Celebrate the Summer of Sarcastic Pop with the Mercers [CD release party Friday at the Parish]

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.The Mercers celebrate the release of their first EP, Hovercraft, at the Parish this Friday, joined by the peppy Built by Snow, the enticing Candi and the Strangers and Dfest music conference official selection The Pons.

The Mercers [Official] [Myspace]
Built By Snow [Myspace]
Candi and the Strangers [Myspace]
The Pons [Myspace]