while in a boston in high school, singer/songwriter stephin merritt (ukulele/keyboard/vocals),  often called one of the best songwriters now working met claudia gonson (percussion/piano/vocals).  soon after, the two formed their first band called the zinnias.  years later in 1989, they, along with susan anway (original lead vocalist, who left the band in 1991), sam davol (cello/flute) and john woo (banjo/guitar) formed the magnetic fields.

the band’s name comes from the andré breton novel, les champs magnétiques.  the multitasking stephin’s side projects include the gothic archies, future bible heroes, and the 6ths.

the band has no particular musical style, but at times have been labeled in the synthpop, indie pop, noise pop, and folk-pop categories.

even with all those labels, stephin does not like to be labeled.  “music is not a set of sounds,” he said, and added that the thing to do is create a word for a category that you like. he continued by saying, "the magnetic fields make variety music. there were a million tv variety shows in the seventies.”

in 1999 the band released the triple album 69 love songs in which each song came from a different genre, from punk to show tunes.  in this album, the band utilized a wide range of instruments  including ukulele, banjo, accordion, cello, mandolin, flute, xylophone, marxophone, and of course synthesizers and guitars.

stephin came up with the idea for 69 love songs while at a gay piano bar.  the album originally was planned as a live musical revue with 100 love songs; he soon realized that at 2 minutes per song, the revue would last over 3 hours without an intermission.  he decided to shorten the album to a slightly leaner 69 songs.

in 2004 and 2008 the band released i and distortion respectively.  for the acoustic and orchestral i, the song titles begin with the letter "i".  distortion, which had a strong the jesus and mary chain vibe focused on noise music and was recorded in the stairwells and rooms of stephin‘s nyc apartment building.  both albums were recorded without the use of synthesizers.

january 26, 2010 marked the release of their ninth album, realism as a contemporary version of orchestral folk albums, and marked the end of their “no-synth" trilogy.  i read that their next album will feature synthesizers almost exclusively.

click here for a january 29, 2008 assisted listen recorded by the brynat park project .  click here for a february 10, 2010 npr's all things considered story.  click here for a january 26, 2010 whyy fresh air story.  click here for a may 31, 2005 set recorded by npr for creators at carnegie.  click here and here for march 30, 2008 and june 30, 2000 set/interviews recorded by kcrw.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if magnetic fields has any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.

magnetic fields are charged.

if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site).

jason

don't worry if you missed the harlem profile from last week: here it is.

nonesuch


nonesuch