Tag: band I really love

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Band I Really Love: The Magnetic Fields

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The Magnetic Fields: because nobody else does hilarious, cranky, sweet, biting, romantic songs like Stephin Merritt (vocals/ukelele/harmonioum/keyboard) and his merry crew, aka Claudia Gonson (vocals/percussion/piano), Sam Davol (cello/flute), John Woo (banjo/guitar) and Shirley Simms (vocals/autoharp/ukelele).

For example, Andrew in Drag, from their latest record, Love at the Bottom of the Sea. It’s been stuck in my head for weeks and so now I’m going to share it with you, so I won’t be the only one singing the chorus under my breath at random and inappropriate times. (Note: contains nudity, may be unsafe for work!)
 

The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag

 
This one is called With Whom To Dance and every time I listen to it, I observe, wistfully, that really as far as I’m concerned the only wretched part of being single is not having anyone to slow dance with at weddings. You know? Everyone else gets up to sway and spin and there I am perched on the edge of my chair feeling kind of lonely and awkward about everything. Thank you for capturing that emotion in song, Mr. Merritt!
 
The Magnetic Fields - With Whom to Dance?

 
Dipping into their back catalog a little bit, here’s a live version of Drive on Driver from Distortion, the record I had on repeat for basically the four months of 2008:
 
Magnetic Fields "Drive On Driver" 10/18/08 Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC

 
If I ever get a tattoo, it will probably include the phrase characters bold complex and shady will write my memoirs across my heart, which is a lyric from this song, which is The Nun’s Litany, also from Distortion, here performed live in Oslo in 2008:
 
The Magnetic Fields - The Nuns Litany

 
In the category of The Best Kiss-off to an Ex Ever, there’s You Must Be Out Of Your Mind from Realism, live in St. Louis in 2010. Ideal to leave on the answering machine of someone you really, really don’t ever want to go out with again.
 
The Magnetic Fields - You Must Be Out Of Your Mind - Live at The Pageant in St. Louis - 3/6/10

 
And from 69 Love Songs, their three volume concept about love songs, here is All My Little Words, a song about being wordy but still powerless, performed live in North Carolina, in 2008:
 
Magnetic Fields "All My Little Words" 10/18/08 Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh, NC

 
Also from 69 Love Songs: The Book of Love, which has been covered by acts as diverse as The Airborne Toxic Event and Peter Gabriel. Seriously, click on those links and watch those videos. Y’all have not lived until you have heard Airborne Toxic Event perform a delicate chamber-pop song and Peter Gabriel aim himself, his voice and an entire orchestra at Stephin Merritt’s wry, reflective lyrics. Here is Mr. Merritt himself singing it in Los Angeles in 2008:
 
http://youtu.be/qzd9zEx6Wis
 
And then, I bring you back to the present with Quick, also from Love at the Bottom of the Sea, live in Chicago during their most recent tour:
 
The Magnetic Fields "Quick" Live

 
In conclusion: some photographs from their show that I went to a few weeks ago, here in New York, at the Beacon Theater.

The Magnetic Fields were as delightful as ever – at one point Stephin Merritt did an amazing dramatic reading of a stray gum wrapper that had made its way to the stage, and I decided that “I would listen to him/her/them read me a gum wrapper” is going to replace “sing me the phonebook” as my personal term of ridiculous fannish devotion – and DeVotchKa, who opened for them, did an exquisite acoustic set.

DeVotchKa
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The Magnetic Fields
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Band I Really Love: Pop Will Eat Itself

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This is Eich Bein Ein Auslander from Dos Dedos Mis Amigos, first released in 1994, and the first PWEI song I ever heard.

It was in a club – I think it was the Electric Ballroom in London sometime in 1998, but I could be wrong – and what I remember is watching the people on the dance floor swaying and stomping to the thudding beat, all gracefully synchronized within their personal space bubbles and not smushed into each other, as I had experienced elsewhere.

It was mesmerizing, and I immediately wanted to join them.
 

Pop Will Eat Itself - Ich Bin Ein Auslander

 
Also very popular in clubs at the time was Def Con I, from This Is the Day…This Is the Hour…This Is This!, originally released in 1988.
 

Pop Will Eat Itself | Def Con One

 
Because this was the Dark Ages Before mp3s, I then spent some time digging through used CD racks and bins on both sides of the Atlantic in search of their records.

Dos Dedos Mis Amigos was easily acquired, but all I could find from their earlier work was a kind of greatest hits compilation: the 1997 live album The Radio 1 Sessions 1986-87. YouTube is sadly deficient in my favorite tracks from that record (Demolition Girl and Illusion of Love) but here are some other ones that I like a whole lot:

First up is Evelyn, originally released on their first record “proper album” (cf. Axel, see comments for details) Box Frenzy in 1987. You will notice it is totally unlike both Eich Bein Ein Auslander and Def Con I in every way possible. I nonetheless love it very much:
 
http://youtu.be/kMlZMZKp_yw
 
This one is called Back Country Chainstore Massacre (not Chainsaw, as the video is labeled), from the Now for a Feast! compilation record in 1988:

http://youtu.be/PNc-DeKtW0I
 
Oh Grebo I Think I Love You is another one of my favorites:

PWEI Oh Grebo I Think I Love You

 

Finally, one that I haven’t listened to as much but still love: Not Now James, We’re Busy, from from This Is the Day…This Is the Hour…This Is This!. Be sure to turn it up so you can feel the bass rattle your bones.
 
http://youtu.be/GHsBSVgPSJQ