Our yuletide '09 playlist keeps expanding. Yesterday we premiered Crocodiles & Dum Dum Girls' holiday jam. Now we've added Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings' "Ain't No Chimneys" and Magnetic Fields'…   Read Story »

Even though there's something sacred about time-honored traditions, there's only so many years you and your beloveds can sit beside the Christmas tree and listen to Sufjan or "Last Christmas" or the…   Read Story »

This year in music was great and we'rea gonna let it finish (sorry), but in terms of notable album releases the ship has sailed. No offense, 30 Seconds To Mars. While the Gummys' virtual poll booth…   Read Story »

Good news for lovers of cantankerous, hyperacusis-afflicted songwriters (also, just plain old good news): Stephin Merritt and his Magnetic Fields will be back with their eighth LP Realism on January…   Read Story »

Peter Gabriel's first album in seven years is a Bob Ezrin-produced orchestral covers collection called Scratch My Back. It reportedly features reinterpretations of the folks mentioned above along…   Read Story »

69 Love Songs was released September 7, 1999 by Merge. I was in school in Buffalo at the time and taking a break from music writing, so I was able to approach the collection entirely as a fan, which…   Read Story »

Saturday night was the closing to a week of benefits in support of the Vera Project, a "music and arts center run by and for youth," dubbed A Drink For The Kids and featuring Grand Hallway, Throw Me…   Read Story »

Vanity Fair has pics and a preview of the Magnetic Fielder's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's creepy kid's book. Merritt says: "This is part of my plan to make 50 successful Hollywood musicals." Don't…   Read Story »

Merge Records turns 20 this year and the celebration is well underway. Last week we told you about the five-day summer fest in North Carolina with Superchunk, Spoon, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, Destroyer,…   Read Story »

From his "Wheels On The Car" to his Wrigley commercial that's impossible to find on-line, etc., the Magnetic Fields' crooner certainly isn't shy about writing jingles or allowing his songs to be…   Read Story »