The Mercers

"Myspace friends of Nada Surf and Dr. Dog, these Austin misfits claim to be influenced by "cheap beer, big dreams; sad sarcastic pop bursts." Who isn't? The band's best Myspace mp3, "Sexy Youth," sits at the shady crossroads of swagger and sensitivity; one day this one's gonna be an excellent soundtrack to a show-closing montage on Grey's Anatomy." Esquire Magazine - July 2006 - Esquire Magazine

"Austin Indie stalwarts The Mercers have somehow survived the ongoing evolution of the Austin music scene by simply letting it catch up with them. This three piece turned micro-symphony is particularly note-worthy because there isn't a band in this town that comes close to sounding like them, in fact they're one of the few bands in the live music capitol that bears little or no resemblance to the influences they cite in their bio (which includes Guided by Voices, Wilco, and oddly enough The Psychedelic Furs). Despite their immense talent, they're not famous yet and aren't in any apparent hurry to ink any deals, choosing instead to focus on writing brilliant, instantly catchy songs that make you almost wish they were pop radio sweethearts, tastefully drowning out all the crap we're force fed by Clear Channel and their ilk on any given day" Whoopsy Magazine - March 2007 - Whoopsy Magazine

"Pop-rock can go so very bad, but, The Mercers have that special touch that separates whiny kids wanting to play in bands from well-heeled musicians who understand the roots of music while bringing something original.

Their debut record, Pretty Things Walk, pulls together 12 tracks of layered, semi-symphonic rock that draws heavily from a solid foundation of Brit-Pop but also retains the melancholy Texas twang of steel guitars to create a sound that's hard to put a finger on. Lead track "Sexy Youth" floats languidly along for a minute then elevates in force to provide a three-dimensional soundscape that you will have a hard time not bopping your head to. Another stand-out track "Around the Old Man" pairs a driving rhythm section with ethereal melodies on guitar and vocals with a touch of rawness.

Thankfully, the band also adds intelligent and original lyricism to their music to provide a great overall experience. There's plenty of cross-over appeal here and, in this case, the accessibility of pop doesn't result in watered-down tastelessness." Study Breaks Magazine - October 2007 - Study Breaks Magazine

"Catchy, eclectic Brit-pop with dreamy riffs, The Mercers (Austin) bring back early ‘90s alternative music. All the criteria are checked: Hard-to-place sound (they cite influences from “The Who” to “Japanese Classic Music,” according to their MySpace page); grungy band members (they’re from Austin); and lyrics that read like they were written in a university creative writing class (“I wake in the grace of a winter's sunrise/ we're baking bombs and we're planning bloodshed/until the king's dead”—“Unamericana.” What king? And who needs rhyme when you have free association…)

None of that is an insult. The point is, The Mercers are different.

Comprised of three guys who met in college (UT Austin), The Mercers’ front man Peter Wagner attended Austin High School. The native and self proclaimed “God-awful violin player” discovered the latter fact by having taken a UT-sponsored string program in high school. But it stoked his interest in music, and the rest will perhaps have been American music history." San Angelo Live - November 2007 - San Angelo Live

"The debut album from this indie band shows what all the fuss is about. The Mercers combine disparate influences like country and western, Celtic folk and British pop to produce a cohesive sound that resembles nothing else. As lead singer Peter Wagner says, 'We're from Texas but it's obvious our minds have wandered elsewhere.' Wagner's soaring vocals on The Downtown of My Love call to mind Peter Gabriel, while When the Beers are in Bloom could begin an Irish seisun. Take your pick from the 12 tracks; you'll find pop elements and pleasing chord changes that will appeal to an array of tastes." Austin Monthly - January 2008 - Austin Monthly

"Above the melodic guitar and synthesizer, Peter Wagner's distinctive voice soars, part Peter Gabriel, part Jeremy Enigk. It's distracting at first, even a bit abrasive. Yet by the time the Mercers' debut loops back 'round, Wagner has become inexplicably woven into the local fivepiece's lyric-heavy songs, which are head and shoulders above previous incarnation Choking Ahogo. If not for Wagner's vox, the riffs of opener "Sexy Youth" and addictive bridge of "Use for Abuse" would seem formulaic, but behind that compressed croon, acoustic highlight "The World It Has Forsaken Me" and chilling closer "Evo" become heartbreaking odes to faraway lands. The Mercers' take on Americana pop lands them somewhere on Irish shores. Wagner's storytelling, brothers Erik and Bryan Ray's able bass and guitar, and Nathan Delacretaz's pedal steel melt into a worldly vision of classic rock & roll, a testament to true songwriting determination. THREE STARS" - Austin Chronicle

With the release of Hovercraft – nearly two years after their solid debut Pretty Things Walk – The Mercers finally return with what will hopefully be one of Austin’s most talked about rock records in 2009. Delivering (and then some) on the promise of their debut as well as frontman Peter Wagner’s former band Choking Ahogo, Hovercraft is as well polished, well written, well played, and well recorded as any indie record released this year. Potential hyperbole aside, one can only hope that the rest of Austin catches on before it’s too late and the band disappears for another year or two to record again.

Over the course of thirty minutes and seven tracks, The Mercers manage to craft a sound that lies somewhere between the picture-perfect sheen of The Shins and the driving power of The Who. Years ago, with both Choking Ahogo and early in The Mercers’ career, Wagner wrote fractured indie rock gems and fragments of hooks that practically screamed fledgling Bob Pollard. Fast-forward to the songs on Hovercraft and it’s not hard to figure out that Wagner and his band mates are the benefactors of a little maturity, some patience, and a lot of musical growth. Instead of fragments of tunes, listeners are now privy to full blown well-constructed songs.

On “Bloodbane”, Wagner is “curious as hell, if Loch Ness and success are equally real” – and if his and Erik Ray’s spiraling guitars over Ethan Herr’s drumming are given proper adulation, Nessie is about to be pretty lonely in fantasyland. Throughout the EP, the successful formula of “Bloodbane” is repeated with stunning results: the amazing thing isn’t how confident the entire band sounds (regardless of Wagner’s lyrical doubts), but that the tracks consistently unfold so flawlessly with swirling codas, reverb drenched and multi tracked vocals, and hooks galore. On “Ring Inside A Ring”, the band unleashes the catchiest hand-clapping head-bobbing summer tune ever written about a disgraced scientist (In case you’re wondering: the late Stan Meyer claimed to have built a car that ran on water but was later exposed to be a fraud). It’s one thing to write a great tune and it’s another thing to write an interesting lyric, but when combined like on “Ring Inside A Ring”, the result is amazingly rewarding for the audience.

The reality is it’s going to be hard to pick the highlights of Hovercraft, because there are so few stumbles. On “Disco Nixon” that amalgamation of The Who, The Shins, and Guided By Voices comes to a roaring pulsing head. The entire song is the moment and just as the glow is wearing off, “All She Wants/Monsters” doubles down as a six-minute plus highlight. Building immediately out of the outtro on “Disco Nixon”, “All She Wants/Monsters” kicks off with the kind of relentless drums that make an indie rock band into an arena (or festival) success. The Mercers build the song into a tour de force, complete with Brian Rohde’s trumpet flourishes, exploding and then dropping out over an acoustic guitar part, handclaps, and a poignant lyrical rumination on aging.

With the release of Hovercraft, maybe an editorial correction is due and it’s time to not put hyperbole aside, but instead to embrace it when discussing The Mercers. Instead of using qualifying statements like “for a sophomore release” or “recorded in a home studio” or “by an unsigned indie band” how about simply: “The Mercers’ Hovercraft should be on every Austin Top 10 of 2009 list.” That’s not hyperbole; it’s fact. - austinsound.net

Pop music’s appeal as a sound relies heavily on the ability to lend the illusion of an erupting spontaneity to songs that are, almost by definition, carefully planned events. The audience is, of course, constantly aware of this illusion. All the while, we’re demanding of pop musicians both recognizable performance of songs we’ve come to know from the album and a freshness that will allow us to suspend disbelief- to feel that on some level the pop singer is spontaneously and almost conversationally sharing their emotions with us in real time.


Austin locals the Mercers devoted the entirety of 2008 to honing this ability, and all that work is going to pay off for them. They manage to sound both polished and unconstrained. There is still a slight imbalance between the Mercers’ musical heft and their melodic agility—the result is a bit too bottom-heavy to allow pop riffs to take off and catch the listener. But a bit too much substance is far easier for an audience to listen to—or for a band to correct—than not enough.


We hear quite of a bit of Doves influencing their sound, pared down just enough to firmly place the Mercers within the camp of sarcastic pop bands currently flashing chord progressions as juicy as their lyrics’ wit is dry. Austin seems to be an incubator for this "Wit Pop" (can we trademark that?) sound, hatching such masters of the style as Spoon and Okkervil River. - Austinist

The high point of the first Jackie Chan movie (can we call it a ‘film’?) I ever saw came when Jackie himself commandeered a hovercraft and brought it barreling down on an outdoor concert. The drummer dropped the beat, lifted his sticks to point, and shouted: “Hovercraft!!!” (This can only be compared, in film history, to Keanu Reeves reawakening in The Matrix to offer the line, “I know kung fu.”)

We’ll choose to believe, facts notwithstanding, that this scene was the inspiration behind the title of The Mercers’ midsummer EP, Hovercraft. It suits: the Mercers are both virtuosic and goofy, meeting somewhere between the deadpan irony of Cake and the shiny indie pop of the Shins, all cooked in a glam Bowie shell. (It’s this hardy shell that prevents the Mercers from staining your upholstery.) Let’s credit Michael Corcoran at the Austinist for labeling it ‘wit pop’: works for us.
Lead singer Peter Wagner is blessed with voice that will house your entire imagination: move on in and have a look around, there’s room here for all your things. It’s a good voice and a big voice, but most of all it’s a voice that captivates, which requires something beyond skill. With Bryan Ray, Erik Ray, Ethan Herr, and the visiting additional help from Brian Rohde and Louie Lino, the Mercers spent 2008 scurrying around like Texan sorcerers’ apprentices, just barely containing their own flood. They shaped it, first, into Hovercraft. (More is on the way...) Along the way they’ve provided us with the rare libido/tuxedo rhyme, not heard since the days of Young MC. No small thing.
The Mercers brought this particular seven-song hovercraft barreling down on Austin at the peak of the July heat, when temperatures were regularly cresting 104, and flimsier indie bands were wilting behind their amps. Not so the Mercers: they are gifted with a cooling backbone, a liquid nitrogen inner core. (This is unconfirmed.) They also have a sound like ancient jewelry: well-crafted, dazzling, and a little haunting; it may be at odds with their Camper Van Beethoven lyrics, or they may be the Hawaiian pizza of pop music. It may be that the reviewer is drinking too much coffee: never mind, the point is that Hovercraft works, and stands out for this Austin summer. - the Deli Magazine