The Magnetic Fields

Stephin Merritt wears brown on the outside because brown is how he feels on the inside. Or something like that. The beloved Magnetic Fields front man explains his penchant for the color that dominates his wardrobe in an interview with New York magazine this week. For one thing, he says, he wears brown instead of black because he doesn’t want to “look like a French tourist in Soho.” Zing! But brown also matches his hair and his eyes and, most importantly, his cute white and beige dog with a little brown nose. Awww! More from the interview after the jump.  read more »

There are two people's voices I can impersonate well: that of Magnetic Fields frontman Stephin Merritt and Project Runway frontman Tim Gunn. It seems Merritt is forever impersonating as well, or perhaps just exploring the many forms of his beloved pop and rock songcraft. (Alas, Mr. Gunn specializes in another kind of craft, one that falls outside the purview of this review.) Of course this diversity was most prominent on the Magnetic Fields' 1999 compendium 69 Love Songs, for which he and the band ran through nearly every permutation of the love-song conceit, and came to rest on the lucky number.

Yet, while the band has always been a sucker for a blunt conceit, the years since the release of 69 have seen the very bluntness become esoteric. 2004's i was a string-laden soft-pop ode to melodrama where all the songs began with the prime pronoun and were arranged alphabetically. Then there's the string of Mr. Merritt's side-projects, from the guest-vocalist-heavy 6ths to the Gothic Archies' morose children's songs, an accompaniment to the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books. Showtunes was a 2006 collection of Mr. Merritt's work for Chinese theater director Chen Shi-Zeng. Recently Mr. Merritt's voice even graced a Volvo commercial.  read more »

THEATER

Now that the Broadway strike is over, there’s going to be a mad rush for tickets and most of this weekend's shows will be sold out. But throw some elbows and get a good spot on line for Aaron Sorkin’s The Farnsworth Invention, which is opening on Monday, Dec. 3. It's so good, it'll make you forget Studio 60.

[Check here for tickets.]

CONCERTS

Boston’s post-punk fogies Mission of Burma are coming to the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Jan. 19. Okay, so maybe they were way more important, and more attractive, in the early 80’s, but Mission of Burma is still worth seeing, if only so you can get sore singing/moshing to “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver.” Classic! [On sale: Since noon today. Hurry!]  read more »

Stephin Merritt wrote and recorded a little ditty called "A Man of a Million Faces" for NPR's Project Song... um, project.

From NPR:  read more »

Stephin Merritt's brooding synth-pop band The Magnetic Fields are playing at the Town Hall Theatre on Feb. 22 and 23rd. Presale tickets are available now, here when you sign up for validation.  read more »