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Stephin Merritt

Recollection Volume 36 – Love At The Bottom Of The Sea

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron. Today computron chooses… Album: Love At The Bottom Of The Sea Artist: The Magnetic Fields Released: 2012 Format(s) I own it on: Vinyl Someone once described modern Magnetic Fields as a parody of Stephin Merritt’s songwriting style. This might be accurate. However, this doesn’t sum up the records completely. Love At The Bottom Of The Sea has some really good songs on it, and though it might be a bit over the top compared to 69 Love Songs, they’re worth the price of admission. Much like most of… Read More »Recollection Volume 36 – Love At The Bottom Of The Sea

Recollection Volume 13 – The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events

Recollection is a project to review my record collection. I will listen to an album I own and review it. The album will be chosen randomly by computron. Today computron chooses…  Album: The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events Artist: The Gothic Archies Released: 2006 Format(s) I own it on: CD We are the Gothic Archies, death, tentacles, and pip. Took longer than I expected to get to a Stephin Merritt project. The Gothic Archies is Merritt’s project of depressing bubblegum pop. The Tragic Treasury is a collection of songs created by The Gothic Archies for the young adult novels A Series of Unfortunate Events. Each audio book in… Read More »Recollection Volume 13 – The Tragic Treasury: Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events

iPhone Ringtones

Time for a non-Rocktober post. I’ve made some ringtones for my iPhone, and I thought I’d share. Yes I’m infringing on some copyright with these, but I hope the BBC, Nintendo, Stephin Merritt, Apple, and the TTC will forgive me. The Magnetic Fields – “BBC Radiophonic Workshop” Doctor Who Theme (Christopher Eccleston era) Doctor Who Theme (William Hartnell era)  Super Mario Bros. coin sound The Magnetic Fields – “One April Day” Sloan – “Cheap Champaign” Tetris music TTC door chime 

Stephin Merritt is amazing

Stephin Merritt at one point wrote for Time Out New York. They recently posted all his works online. Aluminum Tunes is not a new Stereolab album but two CDs of B-sides and outtakes and such. Three or four years ago, Stereolab was an indie-rock group with intentionally unintelligible singing, obscure words drawn from Marxist tracts, really long songs consisting of one chord, Velvet Underground shtick, lackluster playing skills and plenty of charm. Nowadays, it still has the charm part, but indie rock is dead—Stereolab helped kill it. Now its music is much better. Stephin reviews Stereolab. That has to be the greatest summary of Stereolab I’ve ever read.1 Merritt also… Read More »Stephin Merritt is amazing

Under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand…

On Friday night, I went to my first ever Hot Docs screening. Yes, I had never before been to Hot Docs after living in Toronto(ish) for 28 years. How long? 28 years.1 I lost my Hot Docs virginity to Strange Powers, a film about Stephin Merritt and The Magnetic Fields. For those who don’t know who Stephin Merritt is, or who the Magnetic Fields are, you’re obviously new to my blog, and my life.2 The Magnetic Fields are one of the most ambitious pop artists who are best known for their monumentous3 triple album project 69 Love Songs. Stephin Merritt is the band’s songwriter, leader, visionary, and in all honesty,… Read More »Under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand…

Realism – In Depth

Some months ago, The Magnetic Fields released a new record called Realism. I briefly wrote about it, with the intention to go back and write something more in depth. We’ve now come to that point. Song: You Must Be Out Of Your Mind Sung by: Stephin Merritt & Claudia Gonson Favourite lyric: “I no longer drink enough to think you’re witty.” You think I’ll run, not walk to you Why would I want to talk to you? I want you crawling back to me Down on your knees, yeah Like an appendectomy Sans anesthesia If you think you can leave the past behind You must be out of your mind… Read More »Realism – In Depth

Linky Link

Above, NPR inverview Stephin Merritt & Claudia Gonson. Carrie Brownstein, will you marry me? Okay, we’ve never met, and it would be slightly awkward that my best friend has the same first name as me, and his wife has the same first name as you, but does that really matter? Your love of The Magnetic Fields is enough for me. Oh, and while we’re on the topic, your amazingness as part of Sleater-Kinney doesn’t hurt. With a Gold in hand for Canada, 3000km away in the country’s largest city (and my city), the CN Tower goes gold. Mechanical Forest Sound posts a new Gentleman Reg song. Thanks Joe! Apparently Canadians… Read More »Linky Link

Linky Link

Happy Family Day! CityTV has an article on Eric Warner of We Are Busy Bodies. (via Jen Polk, via The Meligrove Band) Mechanical Forest Sound records the highlight of last night’s Wavelength 500… Barcelona Pavilion. Steregum reviews The Magnetic Fields at BAM. Jian Ghomeshi (did I spell that right?) got a lot of flack last night, and though I’m not a fan, he does put some good musicians on his show. See below…

Linky Link

Narratives interviews Mitch Fillion of Southern Souls. Great website, but it needs an RSS feed. Interview interviews Stephin Merritt. (Courtesy of Chromewaves) CBC Radio 3 posts really boring videos. Christine Bougie tells us all how to do our taxes. (Courtesy of Terri) The only good thing about basketball, dinosaurs eating cheerleaders. (Courtesy of The Daily What) Vish Khanna has breakfast with Laura Barrett on CBC Radio 3. Listen here. Or, how about Vish Khanna talking to Stephin Merritt. Sloan release B Sides Win… they should’ve called it, Raise Your Glass To The B Side. http://www.cbc.ca/radio3/podcasts/breakfastclub/CBCR3Break_2010-02-11.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Where can that sandy be?

OMG! OMG! OMG! Walking into the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and hearing “Robot Ponies” is slightly strange. I got to the venue partway through Laura Barrett’s set, and the sound was damned good, though you could hear the nerves in Laura’s voice, and more so her calming herself before playing. She played well, and had Ajay Mehra, Randy Lee & Dana Snell playing with her (the American dates of the tour are without Lee & Snell). After her set, I did hear some audience members commenting on how lovely Barrett’s voice is. No matter what, it’ll always be strange to be at a Laura Barrett show where there’s more than a… Read More »Where can that sandy be?