The Gothic Archies

The "Gothic" refers to the dark creepy lyrics; the "Archies" refers to the cartoon band that sang "Sugar, Sugar"; the horrible pun puts it all into perspective: that this is Stephin Merritt (of The Magnetic Fields) doing over-the-top Goth and bubblegum music that is great to listen to while also being funny.

see The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, Future Bible Heroes, Stephin Merritt

Information: The House of Tomorrow
Suggested First Purchase: The Tragic Treasury--Songs from a Series of Unfortunate Events

Looming in the Gloom EP (1996) -- "We're in a cave at the end of the world cooking and eating our friends" is the opening line of this EP and just about says it all. The lyrics are so gothic is silly (good silly), and the music--like all of Merritt's music--is great. This album could only be bought through a They Might Be Giants record service (which required you to buy like eight EPs at once from different bands), so it's hard to find.

The New Despair EP (1997) -- Only "The Dead Only Quickly" does not appear from the last hard-to-find LP, and the new songs added to it make this even better. Highlights include "It's Useless To Struggle" and one of Merritt's best songs, "Ever Falls the Twilight."

The Tragic Treasury: Songs from a Series of Unfortunate Events -- The Gothic Archies did one song for each of the thirteen Lemony Snicket audio books, and they all appear here, with two additional songs. It's nice to have a full-blown LP for TGA, no matter how they came about, and all the songs are pretty great, especially "In the Reptile Room" and "We Are the Gothic Archies."