed in 1989 in Buffalo, United States. Mercury Rev has 11 chart appearances on 11 radio countdowns from 5 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2024. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “The Dark Is Rising”, which appears on 3 lists with a best position of #14. The station that charted Mercury Rev most often is WBER (Rochester, NY), with 3 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2002.
Mercury Rev formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1989, and for all the players who have come and gone since, the band has always come down to two men: Jonathan Donahue on vocals and guitar, and Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak on guitar, clarinet and whatever else is lying around. Dave Fridmann is in the membership too, along with a long list that takes in David Baker, Jeff Mercel, Paul Dillon and Carlos Anthony Molina.
The music has never kept to one lane: indie rock, psychedelia and old American roots music all get stirred into the same haze. "Car Wash Hair", in 1992, had that woozy, lost-in-the-fog drift. Deserter's Songs, in 1998, turned it into something lush and cinematic, with "Goddess on a Hiway" as its sweetest, strangest pop moment, and All Is Dream followed in 2001 with the brooding "The Dark Is Rising".
The Flaming Lips have been fellow travellers all along, the two bands tied together by a shared history, and you can hear the kinship in the way both treat a pop song as an excuse to hallucinate.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Mercury Rev on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Dark Is Rising | 3 | #14 | – | 2001 | |
| 2 | Chasing A Bee | 1 | #433 | – | – | |
| 3 | Goddess On A Hiway | 4 | #33 | – | 1998 | |
| 4 | Across Yer Ocean | 1 | #100 | – | 2006 | |
| 5 | Sermon | 1 | #805 | – | – | |
| 6 | Car Wash Hair | 1 | #49 | – | 1991 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 805 | Sermon | The Colorado Sound Top 850 Cover Songs |
| 2022 | 433 | Chasing A Bee | The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s |
| 2006 | 100 (tie) | Across Yer Ocean | WBER Listener Countdown 2006 |
| 2006 | 486 | Goddess On A Hiway | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006) |
| 2005 | 498 | Goddess On A Hiway | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2005) |
| 2002 | 14 | The Dark Is Rising | WBER Listener Countdown 2002 |
| 2001 | 44 | The Dark Is Rising | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 2001 |
| 2001 | 117 (tie) | The Dark Is Rising | WBER Listener Countdown 2001 |
| 1999 | 89 | Goddess On A Hiway | WFNX Top 99 Songs of 1999 |
| 1998 | 33 | Goddess On A Hiway | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1998 |
| 1991 | 49 | Car Wash Hair | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1991 (the 'Phantom Fifty') |
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