On the newly released album “Distortion,” Stephin Merritt and his band The Magnetic Fields consider necrophiliacs, murderers and nuns, running the resulting storyline through a Jesus and Mary Chain-inspired wave of — you guessed it — distortion.
It’s a surprising output from a group better known for sprawling indie-pop opuses like “69 Love Songs” (the three-disc album containing, literally, 69 love songs), and perhaps even more surprising coming from Merritt, who suffers from hyperacusis, a hearing condition in which certain frequencies can seem magnified to painful levels.
To celebrate the release of “Distortion,” Merritt and The Magnetic Fields have played mini-residencies in cities around the country. The tour culminates with six shows at the Old Town School of Folk Music.
Before the tour, Merritt talked about staying sane on the road and why Marvin Gaye’s “Midnight Love” might be the worst album of all time.
Playing live isn’t your favorite activity, due at least in part to your sensitivity to volume. How do you tailor the performances to maximize your own enjoyment?
Well, we’re hardly amplified. It’s more or less an unplugged show. There are no electric instruments and no rhythm section. The loudest thing on stage is going to be the accordion.
Do you have a regimen that keeps you fresh night in and night out?
We used to have a two-cocktail minimum and maximum. I think now we’re more or less down to one glass of wine.
Any particular wine?
No, whatever happens to be backstage. We try to all consume the same substances before we go on. Since we have no rhythm section, there’s an endless tempo war on stage, so it’s important that no one has taken any stimulants or depressants that the others haven’t taken.
The concept for “Distortion” was to out-do Jesus and Mary Chain at their own guitar-feedback game. When did you decide on that for the album’s direction?
I actually decided on not just the songs but even the running order of the songs before I abandoned the previous idea for the record and jumped, a week or two before we started recording, into [the Jesus and Mary Chain] production style. There was a previous idea and no one will ever know what it was — unless they bribe the engineer. He’s asked me to put in that qualifier.
Do you feel like the traditional album is a sinking ship?
I think the bad album is a sinking ship. The album that is only done to promote the single is obsolete. That’s why “Distortion” was at No. 77 on the Billboard charts, which for us is a huge placement. In ordinary years that would be inconceivable. I think it’s a good thing. Say, Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” which is, of course, a brilliantly produced song that radio programmers never seem to tire of. But as an album, [“Midnight Love”] is painfully awful. If it didn’t have “Sexual Healing” on it, it would be unreleasable. That kind of album should not exist and need not exist anymore.
The Magnetic Fields
When: 7 and 10:30 p.m. March 14-15; 6:30 and 10 p.m. March 16
Where: Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave.
Tickets: $23-$25, 773-728-6000
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METROMIX@TRIBUNE.COM
