The Magnetic Fields set up shop at New York's Town Hall tonight for the first of four nights of performances there. Before the show, band frontman Stephin Merritt will be stopping by the WNYC, New York Public Radio, studios to talk with Soundcheck host John Schaefer about the band's latest album, Distortion. Stephin will also give a taste of what's to come on stage with a live, in-studio acoustic performance. (Also on the show: a discussion of Oscar-nominated, boundary-pushing film scores, including Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood, despite its being out of the Oscar running due to a technicality.) Soundcheck airs at 2 PM on 93.9 FM in New York and streams live on wnyc.org.
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In an interview with the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Alex Felsinger, Stephin is encouraged to reveal some real-life inspirations for the songs on Distortion. Felsinger wonders in particular about the source behind the unhappy folks in the song "Xavier Says" (sample lyric: "Zsa-Zsa orders, and drinks come/'Here it is, teddy bear'/'To your health, you ratfink scum'"), leading Stephin to admit to having witnessed a dysfunctional conversation or two in the "sleazy gay bars" in which he writes. To read the interview, visit sfbg.com.
Stephin reveals a different inspiration for the same song in an article in New York Press by David Chiu. The singer-songwriter explains that working his way through the alphabet, pegging a song title to each letter, eventually brought him to X and "Xavier Says." To read that article, visit ftl.nypress.com.
LA City Beat's Chris Morris finds still further inspiration for the tune: Lou Reed. He sees the iconic Reed as an "obvious source," with the song invoking "ol' Lou's heyday at Max's Kansas City." As for Distortion as a whole, despite its often unromantic take on life, Morris says that Stephin "steps up" with the new record and keeps things "surprisingly chipper." He suggests:
This is probably because Merritt is a finer melodist than any of his models; his principal composing cues appear to be taken from Brian Wilson ... It isn't accidental that one of the set's most entertaining songs,"California Girls," takes the Beach Boys' paean to our Golden State bunnies and stands it on its empty blonde head.
Ultimately, this allows Stephin and his band mates to create "an underpinning of merriment and well-placed dollops of irony
amidst the sheets of sound that propel the album ... [with] the sound
of the old, but the feel of something new." To read the review, visit lacitybeat.com.
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And for all the essentials on the sartorial side of Stephin, check out New York
magazine's interview with the Man in Brown to learn why you'll always
find him sporting his signature earth-tone (hint: not least because of
a very special brown-and-tan dog). To read the fashion-section
interview, visit nymag.com.
Click here to add the Distortion CD plus the free album MP3s, with the exclusive bonus download "The Man of a Million Faces," directly to your Shopping Cart now for only $13.98. For more information and more Nonesuch albums, visit the Nonesuch Store.