by Greg Hunter
Music Director @ 88.1 KRLX

Right about now, it’s a pretty good time to be Stephin Merritt. He survived what was essentially a smear campaign by New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones (calling Merritt a “rockist cracker,” among other things); his 1994 album The Charm of the Highway Strip (with the Magnetic Fields) was recently appointed to the A.V. Club Hall of Fame; and he has a new album out, The Tragic Treasury (with side project the Gothic Archies), a collaboration with author Daniel “Lemony Snicket” Handler. The Tragic Treasury provides the soundtrack to Handler’s A Series of Unfortunate Events books, combining the gallows humor natural to both men with Merritt’s unique brand of electronic minimalism.

For MP3s from the album, visit KRLX’s MP3 blog