The Magnetic Fields

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The Magnetic Fields
Magnetic Fields, left to right: John Woo, Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Stephin Merritt
Magnetic Fields, left to right: John Woo, Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Stephin Merritt
General information
origin Boston , United States
Genre (s) Synth pop , indie rock
founding 1990
Website www.houseoftomorrow.com
Founding members
Stephin Merritt
Current occupation
Stephin Merritt
Claudia Gonson
Sam Davol
John Woo
Shirley Simms
former members
singing
 Susan Anway

The Magnetic Fields (named after the book Les Champs magnétiques by André Breton ) are an American pop band from Boston founded in 1990 by singer and songwriter Stephin Merritt . Although her musical style is as different as Merritt's songwriting, the band is mostly the music genres synth pop and indie rock , and also alternative , lo-fi or noise - pop assigned.

At the beginning of her career her music was characterized by the use of synthesizers by Merritt and vocals by Susan Anway, soon after Merritt also sang herself. Later the band became more traditional and has since consisted of Merritt, Claudia Gonson, Sam Davol, John Woo and will occasionally supported by singing by Shirley Simms. The band is strongly influenced by Merritt's lyrics, which are often about love; sometimes ironic, bitter and humorous. Her best-known work is the three-part concept album 69 Love Songs , released in 1999 , followed by the albums i (2004), Distortion (2008) and Realism (2010).

history

The band began as a studio project by Stephin Merritt (* 1965) under the name "Buffalo Rome", where he played all instruments. Together with Claudia Gonson, with whom he played in his band 'The Zinnias' when he was still at school, they put together a live band in Boston, where they lived. They had their first live appearance in 1991 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) in front of a small audience that was actually expecting the band Magnetophone (spin-off of Galaxie 500 ).

Released in 1999, the three-part album 69 Love Songs showed the public Merritt's songwriting skills and the band's musical talent through the use of numerous instruments such as the ukulele , banjo , accordion , cello , mandolin , flute , xylophone and marxophone in addition to the usual Use of synthesizers, guitars and effects. They were supported by singers like Shirley Simms, Dudley Klute, LD Beghtol and Claudia Gonson, who were both main and background singers. Also involved were Daniel Handler (alias Lemony Snicket ) on the accordion on "Asleep and Dreaming", Ida Pearle on the violin on "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" and Christopher Ewen (from Future Bible Heroes) on the theremin on "Blue You" .

Dirk von Lowtzow ( Tocotronic ) considers 69 Love Songs to be “one of the best pop works of all time” , it is one of his “absolute favorite albums” .
Both Rolling Stone and New Musical Express included the band's almost three-hour magnum opus in their selection of the 500 best albums of all time (465 and 210 respectively).

The albums i (2004) and Distortion (2008) resemble the album structure of 69 Love Songs ; The song titles on i begin with the letter (or pronoun) 'i', while distortion was an experimental combination of noise music with the typical and unconventional music style of the group.

The album Realism was released in January 2010 and is the last work by The Magnetic Fields that was released without the use of synthesizers. The album Love at the Bottom of the Sea , released in March 2012, was again characterized by synthesizers.

In 2017, the album 50 Song Memoir, a spiritual successor to 69 Love Songs, was released . The five-part concept album includes 50 songs, each covering a year of Merritt's life.

In 2020 The Magnetic Fields released The Day The Politicians Died as singles and the track (I Want To Join A), which played with stereotypes of masculinity, Biker Gang as a harbinger of the 28 short song album Quickies .

Members

Front man and songwriter Stephin Merritt

The permanent line-up of the band consists of Merritt, Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms and John Woo. Other musicians who were temporarily part of the Magnetic Fields as session musicians are Dudley Klute (vocals), Randy Walker (vocals), Ida Pearle (violin), Pinky Weitzman (violin), Phylene Amuso (bass), Nell Beram (guitar) and LD Beghtol (vocals, harmonium) as well as Daniel Handler (accordion, keyboard), Chris Ewen (theremin), Johny Blood (flugelhorn, tuba, vocals), Brad Gordon (trombone, trumpet) and Thomas Bartlett (keyboard instruments).

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
i
  US 152 05/22/2004 (1 week)
Distortion
  US 77 02/02/2008 (2 weeks)
Realism
  US 110 02/13/2010 (1 week)
Love at the bottom of the sea
  US 89 March 24, 2012 (1 week)
50 song memoir
  DE 77 03/17/2017 (1 week)

Albums

  • 1991: Distant Plastic Trees (CD) (Red Flame)
  • 1992: The Waayward Bus (CD / LP) (PoPuP)
  • 1992: The House of Tomorrow (CD / EP) (Feel Good All Over)
  • 1994: Feel Good All Over (CD / LP) (Feel Good All Over)
  • 1994: The Charm of the Highway Strip (CD / LP) ( Merge Records )
  • 1995: Get Lost (CD / LP) (Merge Records)
  • 1999: 69 Love Songs (3 CD / 6 LP) (Merge Records / Domino Records )
  • 2004: i (CD) ( Nonesuch Records )
  • 2008: Distortion (CD / LP) (Nonesuch Records)
  • 2010: Realism (CD / LP) (Nonesuch Records)
  • 2012: Love at the Bottom of the Sea (CD / LP) (Nonesuch Records / Merge Records)
  • 2017: 50 Song Memoir (5 CD / 5 LP) (Nonesuch Records)

Singles

  • 1991: 100,000 Fireflies / Old Orchard Beach (7 ") (Harriet Records)
  • 1992: Long Vermont Roads / Alien Being / Beach-a-Boop-Boop (7 ") (Harriet Records)
  • 1995: All the Umbrellas in London / Rats in the Garbage of the Western World (7 ") (Merge Records)
  • 1995: Why I Cry / The Man Amplifier (7 ") (Motorway Records)
  • 1998: I Don't Believe You / When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There (7 ") (Merge Records)
  • 2020: The Day The Politicians Died (Nonesuch)
  • 2020: (I Want To Join A) Biker Gang (Nonesuch)

Contributions to compilations

  • 1994: Plant White Roses (Stephin Merritt re-recording) on 5 Rows of Teeth (Merge Records)
  • 1995: Plant White Roses (Original Susan Anway recording) on The Long Secret (Harriet Records)
  • 1996: Heroes on Crash Course for the Ravers: A Tribute to the Songs of David Bowie (Undercover Inc.)
  • 1997: I Die: You Die on Random: Gary Numan Tribute (Beggars Banquet)
  • 1999: Le Tourbillon on Pop Romantique: French Pop Classics (Emperor Norton)
  • 1999: Take Ecstasy with Me on Oh Merge (Merge Records)
  • 1999: If I Were a Rich Man on Knitting on the Roof (Knitting Factory Records)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/tocotronic-im-pop-hat-authentizitaet-nichts-zu-suchen.807.de.html?dram:article_id=318193
  2. ↑ 465. The Magnetic Fields, '69 Love Songs' on Rolling Stone .com, accessed November 21, 2016
  3. ↑ The Magnetic Fields, '69 Love Songs' on NME.com, accessed November 21, 2016
  4. ^ Motorcycle glam: "(I Want To Join A) Biker Gang" by The Magnetic Fields. In: ByteFM Blog - News and reviews from our editorial team. April 20, 2020, accessed on April 25, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ The Magnetic Fields: An album full of short songs: "Quickies" will be released on May 15th. February 25, 2020, accessed April 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ DE
  7. ↑ US