The Magnetic Fields are an American

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

founded and led by

Stephin Merritt Stephin Merritt (born February 9, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the songwriter and principal singer of the bands the Magnetic Fields, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. He is known for ...

. Merritt is the group's primary songwriter, producer, and vocalist, as well as frequent multi-instrumentalist. The band is named after the

André Breton André Robert Breton (; ; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') ...

Philippe Soupault Philippe Soupault (2 August 1897 – 12 March 1990) was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He was active in Dadaism and later was instrumental in founding the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault ini ...

novel ''

Les Champs Magnétiques LES or Les may refer to: People * Les (given name) * Les (surname) * L.E.S. (producer), hip hop producer Space flight * Launch Entry Suit, worn by Space Shuttle crews * Launch escape system, for spacecraft emergencies * Lincoln Experimental ...

''. The band released their debut single " 100,000 Fireflies" in 1991. The single was typical of the band's earlier career, characterized by synthesized instrumentation by Merritt, with lead vocals provided by Susan Anway (and then by Stephin Merritt himself, from the '' House of Tomorrow'' EP onwards). A more traditional band later materialized; it is now composed of Merritt,

Claudia Gonson Claudia Miriam Gonson (born April 5, 1968) is an American musician best known for her work with The Magnetic Fields. She often provides the band lead vocals as well as performing the piano or drums. She is also the band's manager. Gonson met ...

Sam Davol Samuel Bradford Davol is a musician best known for his work with the indie pop band The Magnetic Fields. He is featured several times in videos for The Magnetic Fields, and in the opening for "Born on a Train", his cello is featured at the beginni ...

, and John Woo, with occasional guest vocals by Shirley Simms. The band's best-known work is the 1999 three-volume concept album ''

69 Love Songs ''69 Love Songs'' is the sixth studio album by American indie pop band the Magnetic Fields, released on September 14, 1999, by Merge Records. As its title indicates, ''69 Love Songs'' is a three-volume concept album composed of 69 love songs, all ...

''. It was followed in the succeeding years by a "no-synth" trilogy: '' i'' (2004), ''

Distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

'' (2008), and ''

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *American Realism *Classical Realism *Liter ...

'' (2010). The band's latest album, '' Quickies'', was released on May 29, 2020.

History

The band began as Merritt's studio project under the name Buffalo Rome. With the help of friend

, who had played in Merritt's band the Zinnias during high school, a live band was assembled in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where Merritt and Gonson lived, to play Merritt's compositions. The band's first live performance was in 1991 at T.T. the Bear's Place in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, where they were mistakenly billed as Magnetophone, an alias used briefly in that year by Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang of

Galaxie 500 Galaxie 500 was an American indie rock band that formed in 1987 and split up in 1991 after releasing three studio albums: '' Today'' (1988), '' On Fire'' (1989), and '' This Is Our Music'' (1990). The band membership comprised guitarist and v ...

. The 1999 triple album ''

'' showcased Merritt's songwriting and lyrical abilities and the group's musicianship, demonstrated by the use of such varied instruments as the ukulele, banjo, accordion, cello, mandolin, flute,

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African ...

, and the

Marxophone The Marxophone is a fretless zither played via a system of metal hammers. It features two octaves of double melody strings in the key of C major (middle C to C''), and four sets of chord strings (C major, G major, F major, and D7). Sounding ...

, in addition to their usual setting of synthesizers, guitars, and effects. The album features vocalists Shirley Simms,

Dudley Klute Dudley Klute (born December 10) is an American vocalist and songwriter noted for his work with the Belgian New wave music, New Wave band Kid Montana in the 1980s, and his subsequent collaborations with Stephin Merritt's The Magnetic Fields (he ...

, L.D. Beghtol, and Gonson, each of whom sings lead on six songs as well as various backing vocals, plus

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and '' All the Wrong Question ...

(who has written under the pseudonym

Lemony Snicket Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler and a fictional character of his creation. Handler has published various children's books under the name, including ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'', which has sold over 60 millio ...

) on accordion, and longtime collaborator Christopher Ewen (of

Future Bible Heroes Future Bible Heroes is an American indie pop group led by Stephin Merritt, best known for his work with The Magnetic Fields. Merritt shares vocal duties with fellow Magnetic Fields member Claudia Gonson, who sings on the entirety of 2002's '' E ...

) as guest arranger/synthesist. Violinist Ida Pearle makes a brief cameo on "Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side". The band's albums '' i'' (2004) and ''

'' (2008) both followed the album theme structure of ''69 Love Songs'': the song titles on ''i'' begin with the letter (or, in the case of half the songs' titles, the pronoun) "I", whilst ''Distortion'' was an experiment in combining

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

with their typically unconventional musical approach. The liner notes claim the album was made without synthesizers. According to an article, "To celebrate the release of ''Distortion'', Merritt and the Magnetic Fields played mini-residencies in cities around the country, culminating with six shows at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music." ''

'' was released in January 2010, concluding what Merritt termed the "no-synth" trilogy (following ''i'' and ''Distortion''). The next album produced would feature synthesizers "almost exclusively". In 2010, the documentary film ''Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields'' made its debut in film festivals around the world. It was directed by Kerthy Fix and

Gail O'Hara Gail O'Hara is an American editor, writer, photographer, recording label owner and filmmaker. She has worked at the ''Washington City Paper'', ''SPIN'', ''Time Out New York'', ''ELLEgirl'', ''EW'', Modern Painters, Kinfolk and other publications ...

. Shot over a period of 10 years, it discusses the formation of the band, Stephin's friendship with Claudia Gonson, the production of various albums, and Stephin's move to California from New York. It won the Outfest 2010 Grand Jury Prize for Feature Documentary. The band was chosen by

Jeff Mangum Jeffrey Nye Mangum (born 24 October 1970) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who gained prominence as the founder, songwriter, vocalist and guitarist of Neutral Milk Hotel, as well for his co-founding of The Elephant 6 Recording Comp ...

Neutral Milk Hotel Neutral Milk Hotel was an American band formed by Jeff Mangum in Ruston, Louisiana, in 1989. They were active until 1998, and then from 2013 to 2015. The band's music featured a deliberately low-quality sound, influenced by indie rock and psy ...

to perform a rare festival performance at the

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released as the band's debut single in 1966. The song is from their 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the so ...

event that he curated in March 2012 in

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

, England. The band released its tenth full-length album, '' Love at the Bottom of the Sea'', on March 6, 2012. This album, compared by Dan Raby to ''69 Love Songs'', brought back the use of synthesizers. Merritt told fans on his website, "I was very happy to be using synthesizers in ways that I had not done before. Most of the synthesizers on the record didn't exist when we were last using synthesizers." The song " Andrew in Drag" garnered much attention, receiving play from entities such as

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...

and

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

All Songs Considered ''All Songs Considered'' is a weekly online podcast and radio program hosted by Robin Hilton. It was created in January 2000 by NPR's ''All Things Considered'' then-director Bob Boilen and produced by Robin Hilton beginning in 2001. At first, ...

''. In 2012, the Magnetic Fields celebrated its new album by launching a North American and European tour. It began on March 6, the release date of ''Love at the Bottom of the Sea'', and continued for two months. In 2016, it was announced that the band's eleventh studio album, '' 50 Song Memoir'', would contain fifty songs, akin to the ''69 Love Songs'' concept, one to commemorate each year since Stephin Merritt was born. It was released in March 2017. On May 15, 2020, the band digitally released the album '' Quickies''—twenty-eight songs under three minutes long—through

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, Nonesuch ...

. The first single, "The Day the Politicians Died", was released on February 25, followed by "

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

in a Blackout" on April 1, "I Want to Join a Biker Gang" on April 16, and "I've Got a Date With Jesus" on May 8. The band released a vinyl box set of the album on May 29, followed by the CD on June 16. Former lead singer Susan Anway died in September 2021.

Members

Official members

– guitars, synthesizers,

ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

, keyboards, bass guitar,

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s, percussion, miscellaneous instruments, vocals (1989–present) *

– piano, drums, percussion, keyboards, vocals, group manager (1989–present) *

–

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

(1989–present) * John Woo – guitars,

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

(1994–present) * Shirley Simms –

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...

, ukulele, vocals (1999 (guest vocalist); 2007–present) *Chris Ewen – synthesizers, keyboards (1999 (guest musician); 2016–present) *Anthony Kaczynski – guitar, vocals (2016–present)

Other contributors

Current and former contributors include singers Susan Anway,

, Nell Beram, and

LD Beghtol LD Beghtol (13 December 1964 – 2020), also known as "Uncle LD", was an American musician, art director and writer. He was best known for participating in The Magnetic Fields' ''69 Love Songs'' and writing the illustrated companion book ''69 Lov ...

, as well as instrumentalists Anthony Kaczynski, Johny Blood, Quince Marcum,

, Chris Ewen and engineer/producer Charles Newman and instrumentalist and singer Pinky Weitzman.

Discography

; Studio albums * '' Distant Plastic Trees'' (1991) * '' The Wayward Bus'' (1992) * ''

The Charm of the Highway Strip ''The Charm of the Highway Strip'' is the third studio album by American indie pop band The Magnetic Fields, released in 1994. It was the fourth Magnetic Fields album to be recorded, but was released five months prior to their intended third al ...

'' (1994) * ''

Holiday A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. ''Public holidays'' are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often ...

'' (1994) * ''

Get Lost Get Lost may refer to: * Getting lost, an occurrence of losing spatial reference; losing one's way Albums * ''Get Lost'' (Huntingtons album) (1999) * ''Get Lost'' (The Magnetic Fields album) (1995) * ''Get Lost'', by Mark McGuire (2012) Songs ...

'' (1995) * ''

'' (1999) * '' i'' (2004) * ''

'' (2008) * ''

'' (2010) * '' Love at the Bottom of the Sea'' (2012) * '' 50 Song Memoir'' (2017) * '' Quickies'' (2020)

History

Members

Official members

Other contributors

Discography

References

External links