awkward and semi-hostile.
like SM himself?
― disco stfu (electricsound), Thursday, 4 November 2010 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
details! SM, CG, Sam and John did Q&A last week here, but I didn't go.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 4 November 2010 00:51 (thirteen years ago) link
well SM brought some musical instrument he'd just purchased onstage with him and the moderator asked, "are you going to play a little something for us? what do you say, would you guys like to hear stephin play a song??" and everyone applauded and those who didn't kinda slowly slunk down in their chairs as SM gave the mod a death stare and then the questioning moved on.
another one i remember was some guy tried to give stephin merrit gay bar recommendations (because he'd been having trouble finding a good one in l.a.) and another somehow turned a question into a verbal link to a website. neither really went over very well.
― omar little, Thursday, 4 November 2010 00:56 (thirteen years ago) link
btw while the Good Morning Atlanta clip was funny, I didn't find it as mortifying as everyone has always claimed.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 4 November 2010 01:04 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.engrish.com//wp-content/uploads/2010/11/do-as-bunnies-do.jpg
― I will always think of you, while (quite) fondly, myself (Evan), Sunday, 16 January 2011 06:13 (thirteen years ago) link
anyone seen these videos from '96? Stephen is on top form. "I can't hear your heckling while I'm talking, so if you wish to heckle please wait until I have finished... talking"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63SttwOM-XU
― spellcheck is really advanced these days (cajunsunday), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 19:34 (thirteen years ago) link
haven't. but I went to a lot of their shows then.
― resistance does not require a firearm (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 19:39 (thirteen years ago) link
I saw them probably within a week of this performance, and this was my favorite song from the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkz0UruvXSc
― Corn Maze to the Dark Side (Eazy), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 05:10 (twelve years ago) link
I sure hope at some point he does something like Randy Newman did recently with simple piano-and-voice recordings. He sounds amazing live doing "A Thousand Lovers in a Day," and the Future Bible Heroes version doesn't come too near it.
― Corn Maze to the Dark Side (Eazy), Tuesday, 20 September 2011 05:31 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/interviews/1019-molly-ringwald
― the pinefox, Thursday, 29 March 2012 13:05 (twelve years ago) link
15th anniversary of 69 love songs coming up in a little over a month. posting about it now because i am going to forget.
― Treeship, Sunday, 3 August 2014 04:29 (nine years ago) link
i've found that the magnetic fields are a tough sell for people around my age. their sensibility is too gen x maybe? or maybe they just aren't cool? whatever it is, i can't get people to the point where they grasp the point of the band, which is to rescue the old cliches about love from their own lameness by refusing to hide from it.
― Treeship, Sunday, 3 August 2014 04:37 (nine years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W97YAYPFGw
― Treeship, Sunday, 3 August 2014 04:39 (nine years ago) link
do you think that is still a reasonable description of their project?
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 3 August 2014 15:23 (nine years ago) link
No. Idk. Their post-love songs output has never excited me outside of a few songs here and there.
― Treeship, Sunday, 3 August 2014 16:11 (nine years ago) link
man, "i" is one of my favorite albums ever. ilm seems to hate all the music i love
― building a desert (art), Sunday, 3 August 2014 16:17 (nine years ago) link
weird if the kids don't get 69 anymore. back when i was young everyone was at least impressed by the bigness of it.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 3 August 2014 16:20 (nine years ago) link
"I" is great.
― Insane Prince of False Binaries (Gukbe), Sunday, 3 August 2014 16:27 (nine years ago) link
ppl who are Definitely Younger Than Me (early to mid 20s) seem to get it. but younger than that, i don't know. slick over twee, competency over complicated sentiment.
i think the stuff after 69ls (well, after 'i') is a deliberate and definite and listener-hostile refutation of their earlier project, but not a well-executed or a consistent or a coherent one, so i can see why, as an ongoing project, they're a hard sell
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 3 August 2014 16:30 (nine years ago) link
maybe it was wrong to think so at the time, but the air of deliberate shittiness maybe kind of made up for an ivy-league-grads-play-with-ukeleles feel whose capture by a more central part of the white edumacated music consumer taste-market has kind of made the sound more dubious in the meantime
weird to listen to 'come back from san francisco' now and assume it is addressed to some kind of startup douche
― j., Sunday, 3 August 2014 17:41 (nine years ago) link
... i don't think it's 'that' san fran.
― Frederik B, Sunday, 3 August 2014 19:06 (nine years ago) link
no, it's not, but shit changes right out from under your nice little song sometimes
― j., Sunday, 3 August 2014 19:08 (nine years ago) link
Still don't really dig much post Get Lost/Wasps Nest. Like his synth pop formalism better than his broader formalism.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 August 2014 19:19 (nine years ago) link
Wasps Nest is one of my favorite albums but I've never really bothered with much else. I have the Wayward/Distant compilation that I bought after the 6ths but it didn't fall for it like Wasps Nest. Never heard 69 Love Songs. Maybe I should try. Would by a 30 7" box set ;)
― brotherlovesdub, Sunday, 3 August 2014 19:23 (nine years ago) link
we just need pomplamoose to cover a mag fields song and the circle will be complete
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 3 August 2014 20:27 (nine years ago) link
hahaha nm of course that exists already
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 3 August 2014 20:28 (nine years ago) link
lol
― Erdős Number 9 Dream (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 3 August 2014 20:29 (nine years ago) link
On the subject of 'I', whilst I probably prefer '69', 'I' contains my two favourite MF tracks (I Don't Really Love You Anymore, I Thought You Were My Boyfriend).
― nxd, Monday, 4 August 2014 10:56 (nine years ago) link
Weird to think of "69LS" vs "post-69LS" as the division line here where to me it's clearly "pre-69LS" vs "69LS and after."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 4 August 2014 11:58 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, that's what I said. Or synth-pop vs. Claudia singing a bunch and playing piano.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 August 2014 12:22 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/fashion/a-night-out-with-stephin-merritt-the-singer-for-magnetic-fields.html?ref=music
Unlike so many performers these days, he doesn’t use Twitter or Instagram. His mom beat him to Facebook. “I can’t deal with the amount of work that would involve,” Mr. Merritt, 49, said. “I’m amazed that everyone else is willing to put in a part-time job worth of work in order to manage their social media accounts. I’m too busy playing Scrabble and Words With Friends.”
That habit has inspired a new book, “101 Two-Letter Words,” a collaboration with Roz Chast on a series of short poems and illustrations celebrating some of the shortest and strangest entries in the Scrabble dictionary.
Sample poem: “Ne is born, if you’re a man;/if you’re a woman, nee./It’s just like what a horse says,/but it’s spelt a different way.”
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 27 September 2014 17:47 (nine years ago) link
Weird. The Magnetic Fields were very popular on my small liberal arts college campus (2008-2012). Mostly 69 Love Songs.
― Allen (etaeoe), Saturday, 27 September 2014 22:00 (nine years ago) link
yeah a lot of people (myself included) loved that album but had little or no time for anything else he did before or since. it's like it's so sprawling and total, why would you need anything else by him.
― goth colouring book (anagram), Saturday, 27 September 2014 22:10 (nine years ago) link
because one of his other songs is this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvSY4NYkySM
― Treeship, Saturday, 27 September 2014 22:14 (nine years ago) link
slick over twee, competency over complicated sentiment.
wait, thomp, is this describing the magnetic fields or the tastes of young listeners? because the magnetic fields is totally a twee band exploring complicated sentiments.
― Treeship, Saturday, 27 September 2014 22:19 (nine years ago) link
Poems I would most like to read from Merritt's book (I assume they're in there): "Qi," "Za," "Xu," "Ut" (any word that allows me to dump a "u" deserves its own poem), "Ba," "Bo," and "Bi." Cs and Vs, get your own book.
― clemenza, Saturday, 27 September 2014 22:41 (nine years ago) link
from that NY Times piece--
Okay:He also wears nothing but shades of brown because he thinks that black makes him look like a SoHo tourist and that it’s good when his clothes match his brown eyes.
too bad:
hyperacusis in his left ear, which makes him especially sensitive to loud noise.
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 28 September 2014 13:31 (nine years ago) link
hyperacusis has been a thing w/ him for years. Didn't know he'd relocated to Hudson, NY tho.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:05 (nine years ago) link
(from LA/NYC)
he used to live a few blocks away from where i'm at (in those weird old apts from 'mulholland drive' iirc.)
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:21 (nine years ago) link
sounds ideal
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:22 (nine years ago) link
I always wanted to meet him and then impress him by how cool/knowledgeable i am... so unlike those other fans who he unfairly seems to despise
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:23 (nine years ago) link
i wd talk w/him about German films back in the day (silents to Fassbinder), but then Dick's Bar closed.
little or no time for anything else he did before or since. it's like it's so sprawling and total, why would you need anything else by him.
weird logic imho
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:25 (nine years ago) link
When I saw them live I was uncomfortable with the way he talked to Claudia, who seemed like a kind person
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link
oh that's (mostly) an act, they've polished it over the years
she is a tot sweetheart, truly
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:30 (nine years ago) link
my wife is close friends with one of HIS close friends and all four of us had lunch together once. he's a good dude imo, he just likes to be a bit zingy.
― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:32 (nine years ago) link
that docufilm actually captured the Claud-Stephin dynamic pretty incisively i thought.
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:42 (nine years ago) link
yeah it did.... i thought it was kind of sad. don't want to project too much but it seemed like she was in love with him.
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:51 (nine years ago) link
imposing that fiction of star-crossed lovers, separated by sexual orientation, onto the story of the magnetic fields seemed fitting though. i read it as a possibly intentional thing
― Treeship, Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:53 (nine years ago) link
i see a mothering thing, somewhat
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 17:59 (nine years ago) link