September 27, 2006

New Gothic Archies - The Tragic Treasury

It's been almost a decade since Stephin Merritt's last Gothic Archies album, but that's about to change thanks to Lemony Snicket. We haven't actually read Daniel Handler's Series Of Unfortunate Events books but, from what we gather, the author and Merritt are a perfect pairing. This Count Olaf guy sounds pretty goth too. From the press release:

For seven years, Stephin Merritt (Magnetic Fields) has been recording songs under the band name The Gothic Archies for the audiobooks of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the popular children's series by his friend Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket). The Tragic Treasury: Songs from a Series of Unfortunate Events collects these thirteen gloomy and hilarious songs, plus two bonus tracks, including a depressingly upbeat theme song, “We Are the Gothic Archies.” Merritt wrote and recorded all the music, with accordion by Lemony Snicket. The Tragic Treasury will be available on Nonesuch October 10th, 2006, in conjunction with the Friday the 13th release date of Snicket’s thirteenth and final book, The End, from HarperCollins Publishers.

So these songs have been around for seven years? We really need to brush up on our children's audiobooks.

Listen to three tunes here. Reverb-drenched acoustic yarn "Crows" sounds straight outta '70s AOR. In a good way.

Posted at 2:44 PM
Tags: Stephin Merritt | The Gothic Archies | The Magnetic Fields

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13 Comments

The books are brilliant. You should read them.

Posted by: G at 09/27/06 3:16 PM | Reply
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Daniel Handler played accordion on 69 Love Songs. They're old friends.

Posted by: rosie at 09/27/06 3:26 PM | Reply
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There was also a movie, starring Jim Carrey - can't belive you missed it!

Posted by: Rachelandthecity at 09/27/06 3:31 PM | Reply
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I know there was a movie! I heard it was bad. But the books are supposed to be super, I know.

Posted by: scott at 09/27/06 3:48 PM | Reply
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Big shock that bullshit Pitchfork aped this news tidbit. Same as yesterday. Same as the day before.

Such bullshit fools.

Posted by: Hooker Shorts at 09/27/06 4:11 PM | Reply
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typo in your headline

Posted by: edwin at 09/27/06 4:33 PM | Reply
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Oops, thanks Edwin.

Posted by: scott at 09/27/06 5:07 PM | Reply
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Handler also did the interview/liner notes to 69 Love Songs...

Posted by: zac at 09/27/06 5:25 PM | Reply
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If anything, the books are different. Gawth for the kids. I dig the tunes, too.

Posted by: a is for applebits at 09/27/06 6:50 PM | Reply
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Uh, actually, if Scott got this bit from a press release, it's quite likely Pitchfork also received the release. It's not so mysterious.

Posted by: zoilus at 09/27/06 8:10 PM | Reply
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this band was actually on the Adventures of Pete and Pete soundtrack. Good stuff!

Posted by: Rich at 09/28/06 12:06 AM | Reply
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I am so stoked on this. I've been repeating "The Abandoned Castle of My Soul" recently and now I can't wait to get more Gothic Archies. In other news, Mag Fields' "Why I Cry" *was* featured in Pete and Pete (one of my favorite shows ever) and All-Time QB does a pretty sweet cover of it as well. Sweet like "twee", not sweet like "bitchin'".

Posted by: Alexis at 09/28/06 2:08 PM | Reply
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they are actually doing a tour together, of bookstores and high school auditoriums. radical.

Posted by: fringe at 09/29/06 2:27 AM | Reply
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