The Magnetic Fields: Classic or Dud?

It wasn't just the press - I noticed a lot of my friends and acquaintances doing it (and by "a lot" I mean the 5 people I know who like Stephin Merrit). It was like, "Oh, you should like it, he takes influences from this this and this!" And I'm like, yes, well, Limp Bizkit take influences from this this and this that are all good but I think that Limp Bizkit are shit, why is this different? They never had much of an answer besides "But he's so clever!" which isn't an answer at all.

1. Merritt

2. Dudley Klute

3. Shirley Simms

5. Claudia Gonson

4. LD Beghtol

Favorite of alltime would be Susan Amway.

i forgot this song was at the end of disc 2 today, and it made me feel more messed up than i thought that i was.

I still very much enjoy the album but noticed that many of the ones that seemed more enjoyable today were novelty songs, and wondered if this is a less chemically tolerant, fragile Ween for a moment, despite all of the writing about craftsmanship and history.

$70 Can. on sale seems like he was screwed, though. Considering when I'm in Ottawa and I shop at Organised Sound (a store Sundar should be familiar with, as they sell his tape), Merge CDs are $19.99 each, he should've been able to walk off with them for individually for $60 (and usually bundled packs are slightly cheaper than individual releases in general).

It's the fact that most of MF's witticisms are self-puncturing that makes them so insightful, so persuasive, so raw and personal; as someone who tends to overanalyse myself to extremes, I can sympathise with Merritt's refusal to divorce his intellect from his emotion - is "World Music" a meta-joke or plain heartbreaking? It's both, and all the better for being so.

I know what you mean, Otis - anyone who's ever been in the same room as me when I've played Magnetic Fields has used it as an excuse to complain about my music tastes ("You've got so many cds - how none of them are any good?").

Wheeler, maybe if you stopped listening to the MFs, you wouldn't be a moron anymore. Did you ever think about that?

When I bought the set at Record Runner 2 years ago, Organised Sound didn't stock it yet (usually go there before RR) and I don't think anyone else in Ottawa did either. I think it was still an import at the time. Don't know if it still is now.

I'm guessing that $32 * exchange rate + shipping + taxes (?) would still come out to at least $50.

Am I acquainted with you offline Vic?

Wheeler, believe me, the improvements have been vast and numerous. I mean, in the past six months, you've gone from your Potion Lounge performance to the way you behave now, which is lots better - I mean, you are the King of Hampshire College. AND your taste in music has improved, you now carry around those great mix CDs we listened to on the way to Orient Point, whereas just a few months ago it was that godawful Turbonegro CD all the time. If you stay off the Mags long enough, you might become like the next Derek Jeter or something - all your life problems, solved.

Though not listening to the Mags has added a disturbing tendency to ditch me and Ramon to hang with Stephanie, who is moving into an artist wherehouse full of weird diaper wearing freaks and mannequins.

But this has nothing to do with Stephin Merrit!

That said, I was a much happier person back when I was a more frequent Mag Fields listener (although you probably would have said I was a "sadder" person in your opinion -- but then again, you'd probably still do that now). Come to think of it, I can't think of a single Mag Fields song that I've ever interpreted as "sad."

I don't mean sad like necessarily actually miserable or sad...It's hard to define, maybe "wanker" is a better term. I fully acknowledge the possibility that this is merely because the people I know are wankers and nothing to do with the Magnetic Fields.

I.e., they're sort of like really huge They Might Be Giants fans -- people who could never make any serious emotional connection to music, and therefore only like music that's deliberately self- conscious and jokey and awkward about the fact that it even is music.

I saw the first of their 69-song Chicago shows, and there were a number of people like this in the audience, who seemed to expect that the show would be, like, comedic or something. They somehow thought Mag Fields were joke-rock.

Best exemplified by someone I know's reaction to a sort of house-y track on the new TMBG album, which involved a lot of amazed giggling: "Whoah, check it out, they're doing a dance track!" To which I wanted to reply something like: "You know, there are thousands of whole albums that are entirely house music, but you won't dream of listening to any of those." It's this weird "I only listen to music as parody" kind of phenomenon, but I don't think it should reflect too poorly on the bands involved, and only covers a limited portion of their fanbases.

The whole comic / pastiche etc thing, this convinces me, is *one aspect* of the MFs, which is really mainly a 69LS issue. (TCotHS = staggeringly significant LP, as Steady Mike has been insisting for ages before I went near the thing.)

Tallulah Gosh?

If you're asking, "Ernest, aren't you a little bit obsessive?", the answer is yes.

rufus, who i like but not nearly as much, has an entirely separate problem. it's not mawkishness. it's that he isn't a very good lyricist.