Meet Los Campos Magneticos

Very welcome news from the world of one of our favorite adoptive Angelenos, Mr. Stephin Merritt. Merge Records has announced the August release of Obscurities, a collection of pre-69 Love Songs rare tunes by the Magnetic Fields mastermind, including pieces from his lost sci-fi musical, The Song From Venus (co-written with author Daniel Handler). But we're even more excited about a truly remarkable project from Argentina: Los Campos Magneticos, where local indie stars Alvy Singer, Nacho Rodriguez and Rubin (plus writer Federico Novick) have translated Merritt's lyrics into beautiful, witty Spanish. Alvy, Nacho and Rubin have just released their second volume of Magnetic Fields songs, for which they received the blessing of Merritt's longtime collaborator Claudia Gonson and some helpful translation tips from the man himself. Get them from iTunes or alvynachorubin.bandcamp.com, or YouTube performances by searching "Alvy, Nacho & Rubin Interpretan a Los Campos Magnéticos" (we recommend "El Galan de la Paternal"). What better way to brush up on your Spanish than some slightly misanthropic pop gems?