All The Umbrellas In London - The Magnetic Fields - Get Lost - 1995

This is one of the few Magnetic Fields songs that I can still stand to listen to (the still durable Charm of the Highway Strip excluded). Even when I loved TMF, Get Lost was always something of a dud of an album...except this song. Stephen Merritt actually manages to find an appropriate setting for his melencholia and the right melody to go with it.

Alexander Bends - Butterglory - 5 Rows of Teeth: Merge Records 5 Year Anniversary Comp - 1992

So some other things I learned while in Indiana:

A) The latest in mall design is bizarre. The trend towards open air malls has been combined with the urge to pen your customers in. This has resulted in malls being designed to look like a town block in a hippy village. It's all fake streets with generic names, sort of like "Main Street USA" at Disney World only replace the faux 1900's candy stores with Vicky's Secret and Claire's Boutique. Also, the name of this mall was "Metropolis" which I knew because of the Hollywood Sign size gray steel letters out in front of the entrance to the parking lot. I was unable to find the Daily Planet's offices however.

Alexander Bends is pretty much what Indie Rock sounded like when I was in college. Striped absolutely bare, but deceptively poppy, short and to the point. Pretty much the entirity of that Merge 5 year comp is worth having, but even at a minute and a half, this is one of the highlights.

The Agony of Laffitte - A Series of Sneaks - 1998

This is pretty much where the legend of Spoon begins, like the most delicate version of NIN's Broken EP, this is Spoon railing against their mistreatment by a major label. Of course, in hindsight it's pretty hard to feel bad for them. In the interim they signed with artist friendly Merge records, had each record grow in both commercial appeal and critical respect, have had their songs used in car commercials, movie trailers, and tv shows. Britt even got a cameo on Veronica Mars.

Still Ron Laffitte (the A&R rep railed about in this song) was clearly an asshole.

Afterward/Rag - M. Ward - Post War - 2006

M. Ward makes albums that sound like albums my grandparents would have loved when they were young. Either that's your thing or it isn't. But you really can't argue with the guys talent or his distinctive voice. Plus you gotta love the creepy David Lynch organ that runs under this particular song.

Another quality artist brought to us by mighty, might Merge.

After Hours - Caribou - Andorra - 2007

I ended up playing bass with my boys last night. No idea how bass players do it. My fingers are absolutely killing me. It's like pressing down on telephone cables.

Despite not being the hugest of electronica fans, this Caribou album has stealthily crept up to be one of my favorite albums of the last year. And this is one of the better tracks. The guy certainly knows how to layer a song and despite it's electronic underpinnings there is still a strong a surprisingly Byrds-y melody at the heart of the song.

Abigail, Belle of Kilronan - The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs Volume 2 - 1999

And speaking of Merge Records...

Gosh remember when Magnetic Fields were just this quirky indie-pop band with a ridiculously ambitious project? Remember when you thought Stephen Merritt was closet prodigy, a sweet gay boy with Johnny Cash's voice, a cheap keyboard, and ridiculously low self-esteem? Remember when you didn't know he was a pompous, self-regarding asshole with no respect for his peers?

Yeah, I don't remember any of that either...

Here's the one where he tries to pretend to be Irish...

Abigail - The Broken West - I Can't Go On, I'll Go On - 2007

One thing I am definitely not shy about is my unabashed love of Merge records. Mac McCaughan was one of my college heroes, and the fact that he's gone on to co-found and run the best indie rock label in Christendom is yet another reason to admire the man. In addition to the well known flagships, your Spoon's, your Arcade Fire's, Merge also does a pretty good job of churning out a B-list of pleasant poppy rock acts like The Broken West. They aren't going to change your life, they just want to write a good pop song, like this one.

Actually this is one of those mid-tempo Big Star sounding songs that seem so simple, but infects your brain in a way that's hard to shake. Listen to the song once or twice, then tell me you don't have those dreamy harmonies in your head as you bop down the street..."Come on over, Abigail."