He’s remixed and reassembled Mercyland’s final studio output, We Never Lost A Single Game, now available on Propeller Sound Recordings.

A second album was shelved when the band couldn’t get any label interest, and Mercyland dispersed in 1991.Īside for his stint with Sugar, Barbe has since become a skilled producer (Drive-By Truckers, Son Volt, Deerhunter, the Glands), and he remains a fixture on the Athens music scene. Mercyland’s hard-driving sound hit on all the right influences-from the Minutemen to Hüsker Dü to Dinosaur Jr-but Barbe, guitarist Andrew Donaldson and drummer Joel Suttles were never able to turn some positive word of mouth into anything sustainable. Founded in 1985, Barbe’s Athens, Ga.-based post-punk trio generated some significant buzz at the grassroots level with its frenetic live shows and promising 1989 debut. Had the band not broken up, he most likely wouldn’t have found his way into Bob Mould’s orbit as the bass player for his most commercially successful band, Sugar. In a sense, Mercyland’s lack of success was a boon for David Barbe.

Bob mould stoughton opera house