Drinking Mercury:

A seasonably warm day came to pass in June of 2000. Tommy McCord, a brash, young aspiring musician in the 7th grade decided on a whim to form a band. He had been playing guitar for 2 and a half years and had recently written some really bad songs (as he observed in his later years.) But who to be in this band? The town of Ionia, Michigan isn't exactly flowing with musicians to join bands, much less Middle Schoolers or people willing to be in a band with some punk Middle Schooler. Lots of people said they wanted to be in a band, but the only one of these first few friends to be interested that really seemed to slightly take it seriously was limited to the saxaphone. So Tommy was on his own... or so he thought. For, the day of "Field Day" in June of 2000, Tommy went into the band room after school to pick up his trombone, when lo and behold, the great Kevin Adams appeared before him, wiping sweat from his forehead and no doubt saying something clever. Kevin spoke a few words softly: "A band? Give me a call, I'd like to be in a band." And so it came to be, the union of Tommy McCord and Kevin Adams, as a two man band, a guitarist and a drummer. After heavy practicing, which included running around town in sombraros and a marching snare, they found themselves performing in June of 2001. Primed to cover some Weezer, they came to realize there were only two members, and nobody sang. Tommy rose to the occasion and belted out "No One Else" by Weezer with as much passion as an untrained 14 year old singer trying to emulate Billy Corgan and Robert Smith at the same time while singing Weezer could. Although his vocals left much to be desired, he could remain on key 40% of the time (60% of the time in songs that he wrote!) and thus the two man band had a guitarist who sang, and a drummer who banged (er... drums that is.) High School dawned in September of 2001 for these friends, and there the 3rd ray of light was found. Michael Boyes, cousin of Tommy, brother of Daniel, wielder of the great fender stratocaster, prince of homeliness for the lost soul, and all around cool guy was a senior while these two lads were freshman. In January of 2002, after several two man band shows, the band, christened Drinking Mercury from the great Smashing Pumpkins work "Ava Adore," found themselves taking the Elk's Lodge stage with a couple of friends filling out the sound for them. Michael appeared in a haze of his own smoke, hair askew under his gray beanie, saying "hey Tommy." They went to the Elk's Lodge girl's bathroom and ran through "Ava Adore" with Michael on bass, Tommy on guitar and vocals (now on key 70% of the time) and Kevin on standing there and looking good. There was magic in the air, but Michael declined to join them on stage, only having learned the song a few minutes earlier and Erik Krueger was the one to hold the bass during the Drinking Mercury set. A month later, Tommy and Michael, sharing their 2nd hour Multi-Media class, held an acoustic guitar jam session in the empty computer lab. Tommy asked Michael if he would like to come and jam with him and Kevin. Michael was heard to reply "yeah, whatever." Later, Michael checked the Drinking Mercury website and found him listed as the new member. After about two months of practicing, Tommy, Michael, and Kevin graced the stage together as Drinking Mercury. And none of them have looked back since.

Time treated the boys of Mercury well, as they all discovered they were not to be limited to just one instrument. And so this 3 piece band has 3 vocalists, 3 guitarists, 2 bassists, and 2 drummers. January 2004 saw the release of their first compact disc; the Trevor Klempner produced "The Virgin EP" was met with large demand on its first days of release. The dawn of the Age of Mercury was upon the world.