Sean "Grasshopper" Mackiowiak of Mercury Rev is well aware of the cinematic feel of his

outfit's fourth LP, Deserter's Songs. In fact, the former film student said

incorporating the dramatic feel of a movie score on Mercury Rev's albums has been

something the six-piece has striven for all along.

But with Mercury Rev's latest album, slotted for a Sept. 29 release, the script got

switched.

Where noise and chaos once drove Rev's sonic plot-lines, Deserter's Songs has

a more controlled, cohesive framework -- and a much broader, richer soundscape. It's

like comparing a film shot in rough and grainy 16 millimeter with one presented in

wide-screen Cinemascope.

"We started out making soundtracks for student films and lower-budget films. That's

always been in our background," said Grasshopper, 30. "When we were doing [the 1993

album] Boces, there were little filmic things we were thinking of back then, but I

think maybe the type of film has changed, from chaos to trying to tone things down and

stay focused."

Bassist/pianist/co-producer Dave Fridmann agreed that his outfit -- which calls upstate

New York home -- has moved away from the noisy pop that marked Boces into a

more lush, orchestral sound typified by new songs such as

HREF="http://www.addict.com/music/Mercury_Rev/Holes.ram">"Holes"

(RealAudio excerpt) and "Tonite It Shows."

"We knew where we weren't going to go on this record. We weren't going to spend a lot

of time in the distortion-guitar world," said Fridmann, 30.

Distortion guitars earned Mercury Rev comparisons to their sometime-collaborators

Flaming Lips as early as 1991, with the release of their debut album, Yerself Is

Steam, and songs such as "Car Wash Hair."

"We'd done a lot of stuff there and thought, 'Let's see what else we can do,' " Fridmann

added. "We always had a classical influence, but this time we wanted to see if we could

get the feeling and depth of scope. At this point, we're confident enough with distortion

guitars that it felt like cheating."

After lead singer David Baker left the band in 1994, Mercury Rev juggled their lineup

until settling on their current roster, consisting of singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue

(formerly of the Flaming Lips), Grasshopper, Fridmann, flautist Suzanne Thorpe,

drummer Jimy Chambers and Adam Snyder on Mellotron and Wurlitzer.

Among the guests to join Mercury Rev on the album were Levon Helm and Garth

Hudson of the Band, who each sat in on a song. Grasshopper heralded Hudson's

tenor- and alto-saxophone parts on

HREF="http://www.addict.com/music/Mercury_Rev/Hudson_Line.ram">"Hudson

Line" (RealAudio excerpt) as being nothing short of visionary.

"Garth, he's pretty out there. You don't know what he's doing -- it sounds confusing or

whatever -- and then an hour later you see there's a method to the madness,"

Grasshopper said. "He would play a few notes here and there on a bunch of tracks and it

doesn't sound like anything at first and then suddenly it all fits together."

As the sextet worked to construct a cohesive album, older tracks were thrown into the

mix, including "Goddess on a Highway," a track Donahue had written while still a

member of the Flaming Lips.

"Before Jonathan left the Flaming Lips, he sent me a tape of all these great songs. I've

just been a big fan of that tape. He forgot about a lot of those songs. We dug it out and

worked on it," Grasshopper said. "The lyrics are all the same: it's got that double

entendre 'got us on the highway' and 'goddess on the highway,' and 'bugs on the glass/

exploding on the windshield.' I really like that image."