The Magnetic Fields

“Merritt’s pure alt-country/folk melodies rank among the greatest ever written, but what elevates him into the pantheon of leftfield gods is his almost casual ability to melt arch wit into profound emotion. “ – UNCUT MAGAZINE, 4 Sept, 2022 Indie pop legends the Magnetic Fields, fronted by songwriter Stephin Merritt, are touring throughout the USA, South America and Europe throughout 2022-2023. These intimate concerts feature material spanning throughout The Magnetic Fields’ 20+ year career, including songs from Merritt’s 1999 epic opus, 69 Love Songs. Featuring cello, piano, ukulele, and additional acoustic and electronic instruments, concertgoers will be treated to an intimate, orchestrated experience that will delight long-term fans, who will be hearing the older material performed live for the first time in a decade. Audiences can expect to hear songs spanning back to the earliest albums in the 90’s. Also from 2016’s 50 Song Memoir, as well as their most recent album, Quickies, released on Nonesuch in May 2020. The tour also celebrates the release of a special 20th’ anniversary vinyl edition of their 1992 EP, “The House of Tomorrow.” The band features lead singer/songwriter Stephin Merritt, joined by both longtime and more recent Magnetic Fields’ members Sam Davol, Shirley Simms, Chris Ewen, and Anthony Kaczynski. 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.” 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 NPR’s This American Life.

Since 1992, the Secret Cinema has been the Philadelphia area’s premiere floating repertory cinema series, bringing hundreds of unique programs to nightclubs, bars, coffee houses, museums, open fields, colleges, art galleries, bookstores, and sometimes even theaters and film festivals. Drawing on its own large private film archive (as well as other collections), the Secret Cinema attempts to explore the uncharted territory and the genres that fall between the cracks, with programs devoted to educational and industrial films, cult and exploitation features, cartoons, rare television, local history, home movies, erotic films, politically incorrect material, and the odd Hollywood classic. As long as it exists on real celluloid, that is—Secret Cinema screenings never use video/digital projection. While mainly based in Philadelphia, the Secret Cinema has also brought programming to other cities and countries.