It's Raining Glass in a Forgotten Part of Town

I was a bit bummed to miss both Yoko Ono and The Magnetic Fields/Mark Eitzel concerts this weekend at Noise Pop. However, I did get a chance to catch the world premier of Strange Powers, a full length documentary about Stephin Merritt and the Fields, and he, Claudia Gonson and the film-makers were on hand.

It's the best documentary about a musician I've seen since 30 Century Man about Scott Walker. Merritt is a dour, sometimes drunken middle aged gay man in his 40s who sits in a corner at Ty's and other Christopher Street bars writing 21st century tin pan alley songs while dreadful disco music pounds in the background. Gonson is by contrast bubbly and effervescent, and the film is an intriguing portrait of an unlikely creative marriage. The more official world premier is March 15 at South by Southwest in Austin.