i is so underrated, love that album to pieces (the weak tracks on it are especially weak, though, which may be why it never makes these types of lists)
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 19 December 2018 15:56 (five years ago) link
we made the Shaggs sound like Yes
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 22 December 2018 13:44 (five years ago) link
I don't really know Magnetic Field too much, but saw this pre-MF band Buffalo Rome show from 1988 pop up and it sounds pretty great, especially the song around 5:10 ("Yellow Bird"?) Maybe some of these became Magnetic Field songs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdqpW-uE64&t=1943s
― city worker, Wednesday, 11 December 2019 15:03 (four years ago) link
gah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRdqpW-uE64
!!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing!! Wow. Yes - that song you mentioned became "Take Ecstasy with Me" recorded by The Magnetic Fields. There are some Zinnias songs in the set: "Leeches", "Kings" (later recorded by MF), "Otters" (part of "Otters" was used in the MF track "Jeremy"). Apparently they sing/play "Plant White Roses" backwards, according to the YT comment?! "Railroad Boy" and "Josephine" were later recorded by MF, too. Also played is "The Tiny Goat" later recorded by the Gothic Archies (who I am seeing tomorrow in NYC). Also, that's Susan Anway on lead vocals, right?!?! On the far left is Johny Blood, who plays tuba in MF. So I think Stephin was 23 and Claudia was 20 in that video (and she was attending Harvard at the time, I think). And then at the end, the announcer says that Jad Fair is coming up next!
― ernestp, Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:09 (four years ago) link
yes thanks! I perked up at the proto-"Take Ecstasy" too
― insecurity bear (sic), Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:18 (four years ago) link
Wow.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 12 December 2019 02:49 (four years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/news/the-magnetic-fields-announce-new-album-quickies-share-video-for-new-song-watch/
The Magnetic Fields have announced a new collection called Quickies. It features 28 new short songs by Stephin Merritt that are all under three minutes long. Quickies will be released across five vinyl EPs on May 15 via Nonesuch. It’ll also be available digitally and on a single CD. Watch the new video for “The Day the Politicians Died” below.
The band has also announced a series of intimate residency performances at City Winery venues across the country. Find those dates below.
Stephin Merritt is joined on Quickies by his bandmates Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo. Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman also appear on the collection. Merritt discussed the album’s concept in a statement:
I’ve been reading a lot of very short fiction, and I enjoyed writing 101 Two-Letter Words, the poetry book about the shortest words you can use in Scrabble. And I’ve been listening to a lot of French baroque harpsichord music. Harpsichord doesn’t lend itself to languor. So I’ve been thinking about one instrument at a time, playing for about a minute or so and then stopping, and I’ve been thinking of narratives that are only a few lines long.
Also, I had been using a lot of small notebooks, so when I reach the bottom of the page, I’ve only gone a short way. Now that I’m working on a different album, I’m enforcing a large notebook rule so that I don’t do Quickies twice in a row.
Merritt’s previous Magnetic Fields album was 2017’s 50 Song Memoir. Listen to Pitchfork’s 2017 In Sight Out podcast with Stephin Merritt.
Quickies:
01 Castles of America02 The Biggest Tits in History03 The Day the Politicians Died04 Castle Down a Dirt Road05 Bathroom Quickie06 My Stupid Boyfriend07 Love Gone Wrong08 Favorite Bar09 Kill a Man a Week10 Kraftwerk in a Blackout11 When She Plays the Toy Piano12 Death Pact (Let’s Make A)13 I’ve Got a Date with Jesus14 Come, Life, Shaker Life!15 (I Want to Join A) Biker Gang16 Rock ‘n’ Roll Guy17 You’ve Got a Friend in Beelzebub18 Let’s Get Drunk Again (And Get Divorced)19 The Best Cup of Coffee in Tennessee20 When the Brat Upstairs Got a Drum Kit21 The Price You Pay22 The Boy in the Corner23 Song of the Ant24 I Wish I Had Fangs and a Tail25 Evil Rhythm26 She Says Hello27 The Little Robot Girl28 I Wish I Were a Prostitute Again
― cajunsunday, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 17:57 (four years ago) link
How has Stephin Merritt not released an album titled "High Concept" yet?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:06 (four years ago) link
That list of song titles would be just as believable in a Sparks thread.
― Fantastic. Great move. Well done (sic), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:35 (four years ago) link
Even at 1:49, the new song feels too long.
― Murdered-Out Highlander XLE (morrisp), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 18:53 (four years ago) link
Some promising titles in there, but "The Day the Politicians Died" definitely doesn't live up to its.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:27 (four years ago) link
He probably could have just released a track list and skipped the music part.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:31 (four years ago) link
Fido, your songs are too short.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 25 February 2020 20:34 (four years ago) link
Some very provocative titles here, though
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 26 February 2020 00:41 (four years ago) link
worked for Bob Pollard
― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 26 February 2020 01:03 (four years ago) link
I want to join a biker gangI want to be in a gang bangI like my empty life but dangI want to join a biker gang
― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 18 April 2020 03:49 (three years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0eYO2cg9jA
― ... (Eazy), Saturday, 18 April 2020 14:34 (three years ago) link
LD Beghtol has passed:
Rest In Peace, LD Beghtol. I’m sorry we never finished our collaboration. pic.twitter.com/6zLbkAi6ZK— 50PoundNote (Jeb) (@50_pound_note) December 8, 2020
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:13 (three years ago) link
Oh no :(
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:18 (three years ago) link
Is there any other info (or context/confirmation) beyond this single tweet? I can't find anything.
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:25 (three years ago) link
I know Jeb and trust him as the source -- LD was apparently found in his apartment but there's no other details. Apparently he did catch COVID in summer, hopefully this wasn't something related to that.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:30 (three years ago) link
(That further info from Jeb directly.)
Thanks... how sad
― wet tip hen ax (egg drop mix) (morrisp), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 04:33 (three years ago) link
I will forever cherish "All My Little Words." Just too sad.
― TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Tuesday, 8 December 2020 20:21 (three years ago) link
Ah crap. One of my favorite gigs of all-time was the two-day complete "69 Love Songs". It was such an incredibly joyful experience, Claudia was radiating happiness and fun.
Any of LD's other vocal work recommended?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 December 2020 21:24 (three years ago) link
You could check out Flare if you like 'twee chamber pop' of any descriptionhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPLBPOIP1xI
― Lamont Dozier Dream House (Deflatormouse), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 02:41 (three years ago) link
His 33⅓ on 69 is good.
― huge rant (sic), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:13 (three years ago) link
listened to "all my little words" for the first time in forever when i saw this news. i think there's still no one i would trust more to do a perfect 2 and a half minutes.
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:25 (three years ago) link
really sad about this, it's hard to process. his voice & presence on those songs (thinking of "My Sentimental Melody" too) meant so much, more than I ever consciously realized.
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 04:55 (three years ago) link
"All My Little Words" is so simple but so perfect. RIP
― it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 05:10 (three years ago) link
I've at last fully listened to the CD of QUICKIES (2020).
An observation: every one of the 28 songs is a comedy song. We expect irony and drollery from Merritt. But amid the jokes I might also have expected a 30-second flash of plaintive pathos, or 48 seconds of surprisingly raw emotion set to a toy piano. He doesn't deliver that here. It's all black comedy.
I still rather like the way that he uses old-school syntactical precision, in a way unlike anyone else in pop - so that the words in a pop song have the grammar of, say, an article in a 1950s literary journal (if not something much older like Hazlitt or Hawthorne). Indeed I sense that this is something that's developed over Merritt's career - you really don't hear it so much in the 1990s work; it's really only noticeable more recently.
― the pinefox, Saturday, 14 August 2021 10:49 (two years ago) link
That's kind of how I described this album to a friend a few weeks ago. Every song is a little joke, but none of them are particularly funny. And maaaaybe you get a little of that old Merritt pathos in "She Says Hello," but that's the only thing close to a keeper here for me.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Monday, 16 August 2021 18:08 (two years ago) link
Every song is a little joke, but none of them are particularly funny.
I feel like his stuff always had this quality tbh
― Dexter Holland's Opus (Deflatormouse), Monday, 16 August 2021 19:59 (two years ago) link
I mean I think he's brilliant but there's always been this sense that they think their jokes are a lot funnier than they actually are, that's not a recent development.
― Dexter Holland's Opus (Deflatormouse), Monday, 16 August 2021 20:02 (two years ago) link
I think it's a gradual mutation that's gotten them to this point, where the songs are all joke, no ache. They were most of the way there with Love at the Bottom of the Sea, and then Bob Hurwitz from Nonesuch pitched Merritt the 50 Song Memoir concept, which helped stall the transformation (I always imagine this was Hurwitz's intention), but now here we are with Quickies.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Monday, 16 August 2021 21:44 (two years ago) link
"It's Only Time" came up on my Spotify a recently, and I played it over and over. It feels, like almost every MF song does, like a genre exercise, ironic and detached, but damn if it doesn't succeed magnificently as a straight ahead love song
― cerebral halsey (rip van wanko), Tuesday, 17 August 2021 00:28 (two years ago) link
I totally get that, it's such a beautiful song
― erasingclouds, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 03:44 (two years ago) link
I didn't know that 50 SONG MEMOIR was someone else's idea. I don't agree that it 'stalled Merritt's transformation' by being more sincere (if that's what's suggested). I'm afraid I think it's practically his worst LP, especially taken pound for pound, proportionately, or whatever - I mean it's about 20% good.
I think TMF *stage banter* has always been much less funny than they think - and people laugh along with it and think it's delightful that they're saying these actually quite dull things. That's been the case for decades. But I don't think that's true of the songs.
LOVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, yes, it's true that that had unfunny jokes - 'I'd go anywhere with Hugh', 'I'm going back to the country' - that don't compare with anything on 69LS. (Though the LP is still not all bad.)
Again I think the odd thing is just that Merritt hasn't kept a bit of the 'ache' element along with the comedy - as we all know how well he can do it. I should play 'She Says Hello' again.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 06:59 (two years ago) link
Not suggesting 50SM is more sincere, necessarily, just that it's not primarily comedy songs. I thought it was probably his worst LP after the first time I listened to it, but it's really grown on me since then. It's almost hard to think of it as a Magnetic Fields album, though -- I like it as a musical about a weird music geek written by a weird music geek and performed in the style of the Magnetic Fields. Another way you could look at it is that even if it's only 20% good, that's still 10 good songs, which isn't bad for a latter-day Merritt record. :)
And yeah, Love at the Bottom of the Sea wasn't all bad! Also helped that it sounded really good to my ears, especially coming off of the "no synths" trilogy.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 16:13 (two years ago) link
Another way you could look at it is that even if it's only 20% good, that's still 10 good songs, which isn't bad for a latter-day Merritt record. :)
That's a good statement.
And it's notable that so many of us (?) seem to have the same feeling of a decline in quality.
Having said this: does it even contain 10 good songs? That would be a list worth making.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 16:47 (two years ago) link
Some of the titles are not even summoning tunes for me now. And this after playing it a lot in the past.
These songs, I think are at least OK:
Rock'n'Roll Will Ruin Your LifeFoxx and IHow I Failed EthicsEthan FromeDreaming in TetrisLovers' LiesFathers in the CloudsGhosts of the Marathon DancersHave You Seen It in the Snow?The Ex and INever AgainQuotesYou Can Never Go Back to New YorkI Wish I Had Pictures
That's 14! And there might even be one or two more ... but still I don't think I'm setting a very high bar here.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 17 August 2021 16:52 (two years ago) link
Many of those would make my list of favorites (with Foxx and I at the very top). I'd have to include Hustle 76 (I was in Magnetic Fields cover band when 50SM came out and this is the only song from the album we worked on for possible inclusion in our set, but ultimately we dropped it), Life Ain't All Bad, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea too. I hear that last one as a bit of tribute to Scott Miller, who'd recently passed -- Merritt's said he tried to write a lot of fake Scott Miller songs in his pre-Magnetic Fields days, and it seems like he took the San Francisco setting of this song as a cue to give that another shot.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 14:10 (two years ago) link
I always thought Sweet-Lovin' Man was a Donnette-Thayer-sings-Scott-Miller pastiche.
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 14:36 (two years ago) link
Magnetic Fields cover band!
I'd go and see that!
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 17:27 (two years ago) link
My iTunes today randomly played 'they're killing children over there'. I thought: this is actually good, in various ways, and the melody stayed with me for hours.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 17:28 (two years ago) link
I think I'm going to delve back properly into this LP, maybe playing it all at random for days. I'll try to form a better view on the songs that CAPTCHAS mentions, which I don't now remember at all.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 17:29 (two years ago) link
Cool! Yeah, I think driving around listening to it on random like I used to do with 69LS helped me appreciate it more.
That hadn't occurred to me but now that you mention it I can definitely hear a connection between it and "Wyoming."
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Wednesday, 18 August 2021 20:19 (two years ago) link
I have always been able to appreciate 69LS consecutively, on CD. I don't even really associate it with random play.
Whereas - 50SM seems basically lower quality or less enjoyable overall, and maybe would benefit from elements of random surprise.
Today I just played the first few songs. I was surprised how good the opener 'wonder where I'm from' is. 'Killing children' as noted, has something, and btw the intro strikes me as a joke on 'Seven Nation Army'. The highlight I think must be 'Judy Garland' - the closest thing to a major song here? With the great line 'Let's try: None of the above'.
Then again ...
"'67 Come Back as a Cockroach", "'68 A Cat Called Dionysus" and worst of all, "'72 Eye Contact" - it's hard to justify even playing these tracks.
― the pinefox, Thursday, 19 August 2021 11:09 (two years ago) link
Reports that Susan Amway has passed away - heartbreaking.
Shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Susan Anway, vocalist with the Magnetic Fields, among others. My heart always breaks hearing this song; now for new reasons.https://t.co/YHIWPd2Xh8— Daniel Handler (@DanielHandler) September 8, 2021
― etc, Wednesday, 8 September 2021 21:33 (two years ago) link