The Magnetic Fields have announced a twelve-concert US tour next spring following a four-city tour of Latin America this December. The band closes out a busy 2022, which saw shows through throughout Europe and the US, with concerts in Mexico, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. The spring run of US shows starts with two nights in Denver, March 17 and 18, followed by dates in Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Austin, St. Louis (two nights), Cleveland, and Pittsburgh (two nights), culminating at City Winery Hudson Valley on April 3. Fan pre-sale is on now using code TMF23spring at checkout; general on-sale begins Friday. Details and tickets below; for all the latest, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

The band's latest album, Quickies—released last year to critical acclaim—is twenty-eight short songs by Stephin Merritt, ranging in length from thirteen seconds to two minutes and thirty-five seconds, performed by Merritt and band members Sam Davol, Claudia Gonson, Shirley Simms, and John Woo, along with longtime friends and collaborators Chris Ewen, Daniel Handler, and Pinky Weitzman. Mxdwn says: “It’s like Merritt has made a storybook here, a collection of character sketches, or maybe even poignant profanity, such that Quickies is undeniably vivid,” while the New Yorker praises Merritt as “a mordant wit whose work connects upon contact, and whose obvious sophistication never curtails his naughty streak.”

To date, Stephin Merritt has written and recorded twelve Magnetic Fields albums, including the beloved 69 Love Songs and the 2017 critically acclaimed Nonesuch box set, 50 Song Memoir, which chronicled the first fifty years of the songwriter’s life with one song per year. New York magazine called the box set “a celebration of Merritt’s sky-high range as a writer and a player, through the exploration of the circumstances that helped cultivate it … a delightful flip through the untold back pages of one of rock’s most singular voices, and, all in all, the best damned Magnetic Fields album in the last ten years.” Merritt has also composed original music and lyrics for several music theater pieces, including an off-Broadway stage musical of Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline, for which he received an Obie Award. In 2014, Merritt composed songs and background music for the first musical episode of public radio’s This American Life. Stephin Merritt also releases albums under the band names the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes.

THE MAGNETIC FIELDS ON TOUR