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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 5, 2004)
november S, 2004 » J u MUSIC out out out s t UUt 33 out Magnetic personality Stephin Merritt chooses his words carefully BY C O R l TARATOOT I PHOTO BY CHRIS BUCK t’s the summer of 2004, and I can’t shake the Magnetic Fields’ new record, i. Hopefully his Portland audience will receive a warmer welcome than this. Maybe M erritt’s ukulele will break the tension. I dive into the heart of the awkwardness. I want to. 1 want to sneer at the narcis “You’ve given some interviews,” I ask, “that sism of the lowercase first-person album have made you seem grumpier than maybe you title, or berate Stephin Merritt (the hand’s pri are. Do you think th at’s true?” His response: mary songwriter and singer) for his incessant “I’ve given some interviews with really difficult indulgence in ironic, deep-throated romanti journalists.” I wait out the awkward pause. cism. 1 beg my girlfriend to take i out of the “Not all music journalists are awful and stupid. C D player, hut she loves it. They’re not stupid. Well, obviously some of Loves it. them are. Um. But they live with their own W ouldn’t you think that a musician who agendas. I’ve l>cen a music journalist.” titled his last record 69 Love Stmgs— and meant Progress! Six sentences. Spider sense says it— would he wrung dry? For god’s sake, Merritt is a prolific musician (y’know, with 69 Love Songs. A literate, theatrical, three-disc the, uh, 69 and all). In addition to the Mag dissertation on one m an’s queer heart (via netic Fields, he’s performed and recorded Morrissey, New Order and Irving Berlin). Deli as/with the 6ths, the G othic Archies and cious masochism for broken lovers. A nd i— the Future Bible Heroes. But rock band’s seventh record— is more where that journalism? (A quick Google search finds M erritt’s byline inside The Neic York Times. Underachiever.) So Merritt begins to detail how his writing life extends beyond the realm of Magnetic Fields records. He talks about his film scores. There’s Eban and Charley, a gay intergenera- tional film directed by PDX resident James Bolton. The soundtrack to Pieces of April, an indie shot digitally by Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), consists of Magnetic Fields outtakes, plus one Mer ritt original. Then there’s the sting- writer’s experimental produc tion of the Ming Dynasty opera Peach Blossom Fan, the commissioned opera on Hans Christian Andersen, the film score for children’s author Lemony Snicket and a new 6ths album (rumored to be tracks for 1960s Andy Warhol screen tests). Stephin M erritt (second from left) also composes film music, So, yeah, Stephin Merritt including the score for 2 0 0 0 ’s Eban and Charley, which was is busy. But listening to him, it shot in Oregon becomes clear that his impa came from: 14 indie-rock show tunes about tience with extraneous information (like, say, love gone wrong, 14 more cuts from Merritt’s / most questions from music journalists) is really evidence of a single-minded focus on the sharpened knife, 14 more recordings of his things h e loves. I ask Merritt my last question, tobacco-stained baritone. one th a t’s been nagging at me during the inter Maybe I’m just hitter because I write one song every five years, and Stephin Merritt view: W hat do you enjoy, Stephin? A nd for the first rime in the course of our conversation, seems to write one every five minutes. Plus? Merritt seems happy to answer the question. H e’s a fantastic writer. T he kind of writer who makes other writers despise him. “I enjoy hazel cognac and cigarettes,” says Merritt. “I enjoy drinking and smoking. I enjoy And besides, it’s not hard to dislike Merritt. songwriting. Most of the time I enjoy record H e’s an infamous pain in the ass— pretentious, impatient, perhaps unsuited for life in the pub ing. . .and I’ve been really enjoying doing music lic eye. (Think of the sullen young Boh Dylan for plays.” toying with and eluding the press in the D.A. So for those of you in attendance Nov. 11 Pennebaker documentary D m t Look Back.) at the Aladdin, bring Stephin Merritt a snifter of cognac and a smoke, enjoy the songs, and Evidence. Catching up with Merritt via igno^| the rest of it— that extraneous stuff that phone, he is, initially, the brick wall writers and publicists whisper about. I ask him how doesn’t really matter anyway. J H the tour is going. “It’s just going from airport to T he M a g n e t ic F ields play 8 p.m. Nov. 11 at hotel to venue to hotel,” Merritt responds Aladdin Theater, 3017 S.E. MiIwaukie Ave. Tickets abruptly. “We don’t get to see anything or do are $20-$22 from the box office or Ticketmaster. anything interesting.” (Insert awkward silence.) A nd do you like the European audiences, 1 ask? CORI T aratcxtt is a record collector, a PDX-FOP “Same.” (Insert awkward silence.) Would you abandon touring altogether if you could? “I’m Now! organizer, a Wilco stalker and a music writer. not all that happy to tour." (Silence.) She can be reached at ctaratnot@comcast.net. Veggie Friendly 325 NE Russell St Plenty of Parking 503.528.8224 russeHstreetbbq.coir ----------1------- O utd oor Patio ----------- 1 ------------ TTMT l f P t UM A U SI 8338 N . 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