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
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.
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
a friend who knows her calls her "the person without whom the band would never have gotten out of that basement in Cambridge"
― son of a lewd monk (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 2 October 2014 18:00 (nine years ago) link
little or no time for anything else he did before or since
I can't fathom not having Holiday in my life. It's essential.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:54 (nine years ago) link
best thing i read on facebook today about magnetic fields:
"I think their music is Barenaked Ladies for people with vanity Masters degrees."
― scott seward, Tuesday, 5 January 2016 19:45 (eight years ago) link
I'm fan enough to say that poster is probably OTM (and also, LOL).
― Bitch I'm in the 2112 (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 5 January 2016 19:46 (eight years ago) link
Na. Although, as with xpost Randy Newman, I like the originals, love some of the covers---if this don't show, it's Kelly Hogan (with Mike Ireland) and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts (incl. some Mekons etc.) doing "Papa Was A Rodeo"---always good for blindfold tests:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KeO-LalG7k
― dow, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 16:50 (eight years ago) link
I can't make a comparison to Barenaked Ladies work. I only know "One Week" and "If I Had a Million Dollars", two incredibly corny, and not in a good way, songs.
― radiohead OK computer coca cola co KO (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 17:24 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I mean just because their tweeness is easy to clown it doesn't exactly make them Pomplamoose or something. There is artistic merit.
― Evan, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 17:29 (eight years ago) link
you need to listen to more bnl, friend
― Cuombas (jim in glasgow), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 17:31 (eight years ago) link
perhaps you have been in Canada too long
― radiohead OK computer coca cola co KO (rip van wanko), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
i think it's more of a quirky/nerdy thing. barenaked ladies could totally make this a new anthem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDmw8bZWFhk
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:01 (eight years ago) link
likewise, magnetic fields could make this into a suitable dirge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ggJS0p-QQc
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:03 (eight years ago) link
oh my fucking god yes
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:13 (eight years ago) link
i've always hated merritt and like a few bnl singles lol
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:14 (eight years ago) link
"what a good boy" is a pretty good song about gender roles and dysphoria from 1992
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:16 (eight years ago) link
oh I can just hear it
― rip van wanko, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 18:26 (eight years ago) link
http://www.stereogum.com/1911805/hear-five-songs-from-the-magnetic-fields-5-disc-album-50-song-memoir/tour-dates/?utm_source=share-tw&utm_medium=button
― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, 17 November 2016 22:13 (seven years ago) link
anyone see the Brooklyn shows?
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 December 2016 19:17 (seven years ago) link
A number of things have always put me off this obviously great music-- my own (justified) projection of ego-centricity on to Merritt, the obsessiveness of his tru fans, a couple of lousy shows, etc. But nothing put me off more than the fact that, late 90s and early 00s, his albums were full-price and yet felt and sounded cheap... there was this feeling of parsimony to the transaction of buying-and-consuming his music, like I was being grifted.
But these days I've been streaming it on Tidal and I kind of can't believe the breadth and scope of it all, all the subtle details that went into every track. And the feeling of being scammed has dissipated... it feels positively generous, for some reason. I can't think of many other artists whose work I can say I enjoy more in the streaming context than this band
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 7 October 2018 14:24 (five years ago) link
That's really interesting. I've never considered the value proposition of music that way. Though there was a time when I tried to love albums more based on how much I paid (import albums costing $20 got my plays than used bin items).
For some artists, the original context of creation and release has added immensely to my appreciation and enjoyment, whereas with other removing that context is better. Magnetic Fields land in the latter for you.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 7 October 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
Oh, for sure. I paid $30 for a bootleg Neu! CD when I was 19 and it felt like it was worth it. And I always enjoyed Magnetic Fields, there's just something about the thesis of it, compositionally and lyrically, that didn't mesh well with "paying $18-$20 for a 33 minute CD" (as I did for The Charm Of The Highway Strip). Or the inglorious expense of the 3CD 69 Love Songs boxset... which, iirc, at the time seemed like the music object that "only my more wealthy friends could afford". (Maybe this feeling was, at the time, coloured by the fact that I was buying up classic-after-classic Bowie albums at $10 a pop).
There was a discussion upthread about the thesis of this band (and Merritt's other projects) and it does seem to imply less of a "you are listening to an essential album when you listen to a Magnetic Fields album" experience and more of a sly-wink takes-the-entire-oeuvre-to-understand-it subversion of what albums are, what songs are, what lyrics are, when instrumentation is, and what emotions themselves are and how we describe them. OK I'm getting pretty babbly just gonna stop typing and hit it
― fgti is for (flamboyant goon tie included), Sunday, 7 October 2018 17:57 (five years ago) link