Stephin Fucking Merritt. I'm pretty sure that's actually his middle name. Or at least how I envision how he introduces himself to people.
With not only the most distinctive voice, but one of my truly favorites, Stephin Fucking Merritt holds a big middle finger to leisure time. He's created and played significant roles in these bands:
- The Magnetic Fields
- The 6ths
- The Gothic Archies
- Future Bible Heroes
They can all be found under Stephin's House of Tomorrow umbrella.
* Not an official MF video, but I think it was put together well and I like that song*
He has also collaborated with children's book writer Daniel Handler, more familiarly known as Lemony Snicket and his series of unfortunate events. Under the name The Baudelaire Memorial Orchestre, Merritt wrote the soundtrack for the Tragic Treasury audio book.
Merritt recently scored the music and wrote the lyrics to Coraline the musical which opened May 7th at the MCC Theatre in NYC. And, yes, that Coraline with the rad 3-D that's probably still in a theatre near you. This stage adaptation has been in the works for over five years but has been all caught up in movie legal strife. Well, now it's playing, but only til June 20th. Here, the talents behind the curtain talk: