ARTiST: The Gothic Archies
TiTLE: A Tragic Treasury: Songs From A Series Of Unf
LABEL: Nonesuch
GENRE: Indie
TiME: 41:26 min
SiZE: 61,9 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: Oct-07-2006
RELEASE DATE: Oct-09-2006
WEBSiTE: n/a
Track List:
01. Scream And Run Away 02:26
(From The Bad Beginning)
02. In The Reptile Room 02:14
(From The Reptile Room)
03. The World Is A Very Scary Place 02:25
(From The Wide Window)
04. Dreary, Dreary (From The Miserable Mill) 02:42
05. When You Play The Violin 03:53
(From The Austere Academy)
06. This Abyss (From The Ersatz Elevator) 03:06
07. Crows (From The Vile Village) 02:42
08. Smile! No One Cares How You Feel 01:51
(From The Hostile Hospital)
09. Freakshow (From The Carnivorous Carnival) 02:57
10. How Do You Slow This Thing Down? 03:12
(From The Slippery Slope)
11. A Million Mushrooms (From The Grim Grotto) 01:59
12. Things Are Not What They Appear 03:46
(From The Penultimate Peril)
13. Shipwrecked (From The End) 02:38
14. Walking My Gargoyle 02:38
(Original Song From The Carnivorous Carniva
15. We Are The Gothic Archies 02:57
Release Notes:
The Tragic Treasury: Songs From A Series of
Unfortunate Events, is the long-awaited CD companion
to the best-selling books by prolific but
publicity-shy author Lemony Snicket. The CD is
ôexecutedö by The Gothic Archies, who areùor more to
the point, isùsinger-songwriter Stephin Merritt,
with a little musical help from Mr. Snicket himself.
Until now, these tracks were only individually
available on the audio book versions of the
thirteen-volume Series of Unfortunate Events.
MerrittÆs longtime followers may also recall that
the Magnetic Fields founder had previously released
a Gothic Archies EP on Merge Records, The New
Despair, nearly a decade ago, quickly garnering a
fan base that included writers Neil Gaiman and
Stephen King. Defined by Merritt as his
ôgoth-bubblegum band,ö The Gothic Archies are an
artfully gloomy invention that anticipated the
Snicket-ian sensibility with such song titles as
ôItÆs Useless To Struggleö and ôThe Abandoned Castle
of My Soul.ö Snicket fansùperhaps too young to have
followed MerrittÆs peripatetic career, though their
parents may secretly harbor such knowledgeùwill
welcome these fifteen new miserable Snicket-inspired
numbers, now collected for the first time on one
disc.
Merritt and Snicket were clearly made for each
other, artistically speaking. MerrittÆs trademark
sangfroid lyrics are inspired by SnicketÆs comically
creepy narratives; ôWhen you see Count Olaf,ö he
writes of the booksÆ arch villain, ôCount to
zeroàthen scream and run away! Runàor die!ö
According to Snicket spokesperson Daniel Handler,
this collaboration was the product of practical
necessity, not creative serendipity. Handlerùin his
own words, ôan adjunct accordionistö for Magnetic
Fields, having appeared with the group in concert
and as a guest player on their landmark 69 Love
Songsùwas embarking on a book tour to promote the
first installment of SnicketÆs epic, The Bad
Beginning. The publishers told him that, as the
public face of Lemony Snicket, ôI needed to come up
with a presentation to keep as many as 100 children
quiet for 45 minutesùand the accordion is very loud.
I thought I could play the accordion and sing, so I
asked Stephin to write something. In fact, I have
the distinct memory of going to the ATM and
withdrawing enough cash and paying him directly upon
commission of the song.ö