Digging through my records today, I found this 1998 Magnetic Fields tour postcard from Merge Records. I looked online and couldn't find any images or mentions of it, so I'm putting it here for anyone who's interested.
I had seen the Magnetic Fields perform in 1997 at Sudsy Malone's Rock 'n' Roll Laundry & Bar—literally a laundromat/concert venue in Cincinnati, Ohio—as part of a triple bill with Yo La Tengo and the Ass Ponys. Yo La Tengo headlined and Magnetic Fields played in the middle. At the time I was a big Ass Ponys and Magnetic Fields fan but kind of lukewarm on Yo La Tengo, a band that I nevertheless managed to see live three or four times.
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Magnetic Fields weren't touring to support a new album in 1998. Their last album at that time, Get Lost, had come out in 1995, and their next album, 69 Love Songs, wouldn't be released until 1999.
They had released a new single on Merge in 1998, though: "I Don't Believe You." It was a song that they would later re-record and include on the 2004 album i. The B-side was "When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There." Both can be heard below. So, I guess this postcard is from the "I Don't Believe You" tour?
They had released a new single on Merge in 1998, though: "I Don't Believe You." It was a song that they would later re-record and include on the 2004 album i. The B-side was "When I'm Not Looking, You're Not There." Both can be heard below. So, I guess this postcard is from the "I Don't Believe You" tour?
I was at that show too! I grew up in Cincinnati. Nice finding this!
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of completeness, they added at least one more show to that tour - Toronto at Lee's Palace on August 24, 1998. From the photo on the postcard, it seems they played as a 4-piece at other shows, but in Toronto it was just Stephen and Claudia. 4 songs from the show - clearly recorded from the soundboard - later turned up as MP3s, but I'm not sure what the source was.
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