Pitchfork

Stephin Merritt, frontman of Magnetic Fields and like eighteen other bands, has often seemed to owe as much to Gilbert and Sullivan as Lennon and McCartney, so it isn't too surprising to find that he's been lending his talents to a number of extracurricular activities whilst new Fields and Future Bible Heroes albums are in the works. According to Merritt's website, he's presently completing the score for the upcoming indie film Eban and Charley, and is also working with children's novelist Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) on a film musical, currently titled The Song from Venus.

Merritt, this time in his Gothic Archies guise, also produced the theme songs for the recently released audio book version of Handler's children's book sequence A Series of Unfortunate Events. The books are voiced by actor Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Muppet Treasure Island), and are selling relatively well to hipster pre-teens who need something to listen to while relieving their eye-strain from reading those Harry Potter books 17,000 times.