Stephin Merritt Spends Spring in SF, Scores for SFIFF

Marcelo Krasilcic

​If you've listened to any amount of Magnetic Fields music, you know main man Stephin Merritt loves few things more than (playfully) reaming the idea of love. That being said, the droll lyricist and musician seems to truly love the Bay Area. At the end of this month, he has two shows for Noise Pop (Feb. 27 at the Fox in Oakland and March 1 at the Herbst). You can also see him on the big screen when Noise Pop hosts a sneak preview of a documentary about the Magnetic Fields on Feb. 28. But the latest Merritt news is that he'll be back in town to perform behind the big screen on May 4 for SFIFF, offering the world premiere of his score for the 1916 version of the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. San Francisco's big film fest has long invited popular artists to provide sound for silent films, but this pairing seems particularly special.