Pitchfork

It's a match made in-- well, hell, as either of these sarcastic mopes would likely put it. But in this case that's a very good thing! As previously reported, one Stephin Merritt (of Magnetic Fields, 6ths, and Future Bible Heroes fame-- and here in Gothic Archies mode) has been recording songs for one Lemony Snicket's (Daniel Handler to kith and kin) A Series of Unfortunate Events book series.

Book the Thirteenth: The End-- the latest and final volume in the gloom-besotted series-- arrives, most appropriately, on Friday, October 13. The corresponding CD on Nonesuch, the Gothic Archies' The Tragic Treasury: Songs From a Series of Unfortunate Events, would probably arrive then too, were it not bound by the strange laws which dictate that all U.S. music releases must come out on Tuesdays. Thus, it hits stores October 10.

Were I Snicket, I'd be beseeching you to under no circumstances check out the tracklist and the two streams from the album linked below. That is, unless you like utter damnation, odes to A Series' vile villain Count Olaf, and taking your gothic ornamentation for a stroll. And if those two links aren't cooperating with your machine, and you really can't take a hint, hear the new tunes here. I mean, if you absolutely must.

Merritt hits the road next month, performing as part of the Snicket book tour, with the author himself on percussion. Dates here.

The Tragic Tracklist:

01 Scream & Run Away
02 In the Reptile Room
03 The World Is a Very Scary Place
04 Dreary, Dreary
05 When You Play the Violin
06 This Abyss
07 Crows
08 Smile! No One Cares How You Feel
09 Freakshow
10 How Do You Slow This Thing Down?
11 A Million Mushrooms
12 Things Are Not What They Appear
13 Shipwrecked
14 Walking My Gargoyle
15 We Are the Gothic Archies