The Magnetic Fields Bring The Noise

The Magnetic Fields Bring The Noise

The Magnetic Fields Bring The Noise: Aidin Vaziri | The Magnetic Fields' eighth album, "Distortion," was inspired by the Jesus and March Chain's white-noise drenched 1985 album, "Psychocandy." Accordingly, every song, every instrument - including collaborator and Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler's accordion - is draped in buzzing feedback. "It's a Carpenters album with chain saws on top of it," Merritt says, citing abrasive bubblegum-pop tunes like "California Girls" and "I'll Dream Alone." "I see the album as a pop-art gesture, where I'm taking someone else's originality and applying it to my own work," Merritt says. "But they didn't teach us how to make feedback out of accordions and electric organs. So, under the guise of imitating them, I seem to have backed myself into an original statement, which betrays my postmodern aesthetic." Continue reading.