Lord Have Mercy (On The Mercy Lounge)

I often wake up to happy news to share with folks on-air, i.e. tour or album announcements from artists we love here at WNXP. It’s one of my favorite parts of morning hosting, honestly. But last week’s wee-hours tweet from Mercy Lounge forced my hand in sharing crappy news, however inevitable we knew it to be: the music venues at 1 Cannery Row will be wrapping up concert-hosting in that historic multi-level building, which was recently sold, come May 2022. Dammit. 😔

When prompted, we heard from so many of you about cherished memories inside Mercy Lounge and compiled an October 7, 2021 #ThematicStatic playlist as a sonic love letter to the space. Listen👇🏼 to the songs and voice memos we broadcast, and review some others we couldn’t fit in, below!

#ThematicStatic Playlist

  • Those Darlins“Be Your Bro” – requested by Katy, conjuring the lasting power of this band and the legacy of Jessi Zazu, who collaborated with and was loved by so many in this city. Here’s the official video for this song:
  • Trombone Shorty“Here Come the Girls” – requested by Amy, who delighted in Shorty bringing some NOLA horns to Nash.
  • PUP – “Rot” – requested by Matt, who said he saw this Toronto punk band at Mercy in 2016 (lucky!!!).
  • Local artist Devon Gilfillian recounted great times seeing My So-Called Band, the Nashville collective of top-notch singers and musicians that makes ’90s covers magic. (I, too, have spent a few nights screaming Mariah Carey and Dookie-era Green Day in that building, yes indeed. FYI, they’re hosting a Halloween show on Oct. 30 at Cannery!) Listen 👇🏼 to Devon’s voice memo:
  • Ibeyi – “Recurring Dream” – requested by Holly, this twin sister duo has a super-dreamy, Bjork-esque new tune out for an indie film, though records show they played Mercy back in 2015. Watch👇🏼 the official video for “Recurring Dream:”
  • St. Paul and the Broken Bones“Got It Bad” – requested by Jen, who probably saw them play with dynamite opener Steelism in 2014, a couple studio and live albums ago. They’ve got a new LP on the way in January!
  • St. Vincent – “The Strangers” – requested by Andy, timely as Annie Clark returns to Nashville this weekend, at a much bigger (more than 10x the size as on the Actor tour that hit Mercy 😮) venue in Ascend Amphitheater.
  • The Mountain Goats – “This Year” – Jenny said this band, and their show a few years ago, is extra meaningful for her and her now-husband. The Mountain Goats are playing the downstairs big sis of Mercy, Cannery Ballroom, next Thursday, actually! Listen 👇🏼 to Jenny’s voice memo:
  • Mac DeMarco – “Treat Her Better” – requested by Zach of Do615, who makes me and Marquis jealous on the reg when we talk music and local happenings with him on What Where When-sday. Dude is plugged in.
  • Caribou – “Odessa” – requested by Nick, who no doubt danced the night away at this show by one of the aliases of Canadian electronic artist Daniel Victor Snaith.

An Endless Font of Good Times

  • Dua Lipa once played Mercy Lounge?! Finger-to-the-pop-pulse listener Wes said yes and he was there.
  • Beach House and Washed Out, what a bill.
  • Danny left us an amazing list and I tucked Cage the Elephant into an earlier hour on Thursday in his honor. But he also mentioned seeing at Mercy, ranging from loud AF to oh-so delicate: The Features, Hot Pipes, José González (did you miss his #RecordoftheWeek feature?), The New Pornographers (omg), Alabama Shakes, Ghostland Observatory and The Milk Carton Kids.
  • Of Montreal – both Andy and Austin mentioned seeing this Athens, GA band at Mercy, so this official vid from Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? stand-out “Gronlandic Edit” is worth a view:
  • Big K.R.I.T. – Joe was at this surely awesome show!
  • Deerhoof for Buddy.
  • The Woodstock 50th Anniversary celebration featuring local artists like Sicard Hollow and MELD was a favorite of listener Larkin.
  • JD McPherson before playing big stages graced the one in Mercy Lounge, said Carrie, who’s shared many special memories inside that space.
  • Ty Segall for CS – must embed this new song I can’t stop buzzing to, though it’s multiple times in the past decade (before he recorded Harmonizer just released this summer) that Ty and band played Mercy Lounge:

  • Ron Gallo for Danielle.
  • HR Lexy for Tommy.
  • Camera Obscura, wow.

We’ll see you at Mercy Lounge on as many occasions as possible before the May 2022 grand finale. But these upcoming shows in particular will feature artists played on WNXP, if you are interested (though many are already sold out because y’all have good taste and are on top of stuff!):