Team imaginary has been counting down to the Magnetic Fields Town Hall two-night residency for months and months... and the wait is finally over. Tonight kicks off their massive double fantasy of Fields-ness and to prepare we've been working on converting our overt joy to somber nods as to not scare those on stage.

Who else in the imaginary circle is headed out to the big show?

Any thoughts on the new album? I have to say I agree with this recent posting on the Tullycraft blog about the similarity of a certain song.

By the way, want to be the luckiest guy on the lower east side with a poster of this artwork on your wall? Mark Gamble, an amazing co.uk designer, has printed a limited run of his above design and he might just have a few left!  Thanks to ChrisB and How Fucking Romantic for finding it!

PS - Mark Eitzel is opening so get there early to catch the whole show. It's what Claudia would want you to do.

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As imaginary keenan reported last week, there's a new Magnetic Fields album headed our way on January 26, 2010 {thanks to Nonesuch Records}. And as we speculated {and crossed all our fingers for}, the band will hit the road in support of Realism in February and March!

Get your credit card ready... tickets are on sale RIGHT NOW!

Full deets from the email sent to superfans {which I'm sure includes you and all of the cool people we love}:

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{The Low Anthem plays at Chop Suey on Saturday, October 17 with Ryan Montbleau Band; $10 adv, $12 door, 21+.}

You could be forgiven if for a few seconds, maybe longer, you thought that The Low Anthem’s Oh My God, Charlie Darwin was an undiscovered Scud Mountain Boys album, circa Pine Box, with a crisp acoustic guitar and Joe Pernice singing in a higher range. Or maybe you’d guess it was Bon Iver in a slightly different garb, as the brittle lead voice on “Charlie Darwin” ethereally floats over that almost lo-fi guitar and long-vowel harmonies. Like Bon Iver, the Providence, Rhode Island-spawned trio picked and packed their gear for a seemingly backwoods recording session (notated in the liners thus “Recorded in the solace of a Block Island winter”), where random, found sounds peek around the corners (hear that fountain and the bird-chirps as “(Don’t) Tremble” awakens lazily). The trio – Ben Knox Miller, Jeff Prystowsky, and Jocie Adams – adore subtlety: The acoustic guitar picking of “Ohio,” with soft-focus vocal, gains its depth from the slow-rising crest of a minimal clarinet and a harmonica’s spectral glow amidst the harmonies. They shape-shift, too, from gauzy vocals and instrument palettes to indulge a raucous side, growling out “The Horizon is a Beltway,” which chugs along in a simple guitar-specked rhythmic stomp, belting out a reading of “Home I’ll Never Be,” Tom Waits’s Kerouac adaptation, and then their boozy guitar rave-up, “Champion Angel,” with its pile-up of tattered harmonica and sandpapery guitar. They love their Americana tropes, delving often into displacement and road-worn living (“Ohio,” “Ticket Taker,” “Cage the Songbird”). They’re kindred souls with Fleet Foxes, Will Oldham, Phosphorescent, and Centro-matic – not bad company, by any stretch.

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Eno and Byrne collaborate once again.

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Let's celebrate the release of the new Magnetic Fields album with some videos... and fellow superfans covering their songs! Do you have a favorite song or cover of that song? Post it here!

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Our MF friends have posted the ENTIRE album to MySpace!

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Normally I don't get all in a lather when a band reveals an album title or song titles or album art, but this is Stephin Merritt we're talking about!

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Can I mention again how excited I am for this new record???!?

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The Magnetic Fields are happy to announce that their new album, titled "Distortion," will be released on Nonesuch Records on January 15, 2008.

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The new Magnetic Fields album is now planned for release in early 2008.

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