Mercury Audio

Can an upright bass double as a spaceship? Mercury Audio can answer that question. Their upright bass, a huge aluminum contraption painted with flames, might in fact transport you to other worlds when this high-energy Calgary 3-piece hits the stage. While the iconic instrument has most often been wielded by Dylan Sadlier-Brown (known in Calgary as a bassist through his work with bands including The Sure Fires and the Sadlier-Brown Family Band), in Mercury Audio it's played by his partner Laurie Fuhr. "Dylan's an excellent bass player to be sure, but he's an absolute monster on the guitar. He's so good. A lot of people don't know that, and when he wanted to start a band, I insisted they get a chance to find out - which is pretty much why I learned to play standup." Sadlier-Brown is a little more modest about his talents, but at the same time, he knows he's onto something. "At one point Billy Cowsill was my roommate, he'd been famous in the Cowsills and Blue Shadows and played a ton in Calgary. He said a lot of things I'll remember, but one that keeps coming back to haunt me is when he told me, 'Kid, whatever It is, you've got It.' I think about that whenever I feel tired after a long day at work and feel my energy return so I can pick up a guitar," Sadlier-Brown enthused. Although the band is relatively new, the few shows they've played so far have garnered attention. An early show at the Slice in Lethbridge under a different name (for a time the band was called Screamin' Jimmies) landed them a spot at the South Country Fair, which in turn led to gigs at Mukwah Festival and Sled Island (on the Market Collective stage) in addition to the usual venues in Calgary and surrounds. With momentum like that, why did they change their name? "We want people to realize we're a really driven, energetic band, but at the same time, our sound is pretty diverse," Sadlier-Brown explained. "So we didn't want to be pigeonholed as one type of band or another and feel like we have to be all rockabilly or all roots rock or something." His partner Fuhr agreed. "Mercury Audio has lots of imagery we can use, like Mercury the messenger or space or just a fluid sound. Or of course, Dylan's old flat black '64 Mercury Marauder, which like our band is pretty unique in our neighbourhood. Like the car (...), Dylan's put so much effort into his songs and this band to make it run right. But where the car gets people waving, the band gets people dancing." Whatever record store categories they inhabit or defy (roots rock n' roll, 50's rock, rockabilly, alt country, alternative), one thing's for sure: a three piece band with a flaming aluminum upright bass on one side of the stage and an Echoplex unit making space sounds on the other is not something you see, or hear, every day. Catch Mercury Audio blasting off all over town this summer, including the CJSW Summer Series on August 27th.*** - birdheat (indie Calgary music blog)