Oaktopia Brings Mercury Rev to Denton

Oaktopia’s back and they delivered their first announcement of year earlier this week. Psychedelic rock legends, Mercury Rev are coming to Denton on Sunday March 20, 2016 to lead the first Oaktopia Present’s event of the year.

This is not a Pretopia event, Oaktopia co-founder Matt Battaglia says only “the show right before Oaktopia will be called Pretopia.” Now you know.

So, Mercury Rev, you guys. This atmospheric indie-rock band has been around since the late 80’s and is lead by front man Jonathan Donahue. Donahue was a fundamental member in two independent and experimental-type bands in the ‘90’s: Mercury Rev & the Flaming Lips. Donahue left the Lips in 1991 after recording Hit to Death and the Future Head to focus on Mercury Rev.

The band released their 9th studio album in 2015, after not having released anything in the last 7 years. The band also did a little bit of member-shuffling, including the addition of local Dentonite Jesse Chandler (you may know him from this local band called Midlake).

Donahue explained in an interview with Digital Trends last October that he is a “cassette guy,” and released his latest album, The Light In You on cassette. “Of all our catalog, the stuff I actually would keep was the cassettes. I don’t keep all the vinyl or the CDs, but I do have all the cassettes of everything we’ve ever done.”

Talent acquisition was assisted by Eric Pulido, who is doing his due diligence as Dentonite in bringing fantastic music to our small town. I mean, if you’ve got the connections why not let it benefit our towns music programming, right? Right.

Mercury Rev isn’t even touring the United States this year, or haven’t announced any other U.S dates yet. They did a quick 7-visit East Coast tour in 2015 before heading out on a more extensive European tour. Following their show in Denton this March, Mercury Rev will be heading back to Europe for a 5-stop tour. 

If this is the first announcement Oaktopia has for us this year...we are anxiously awaiting more! Stay tuned.