Ode to a record store

I recently got an email from an old friend lamenting the number of independent record stores we used to visit in Portland, OR, which are no longer there. It seems that in the digital age it's harder and harder for indie record stores to make any money. Needless to say, they need to make money in order to stay open.

The shocking part for me was that part way through my email I found myself ok with their demise. I'm all for the independent business owner, and yes it is sad that independent record stores have trouble staying afloat. But I think that there's a huge, shimmering silver lining to what caused their downfall. The internet.

Why? Am I insane? I don't think so. If some of my freelance clients read this they'd likely be gravely disappointed in me. More than one person has complained to me about how "disposable" the music has become. (I've seen the bargain bins and give away piles. It's always been a little disposable I'm afraid.)

But again, I'm seeing a silver lining. I think that this horrible, evil, vile replacement is actually benefiting the bands. It used to be that if you had a band you had to have a manager and a label with a deal and even then you had to be really really lucky. Most independent record stores worth their weight would, admittedly, sell any band who came in the door with a CD they wanted to sell. In some cases that local indie business could be what kept that record store afloat. Still promotion and distribution depended upon you having money and more time than any one person should have.

Today any schlub, whether or not they should be making their own recordings, can. Not only can they record, but they can promote and even sell their recordings on line to anyone around the world. Suddenly we've gone from maybe hitting a hand full of teens at the local record stores, to being able to literally sell their music globally. That is ANYONE.
Should everyone make recordings and sell them? Probably not. When I worked at Arhoolie Records we would get demo recordings in from all sorts of wacky people. Some of them we'd put on and cheerfully laugh while occasionally dancing or singing along. Other times you couldn't turn the "music" off fast enough.
No, not everyone should record. But that's not my point. My point is that everyone CAN, and I think that's pretty damn cool. There is some reasonably cheap recording software out there that'll do the trick for most home recording enthusiasts.

Once you've recorded your music you need only have internet access to start selling your particular brand of genius (and digital file sales are far more ecologically sound). A MySpace page, a PayPal account, there are any number of options and there are any number of ways to get word out about your band and sell your songs. It's brilliant!

I'm pretty sure that if the networking sites and software were in their current state a good 15 years ago then I'd be right there, selling my songs to anyone who would listen, world wide. The market is wide open.

As a listener I love it too. I can effectively browse hundreds of potential artists just by wandering the pages of MySpace. True, they don't need me advertising for them. But seriously, I have actually discovered bands that I had no idea existed, that I love, and who would never stand a chance of me ever hearing them, on friggin' MySpace.

So let's examine the trade off again. Indie record stores are driven out of business. I can no longer wander the isles aimlessly while the music-snobs behind the counter snicker when I want to buy punk, hair metal, and new wave all at the same time. Yes I know they contradict one another, and I don't care.
In their place is a system where the bands (remember those guys? the ones with the "talent" who the record stores were supposedly for?) can get world wide exposure for a sliver of what such exposure used to run.

You know what? It's a huge, awful, soupy mess of indie music on the web now and I love it. I'm sorry that the independent record stores are having such a hard time. (It should be noted that any number of my friends have, at some point in their questionable pasts, worked at indie record stores.) I'm not sure that we're getting the bad side of the deal in the end. That's all.

Wow I hope Ted doesn't read this...

Wii will rock you

I've been known to waste perfectly good time playing video games from time to time. I'm old enough to remember Pac Man, in its original incarnation. We had one at the local 7-11 called "Lady Bug" which we preferred, possibly because it's what we had a the local 7-11, but it was just more or less the same game.

When I was 11 or so my father had his Intellivision, which blew the neighbor kids Atari out of the water. I spent many the mindless hour skiing, ruling my own continent, or running half-baked football plays.
More recently I've had a Playstation 2 since shortly after they came out. No need or urge has hit me to step up to the Playstation 3 yet.

You could say I'm a little old school with my video games, I suppose. I like a controller with buttons on it that you use to tell your little guys where to go with. I like pushing buttons to punch or shoot or jump. So this Wii phenomenon that's been going on for a while now just struck me as silly. They expect you to stand up and do stuff to play their games? HA!

So at a recent birthday party I half expected to laugh at it and be bored in minutes. I was wrong. The damn thing is fun.

I had no idea of what I was doing half the time (Boxing seems like luck as much as skill to me to be honest, and I'm the one who was winning it). I avoided my previously lamented competitive Yoga, but Wii Fit offered other gems like tightrope walking, running (in place) skiing, and something similar to Mable Madness of olde where you use your ballance to tilt the platform for the marbles.

I tried a bit of the Mario Kart, tennis, bowling, etc. The damn thing even made golf kinda fun. So that's why the damn thing sells? It is actually kinda fun.

I'm not sure when the last time was that I laughed so hard. Watching someone get high score in Hula Hoop? It's safe to say that it's a really good thing that they closed the front curtains first.

Next thing I knew it was after ten and I had to go home. So once again I was wrong. I've been wrong before, so I'm no stranger to this feeling. But it's a little hard on the fan of the standard hand controller to admit that they enjoyed a wireless controller that requires a wrist strap to keep you from putting it through the TV. And being up and moving while playing a video game? It's just such a strange concept to my old world brain.

I get the feeling that if I owned my own I might well not get anything done... ever.

Drawing women in the supermarket

I recently watched the 2006 film Cashback. I'd never heard of the thing, ever. When I was done I couldn't help but feel like I'd just seen an incredibly beautiful film. A quick check of the IMBD message boards clued me in quickly to the notion that not everyone felt the same way about it. WARNING: Spoilers.

Does it have lots of nudity? Yes. It does. Admittedly the the male to female nudity ratio is 1 guy to dozens of women. But I think it's fair to say that a sleep deprived art school student in his early 20s is fairly likely to look at things just as the lead did. So is there cause for women to be offended by it? Only they can say. I kinda can't help but feel like that completely misses the point of the film. It has the nudity, but I'm not sure that I'd agree that it's about the nudity. I think it's really just a love story that happens to have a lot of nudity.

To contrast with the main characters somewhat questionable pass times while at work, he has a friend who is consistently either having his face slapped or having a drink thrown in it. Then there's the coworkers who boast about sleeping with women they've never had a chance with, and the store manager who does a fine job of hitting on employees with a pat on the ass or asking them up for a shag (it's an English film). All of the guys displaying the piggish behavior are made to look like the idiots that they are. I think it's all rather fairly treated.

If you're offended by dumb guys acting dumb and nudity then it probably wont be your bag. If you've ever lost sleep for someone you may well relate to the film more than you think. In either case, I loved the thing.
I'm pretty sure I'll be watching this love story again.

Nothing to write about?

I just realized I haven't posted in here for a week or so. See, this is what happens when I don't have anything to say, really. I just end up saying nothing.

You win some, you lose some

I went to my second ever three minute film festival this last weekend. The first one I went to was a show I'd "acted" in. This time it was because my film was showing. Fun!

Attire ranged from full dress up (a few of us were in suits and one lady was actually wearing a snood), to hoodies and jeans. The full spectrum.

We didn't win jack (well to be clear we did win a couple swell raffle prizes, but nothing for the film) and still it was fun and worth it. It was also educational.

NOTE: In a three minute film festival your three minute film is going to be seen amid a batch of a bunch of other three minute films. Subtlety will not be what is going to win. You need to bonk the audience over the head with the cartoon rubber hammer, or have what a dear friend refers to as a "bah-DUM-bum" ending. Something obviously clever.

I had none of that. I had long plot (crammed into three minutes), and loaded it with allusions to literature, anagrams, and movies we like. When your three minute film is between two other three minute films and you're subtle, I'm not sure you can expect people to remember your stuff.

There is, then, perhaps a decision to be made. If you're making a film for a film festival because you want to win, or because you want to have fun and/or do something YOU want to do? Even being a looser I think I'm still in the latter category.

Interestingly I got recognized as someone from one of the other films... which I wasn't. I guess I just have that kind of face. Fun!

My advice? Get a camera and enter the film festivals. It's fun.

LOL cat speak translator

I have no idea how I hadn't seen this before, but I just recently located this fantastic tool for understanding what exactly it is that my cats are saying to me:
http://speaklolcat.com/

I should probably add, for anyone who has been living in a cave for the past year, that LOL speak is heavily linked to LOL cats which can be found in places like icanhascheezburger.

Bands that actually engage their audiences? No way!

In recent years I've noticed a few bands actually asking their fans to give back, you know, other than just their hard earned cash spent on albums or downloads.

Case 1) Rasputina: Years ago Rasputina had a contest where they asked fans to submit their lies. The winners lyrics were assembled into the song "Our Lies" which appeared on their 2002 album Cabin Fever. Winners also received something special from the band for their efforts. "Our Lies" continues to be one of my favorite of their songs.
Later they had a coloring contest, which I entered but did not win. It may have been one of the few competitions where coloring inside the lines did not help me in the least.

Case 2) OK GO: OK GO had a great success with their treadmill video for "Here it Goes Again." Rightfully so. They also held a contest where they asked fans to video tape themselves performing their own version of the bands "A Million Ways" dance video. Winners apparently got to perform the dance on stage with OK GO at a concert. Nifty!

Case 3) The Foo Fighters: The Foo Fighters were performing "The Pretender" on the 2007 Grammy Award show. Someone had the idea to get fans to perform in the orchestra they added for the show. I don't know if there were My Grammy Moment contests before or since, but it's a pretty cool way to encourage kids/fans to keep playing that oboe, even if it's not very cool most of the time.

Case 4) Nine Inch Nails: Nine Inch Nails had the audacity to actually let their fans make videos for their double album of instrumentals Ghosts I-IV. The album, with purposefully vague track names, is a sound track for something and apparently they wanted to see what the fans thought it was a soundtrack for. This one strikes me as particularly amazing in how the album appears to have been created as a blank slate for the fans to interact with. I don't know if anyone wins anything, and maybe that's not the point? The film festival appears to be still ongoing, so perhaps I should break out the camera this weekend?

Granted, helping bands write songs, or filming your own home videos to their songs isn't for everyone. But when bands encourage fans to be interactive, or even creative, I think everyone is better off for it.

Sure sign of the apocalypse

I recently went to dinner for a friend's birthday. The food was good and the people were good. I got to see a few people I hadn't seen in far too long, and they appeared genuinely happy to see me which is always nice even if a bit baffling.

I was in one conversation, and suddenly found myself overhearing another conversation about playing a yoga game? I can only assume that it's associated with the Wii Fit deal.

I actually heard them discuss who was "winning at breathing."

I proposed at that time, and still do, that when we have somehow turned yoga into a competitive sport, that it is a sure sign of the impending apocalypse. That's it people, game over.

Indie film making at its finest

I recently decided to enter a local three minute film festival. I'd been asked to give it a try by my friend, the organizer, before. Without a camera, or a clue, I'd always thought it was out of my grasp.
I went ahead and splurged on a nice MiniDV HD camera, a spare wide angle lens, and an external microphone for it. The whole package was around $1000 or so. Not the most carelessly used money I'd ever spent, but hardly cheap.

The first bit of luck I had was finding an actress who gave a damn about her character. The second bit of luck was that she was interested in the story I had in mind, and actually improving upon it.

We filmed over 70 minutes of footage, mostly in two days, and I edited, and edited, and chopped, and edited until the thing was a lean three minutes, one second long. Mind you I was doing all this in the iMovie HD that came bundled for free on my Mac. Not exactly top of the line software, but it worked out ok.

If I, in the future, mention any thoughts about filming my expertise can, thus far, be distilled into and out of this one filming experience. (read: I'm making it up as I go along so don't believe half of what I say.)

I'm proud to say that I have a final edit that both my lead actress and I like, and I've turned the damn thing into the festival officials. Woo hoo!

Unfortunately I've also caught a bug. I'm now talking with a friend of mine who has been known to write from time to time, with a rough story in mind. Now, is it sane to go straight from a three minute film, to a feature length film? Probably not. Do I care? Possibly. Am I going to do it anyway? Yes! I'm a fool and proud of it.

Onward and upward!

The Dark Knight is... dark?

Today I went and saw The Dark Knight. It seems like everyone and their dog had seen it but me, and I wanted in on the action. It's a good movie. A very good movie.

If I were to chose between the old rubber nipple Batman movies, and the new super-dark movies I'd pick the new ones. Ledger was fantastic. Bale was too. It was all good.

Then I realized that someone had brought their wee ones (that's kids for those of you who don't follow my vernacular). I looked it up (I couldn't remember) and the bloody thing is PG-13. Maybe I was a wuss and a mama's boy, but at 13 I was not ready to see that movie.
This is the part where I could go on my standard tirade about why you can get away with the violence and disturbing behavior and still be sub R, but show a nipple (or worse) and you're suddenly too adult for the wee ones. But I'll spare anyone my soap box now. Instead I'll remain quietly baffled.

Then again I was the kid who saw Jaws and became afraid to swim in my grandparents pool at night... in the San Fernando Valley. Ya, definitely a mama's boy.

Anyways. The Dark Knight is good... and dark.

Back for more?

I haven't touched this blog in years. Why am I doing this again? No clue. Let's see if I can keep it up ok?

Cover: David Bowie - Cactus - Pixies

When I put on David Bowie's 2002 release, Heathen, I was pleased enough with how it started. Then track number two hit and about four words in to it I suddenly found myself some sort of odd super happy experience. This is what happens when an artist I love covers a band I love, and does it well.
Pixie purists might complain that he softened the edge of the song, but I'd argue that any good cover involves making the song your own. If Bowie were to have sounded like the Pixies, then what would have been the point? Really? So it sounds like a David Bowie song, just written by Black Francis.
It starts nice and stripped with an acoustic guitar. At about 30 seconds in it starts to rock in a very agreeable way. I'd have purchased this CD for this song alone. Fortunately the rest of the CD is equally pleasing, frequently sounding much more like classic Bowie than we've heard for years.

Grade: A
on David Bowie "Heathen." Buy Heathen From Amazon.com
originally on Pixies "Surfer Rosa." Buy Surfer Rosa From Amazon.com

New CD: Chris Thile – Deceiver

A week ago my supervisor handed me this CD and said he wanted to know what I thought of it. "He’s this amazing bluegrass mandolin virtuoso, but this has nothing to do with that." Since bluegrass isn’t my thing that last part was necessary to even get me to listen to the thing. I was rather pleasantly surprised.
Admittedly I know little to nothing about Thile. I know he grew up spending a lot of time playing with the other kids at bluegrass festivals. At some point he picked up the mandolin and was annoyingly good at it. Then at another point he formed the band Nickel Creek with a couple other kids who are annoyingly good. The band was formed as bluegrass band, but it’s much more versatile these days. Deceiver, according to their website appears to be his second solo album (although I think they need to update their bio because it looks like his third to me).
So about this album? I guess the most surprising part about it, to me, is that he avoided the dangers of a musical virtuoso working on a solo album. Things can get awful self-indulgent and over done. While "Jessamyn's Reel" appears to be a showcase for his skills with the mandolin, he doesn’t ever sacrifice the good of the song for another opportunity to show us how annoyingly good he is.
Some of the tracks, "On Ice" and "Empire Falls," even seem ready for top 40 radio play (if top 40 programmers weren’t so slow to grab up good music, and that's not to indicate that I ever listen to top 40.).
The rest of the CD appears to be actively looking to defy genres. My untrained ear can hear rock and power pop and jazz and country and several things that seem familiar but are oh so hard to put a finger on.
So the bottom line would appear to be that he’s an amazing bluegrass mandolin virtuoso, but this CD has nothing to do with that. Maybe that’s why the bluegrass/folk/country crowd that’s his normal audience seems so displeased with it? Good stuff.

Grade: B+
Buy Deceiver at Amazon.com.

Cover: Nirvana - Where Did you Sleep Last Night - Leadbelly

I hope no one will think it's snooty of me to point out that if Leadbelly wrote this song then I'm the Queen of England. It's an old traditional song which normally goes by the name "In the Pines," and which has a long history with many variations. It might be accurate to say that the song was arranged by Leadbelly, but that might be pushing it too.
According to a 1994 New York Times article it dates back to at least the 1870s (their guess is as good as mine). Acording to folklorist Alan Lomax Leadbelly uses a part of the song heard in a 1917 version, and another part from a 1925 recording. The song has been recorded by the likes of Bill Monroe, Dolly Parton, Joan, Baez, Chet Atkins, the Strange Creek Singers (Mike Seeger, Hazel Dickens, Tracy Schwarz, and Alice Gerrard), and in this case Nirvana. By all accounts Mr. Cobain was a huge Leadbelly fan.
So what's the song about? Depending on which version you listen it's about someone wandering into the pines. The pines would appear to represent any number of bad things (again, depending upon the version). It ranges from trampy behavior, to depression, to death. There also tends to be a long train, and a train accident resulting in decapitation. Lovely stuff.
That said this is a prime example of how much angst ridden modern music has in common with angst ridden traditional music (maybe minus the train). Some selections of old-timey music give gangsta-rap a run for it's money in degreee of violence without pushing any sort of mother-f*cker per minute rate.
But back to the song at hand. It's quite possibly one of the best things they ever recorded. It doesn't rock like their more noisy songs, but the feeling conveyed here is some of the most powerfull Cobain ever mustered. He doesn't scream it, but this is one of those cases where the song is better for it. I've heard several versions of this song and this remains at the top of the heap, if nothing else for the raw emotion.
Good stuff.

Grade: A
buy Nirvana's Unplugged in New York from amazon.com.
buy Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Leadbelly Legacy, Vol. 1 from Amazon.com.
buy the Very Best of Bill Monroe from amazon.com. (warning, it's bluegrass!!!)

New CD: William Shatner - Has Been

It’s all here. From the Priceline.com voice to the staggered rhythm of his speech. Shatner’s first release in years finds him pretty close to where he was back when he was coving "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." To his credit he still doesn’t bother to try to sing, instead speaking the verses, with a guest singer frequently singing the chorus.
Here’s the surprise part though. It’s actually a pretty good CD. By all accounts he felt like it was a serious musical work when he made his previous musical attempts. But there’s this uncontrollable snicker when you hear him attempt Mr. Tambourine Man.
So maybe the difference here is Ben Folds who not only produced the CD, but co-wrote and performed on a number of the tracks. So the music comes across as real rather than a schmultzy attempt at recreating a classic.
Hand in hand with that is the list of guest artists were involved with the project. The spiffy promo sticker for the thing lists Adrian Belew, Joe Jackson, Lemon Jelly, Aimee Mann (don’t blink, or you might miss her), Brad Paisley, and Henry Rollins. Equally impressive is the list of studio musicians including Jon Auer (Posies, later day Big Star), Matt Chamberlain (drummer for the likes of Garbage, Tori Amos, David Bowie, Critters Buggin, and, and, and…), John Mark Painter (of Flemming and John), among others.
The Third difference might be that it’s not just covers. Of eleven tracks Shatner had his hand in writing all but three.
The first track is a marvelous cover of Pulp’s "Common People" with guest vocals from Joe Jackson. So is it actually possible for William Shatner to rock? This song thinks so, and I have to reluctantly agree.
The Lemon Jelly collaboration, "Together," is also very strong, even if about a minute too long. It reads like a shopping list of thoughts about Shatner’s wife.
The Henry Rollins collaboration, "I Can’t Get Behind That," takes a list of complaints about the modern world and lets Shatner and Rollins take turns yelling about them. Surprisingly effective, and pretty damn funny.
"It Hasn’t Happened Yet," finds Shatner running through a list of how he’s still looking for contentment, even at his age. "You’ll Have Time," would be a great drinking at the bar with your pals song. All about how we’re all going to die. (I sense a mortality theme going on here). The scary part of this track is that at the beginning it sounds for a moment like he’s going to try to sing. Whew, that was a close call.
According to the promotional materials the title track was written in response to opening a tabloid paper and finding a writer referring to him as a "Has Been." His reply is something to the effect of (to paraphrase): Is being a has been really all that bad? At least I was. What have you ever done? - It has a charming and humorous cowboy flavor to it.
The closing track is a Brad Paisley penned track about how celebrities are real people too. No? Really?
I think Shatner should be proud of this album, as should Ben Folds.

Grade: A-
Buy "Has Been" at Amazon.com.
Buy "Transformed Man" at Amazon.com.
Buy "Spaced Out: The Best of Nimoy and Shatner" at Amazon.com.

Guitar: Dave Lake

The first time I heard the British quartet Kaito play they were opening for Imperial Teen in San Francisco. I was immediatly impressed with their noise-pop approach and energy. They make the sort of music I love. There's a noisy immediacy to everything, and their studio work maintains this low-fi energy as well as any band I've ever heard.
Behind a good portion of this occaionally cacophonous music is created by guitarist Dave Lake. Both he and front-woman Nikki Colk incorporate a varity of electronic toys and gizmos, used over the guitar pickups, to increase the sound pallate they have to offer. It doesn't come across as a gag, or novelty sound so much as a genuine part of the sonic landscape they create.
Beyond the toys, however, Mr. Lake appears to take assembled noises more than standard notes to create Kaito's sound. I'd defy the nice people who transcribe songs for guitar magazines to clearly translate what he does on songs like "go" and "driving manual auto."
To me it's this sort of playing outside of the box that puts him in the same category as guitar legends like Edward VanHalen and Thurston Moore. Players who took things a step further than they'd gone before.
Their music is admitedly not for everyone, but most of the truly great music isn't.


Buy Kaito's 2001 release You've Seen Us...You Must Have Seen Us at Amazon.com.
Buy Kaito's 2003 release Montigola Underground [EP] at Amazon.com.
Buy Kaito's 2003 release Band Red at Amazon.com.

Cover: Johnny Cash - Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon and Garfunkel

Okay, first of all I'm a fan of both Johnny Cash, and Simon and Garfunkel. Both have made great music. But maybe some two things just shouldn't be combined. Of any of the songs I've ever heard by the late, great Mr. Cash, this is likely the bottom of the barrell. I have no idea who decided that this cut needed to make it onto his American IV: The Man Comes Around CD. "Danny Boy," on the same CD, isn't all that hot either, but I think when I'm fond of a song to begin with it affects me more to hear a weak version.
So the real shame here is that a good artist covering a good song and the results were far from good. Fortunately there's a wealth of other great songs by Cash to pick up the slack.

Grade: D-
Buy Johny Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around from Amazon.com.
Buy Simon and Garfulkle's Bridge over troubled water from Amazon.com

R.I.P.: Christopher Reeve

According to the news wire services (AP) this morning arguably the best Superman ever, Christopher Reeve, died Sunday, October 10, at the age of 52.
Other than his work as Superman his acting credits included "Somewhere in Time," "Deathtrap," John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned," as well as directing the HBO movies "Above Suspicion" and "In the Gloaming."
A horse riding accident in 1995 had left him paralyzed. Since then he'd become a strong advocate for stem cell research as well as taking time out to act a bit, including a recent stint on the TV series Smallville.
In 1998 he starred in a remake of "Rear Window," the Hitchcock film about a man in a wheelchair, convinced a neighbor has been murdered.
In 2000 Reeve was able to move his index finger, and with electrical stimulation therapy he'd also regained sensation in other parts of his body. He had vowed to walk again.
Last week Reeve developed a serious systemic infection from a "pressure wound," which is apparently rather common for people with paralysis. He went into cardiac arrest Saturday at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma. He was surrounded by his family when he died.

New CD: Bjork - Medulla

Anyone who says that Bjork hasn't challenged her audience through the years hasn't been listening. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to debate I think.
This CD is no exception. Instruments are minimal. Instead what you get is a dizzying array vocal utterances, some of which are rather distant from what's traditionally thought of as singing. It's, urm, interesting.
To be fair I was sick with some sort of flu when I first tried to listen to this CD, but I honestly think it made me more nautious than I was before. The only other album I can think of right off that's ever had that effect on me was My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" CD (which I love when I'm not sick by the way).
So file it under challenging. Despite the lack of instrumentation it's a very complex CD. There's bouncing sounding (Where is the Line) to pleasant (Oceana) to downright peacefull sounding (Vokuro). Oh, and it's not all in English by the way, for anyone convinced they need to sing along with every song they own.
Maybe if I did drugs I'd have a better handle on what this CD is about?
I think it's a good listen for those that already know that they like Bjork, but I would say that if you aren't already a fan this isn't the place to start. "Debut" and "Post" are far better introductions to what this clever woman can do. If you've never been particularly fond of Bjork before, forget it, please.

Grade: B
Buy Medulla from Amazon.com.
Buy Post from Amazon.com.
Buy Debut from Amazon.com.

Voice: Stephin Merritt

Anyone who's heard the Magnetic Fields, the Gothic Archies, or the Future Bible Heroes knows Stephin Merritt's voice (he's also responsible for The 6ths which features a revolving lineup of guest-star singers). His low and sad voice fits his sardonic song writing like a glove.
Anyone who's had the pleasure of seeing him perform live knows that his voice seems quite out of place coming out of such a small man. I don't intend to say that short people can't generally sing well. (Paul Williams is, I believe based upon Love Boat appearances, a small man as well, and whether or not you like his song writing he has a fine voice as well. Then there's the charming Davey Jones of the Monkees. Can I stop now?)
The second song I heard from him was the Furture Bible Heros song "O! What a Dream It Was," which I found on the 12 Tales CD (I later found out that it's actually a song from the Welcome To The Dollhouse soundtrack). This is the song that drove me to track down Merritt's catalog of work. Based on that song I was expecting a rather tall, dark figure in a trench coat and a heavy brow. Sort of the Peter Steele, from Type-O Negaitve, type if you will.
But size, I don't suppose, is the point here. The guys got a really cool voice. It sits somewhere near Johnny Cash's low singing, without Mr. Cash's tremelo. In fact I've had people mistake the more country ended Magnetic Fields songs for Cash songs. I don't think anyone who really knows either artist will have this problem, but the point is that Merritt's voice has that same iconic quality to it. A voice that never seems to fail me.

Buy the Magnetic Fields' latest CD, I, from Amazon.com
Buy 12 Tales from Amazon.com
Buy the Welcome to the Dollhouse Soundtrack from Amazon.com