New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Magnetic Fields, who recently completed a seven-city tour of City Winery venues in the United States, will return to the road in April 2022 for a three-week tour of the United States and Canada. The twelve-city tour begins at the Tarrytown
Music Hall in upstate New York on April 6, followed by stops in Northampton, Raleigh, Charlottesville, Toronto, Iowa city, Saint Paul, Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Fan pre-sale begins Wednesday, December 8; general on-sale begins Friday, December 10. See below for details.
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:
Apr 6 Tarrytown
Music Hall Tarrytown, NY
Apr 7 Calvin Theater Northampton, MA
Apr 9&10 Duke Engery Center for the Performing Arts Raleigh, NC
Apr 11 The Paramount Theater Charlottesville, VA
Apr 13 Queen
Elizabeth Theatre Toronto, ON
Apr 15 Englert Civic Theatre Iowa City, IA
Apr 16 Fitzgerald Theater Saint Paul, MN
Apr 18 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA
Apr 19&20 Aladdin Theater Portland, OR
Apr 22&23 Hollywood Theatre Vancouver, BC
Apr 25&26 Palace of FIne Arts Theatre San Francisco, CA
Apr 27 The Theatre at Ace Hotel Los Angeles, CA.
