marnie stern is fun

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anyone seen her live? she sounds like she would be a good time.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 5 March 2007 23:59 (eighteen years ago)

so...marnie stern. she's fun! surprised there's not at least a little talk about her. at least from like deerhoof fans or something. she makes good squeedly guitar and crashing drum noises, with chirrupy noise-grrl squawking. i like it.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 01:45 (eighteen years ago)

I'm going tonight, Knockout in SF, will report back

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 02:26 (eighteen years ago)

I bought the cd. Got it in last week. It's great!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 02:31 (eighteen years ago)

that's funny, earlier today i did a search for a marnie stern thread and found nothing, and was thinking about starting my own, and then lo and behold here is it. she's great! it's all squawky screamy girly spaz rock. i dig.

― Emily Bjurnhjam, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

i was supposed to see her a week and a half ago but she and all her touring mates came down with the flu!

― Fetchboy, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 04:14 (eighteen years ago)

the album is pretty damn ace, especially the first four or five tracks and the closer.

― m the g, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

I thought there would've been more of a buzz on this album.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 14:26 (eighteen years ago)

The Hella dude plays the drums on this album, right?
Having not heard a note, I like to imagine a Deerhoof-y woman singing over the Hella song "Biblical Violence."

― Ben Boyerrr, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 15:29 (eighteen years ago)

aha i wondered who the drummer was but i hadn't gotten around to looking it up. that makes sense.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 March 2007 16:03 (eighteen years ago)

"the picture in my head is its own reward." an amazing album, i saw her sat night at the smell accompanied by iPod and it was obvious...total major FEMALE talent with an out-of-nowhere approach a la joanna. never seen anything like what she's doing. are you sure there's no 'buzz'? did you see what kelefa wrote?

― jaybabcock, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 07:39 (eighteen years ago)

this is good. nu crush for noize doods.

― moonship journey to baja, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 07:44 (eighteen years ago)

this is complete bullshit garbage

― modestmickey, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 08:28 (eighteen years ago)

Thanks, MM! That post just sealed it - I'm ordering the album right now.

― Ben Boyerrr, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

I must admit it, it was because Zach was on it that made me check it out!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 12:00 (eighteen years ago)

This is pretty great! The production lets it down a bit in places, but "The Weight of a Rock" makes it all worth it.

― Simon H., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

Saw her last night in Oakland, and liked very much. The whole playing w/an ipod thing made me root for her even more than I already was. I think any lack of 'buzz" might be down to that fact that she just doesn't seem like a typically "cool" indie performer (which is fine by me); maybe that doesn't help generate a lot of talk amongst a big portion of the kids who go to her shows, and I wonder if a lot of people who saw her had a bit of a disconnect after hearing the record (+ not helped by the ipod accompaniment). Anyway, apparently, she's touring again in 3 months w/Zach Hill.

― Dominique, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 20:16 (eighteen years ago)

Are there , any good reviews of her album yet?

― Dimension 5ive, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

pitchfork and stylus gave her good reviews... the stylus one in particular had such obvious enthusiasm & love flowing through it I went and checked out her myspace. And pretty much dig what I heard there. Will probably wait to see her live though....

― fandango, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 20:50 (eighteen years ago)

Is she the child of Mike and Leni?

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 20:58 (eighteen years ago)

The godchild of Marni Nixon?

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 20:59 (eighteen years ago)

as i posted earlier, Kelefa reviewed album already in NYTimes ... it was on Feb 27...

Marnie Stern ''In Advance of the Broken Arm'' (Kill Rock Stars)
Yes! It's hard to muster a more nuanced response to Marnie Stern, a previously obscure shredder and yawper who has just released the year's most exciting rock 'n' roll album. ...

― jaybabcock, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:01 (eighteen years ago)

ah! here's K's whole text, act ually from Feb 26
:
"MARNIE STERN
“In Advance of the Broken Arm”
(Kill Rock Stars)

Yes! It’s hard to muster a more nuanced response to Marnie Stern, a previously obscure shredder and yawper who has just released the year’s most exciting rock ’n’ roll album. True, there are 10 months left, but you could spend at least half of them puzzling your way through “In Advance of the Broken Arm,” her riotous debut.

Ms. Stern builds her songs by pecking and slashing: she often taps out staccato patterns on the fret board, overdubbing fuzzy power chords to give these skeletal lines weight and force. She is joined by the jumpy drummer Zach Hill, from Hella, and by John-Reed Thompson, who adds some bass and other instruments. But this music feels, in the best sense, like bedroom music, homemade and meticulous. When Ms. Stern sings (the album’s gnomic first words are, or seem to be, “I am a vibrational match/In the water/We line up/Off a beach”), she sounds as if she’s singing to herself.

Somehow these songs pick up momentum as they twitch: within those crosshatched guitar lines, the rhythm keeps shifting and tugging, and she peels off so many notes that you can’t possibly hear them all. In “Every Single Line Means Something,” she slows down to a punk-rock strut, snarling and intoning the lyrics as those multiplied guitars divide and reunite and divide again.

This raucous, wriggly music will certainly make Ms. Stern a cult sensation, and no doubt she’s not expecting anything more than that. But don’t imagine that this album is some sort of endurance test: it’s too joyful, and too pretty, to be considered difficult. One song, “Grapefruit,” starts off with scrabbling guitars but swiftly evolves into a scrambled variant of 1970s hard rock. (One pictures Ms. Stern windmilling on an arena stage, triumphant.) Another, “Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!,” revolves around a singsong refrain and a grand, descending chord progression. In an alternate — and better — universe it’s a hit. Or, to quote a different song from this extraordinary album: “Yes! Yes! Yes! The answer’s yes!” KELEFA SANNEH

― jaybabcock, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:02 (eighteen years ago)

man, a few more listens later, and it still rules! i hope i am not just having one of those initial reactions that will fade after a few weeks. it's like noise rock van halen, and that makes me very very happy.

― Emily Bjurnhjam, Thursday, 8 March 2007 14:00 (eighteen years ago)

ah fuckit I couldn't wait. This album is soooo fucking good!! Mickey u b crazy.

― fandango, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:39 (eighteen years ago)

I thought (before listening) it might be a bit of an... endurance test but it's so... colourful! and contrasting (in control/chaotic) and sneaky with the tunes, hooks left, right and centre, really engagingly layered but still full-throttle rawk with loads of momentum. GOOD.

― fandango, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

ahahaha. I swear I was thinking/assuming that already based on the couple of myspace tunes I heard.. maybe I was subliminally influenced by KELEFA :D (good review that fwiw).

― fandango, Thursday, 8 March 2007 18:52 (eighteen years ago)

There's very little music that produces such a YYYYEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!! reaction in me quite so quickly. It is happy and fun and makes me bounce around the room, but also the amount of precision in the playing is so impressive, it's like all your favourite prog records on 45 but somehow more intense and energetic and YYYYYYEEEEEAAAARRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:59 (eighteen years ago)

can you bounce around your office shouting YYYYYYYEAAAAAHH!?

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago)

No, I am kind of bouncing up and down in my chair. The cookies may have had something to do with it, too.

― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:10 (eighteen years ago)

I think I've played this record like 5 times already, since yesterday, that is, since I acquired it(!)... good job I've been away from my PC or she'd have PWN3D my last.fm stats for sure.

― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:16 (eighteen years ago)

It's an addictive album.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:20 (eighteen years ago)

A reviewor on popmatters.com liked it too , it is a good album I think too but not one of my big favorits of the year

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:23 (eighteen years ago)

I don't pay as much attention to indie rock as some sure but Kill Rock Stars are pretty 'big' aren't they? I mean Elliott Smith, The Gossip...

anyway, reviews a-plently http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/sternmarnie/inadvanceofthebrokenarm?q=marnie%20stern

― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

I fell in love with this album instanty. Very accessible, but plenty complex. My album of the year so far.

― professor ganson, Saturday, 10 March 2007 14:05 (eighteen years ago)

Sunday NY Times article

Will Hermes article---Guitar Heroes, Make That Heroines, in Indie Rock

excerpt

"Ms. Stern’s debut, “In Advance of the Broken Arm,” released last month on the venerable punk label Kill Rock Stars, does fit into the punk tradition of hollered vocals and serrated melodies that that famous Seattle group helped popularize. But her flamboyant guitar approach also connects it to the ornate, virtuosic traditions of progressive rock and heavy metal: genres that punk once aimed to vanquish with a return to the three-chord simplicity and raw primitivism of early rock. Yes, virtuosity is now a virtue in the indie world.

“We were just talking about Van Halen’s ‘1984’ and what a great album that is,” Ms. Stern said via phone from a van last month in the midst of her first tour, citing a record that cutting-edge rockers in the Nirvana era would have been reluctant to admit owning, let alone loving. Ms. Stern was also quick to cite Sleater-Kinney and Don Caballero — bands with more conventional punk-rock credentials — as major influences in her sound. She credits a Caballero video with helping her develop her guitar style, which revolves around “tapping,” a technique in which the fingertips of one or both hands strike strings along the fretboard as if it were a typewriter keyboard, to create ringing, fleeting, rapid-fire notes. (Eddie Van Halen is generally crediting with pioneering the style on the 1978 track “Eruption.”)"

― curmudgeon, Monday, 12 March 2007 15:33 (eighteen years ago)

this album just keeps on growing on me...admittedly, there's a bit of a third-quarter lull, but it's all redeemed by the end. I love the way the last track falls into the 'words explaining how the song is structured' category . it's the math-rock equivalent of 'dance to the music'. brilliance!

― m the g, Monday, 12 March 2007 18:11 (eighteen years ago)

that last track is completely awesome -- the part about "ideas of the north" or whatever always makes me smile

― Dominique, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:39 (eighteen years ago)

I don't think the lulls on this are very deep, or long lasting at all... and I'm pained that Pitchfork was so... determinedly _fair_ on it compared to the high (higher) scores stuff like Arcade Fire & The Long Blondes have had. Maybe it'll come through on the year-end poll.

― fandango, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:44 (eighteen years ago)

don't get me wrong, the lull tracks would be high points on a lot of other albums. it's all relative.

― m the g, Monday, 12 March 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

I would love to see her play live. Preferably with Zach on drums!

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 08:04 (eighteen years ago)

as far as I know an ipod usually fills zach's role. bah. or is hoping for an actual drummer too unforgivably rockist for ILM? the horror!

I've a feeling there'll be some UK shows this year. you are UK-based, right?

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 08:44 (eighteen years ago)

Yup, I'm in Scotland.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 08:56 (eighteen years ago)

The talk is that yeah, she will be touring USA again in 3 months or so with Zach on drums. I still can't believe what I saw/heard her do at the Smell -- she really is a sui generis talent operating at gale force. It's not often that you witness something this flat-out undeniable.

― jaybabcock, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 08:57 (eighteen years ago)

xpost...me too. I'm getting a premonition of a mono appearance.

― m the g, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 09:03 (eighteen years ago)

But I bet there will be no Zach.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 13 March 2007 10:26 (eighteen years ago)

She's got some sort of talent (can't quite identify what it is), but there are no songs here and Zach Hill needs to be stopped. I'm sort of praying that really fast guitar playing goes back out of style like immediately. The amount of people going apeshit about her playing is basically laughable, given that melodic tapping is easy and has been a guitar school standard since the mid-80s.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:46 (eighteen years ago)

there are totally songs dood. it's not (controversial) Lightning Bolt...

I think it's more the context than OMG TAPPING on it's own here. my 2c.

― fandango, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:53 (eighteen years ago)

(kinda trolling)

― fandango, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

What's the context? I dunno, Lightning Bolt are basically just working off energy from what I've heard, they're certainly not my thing but that's fine. With Marnie I hear incomplete or lacking melodies, awkward jumps from part to part, and lots of leftover/random things. In other words, the bad points of novice solo home recording.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 14 March 2007 19:02 (eighteen years ago)

Skipping 68 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

(three albums of the same thing might be more than i need, i don't know. but two is fine.)

― tipsy mothra, Sunday, 12 October 2008 14:44 (seventeen years ago)

"Annoyingly homogenic"

homogenic - yes. annyoing - no.

― Zeno, Sunday, 12 October 2008 14:54 (seventeen years ago)

I'm really loving this, like listening to it constantly, there's a sweet spot in the middle with the crippled jazzer, steely and the package is wrapped.

― I know, right?, Wednesday, 15 October 2008 09:07 (seventeen years ago)

two months pass...

so after some more listening, this is it etc. ended up as my hands-down favorite album last year. i'm sort of sad it's not higher on most best-of lists, but i think i just particularly love what she does. i can understand it not having universal appeal.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 5 January 2009 07:02 (seventeen years ago)

fun is universal imo

― wilter, Monday, 5 January 2009 07:03 (seventeen years ago)

she opened for gang gang dance and it was by far the worst show i've ever seen. subpar, highschool garage band deerhoof

― (jaxon) ( .) ( .) (jaxon), Monday, 5 January 2009 07:21 (seventeen years ago)

hatin fun 09

― k3vin k., Monday, 5 January 2009 07:46 (seventeen years ago)

u must be really fun then

― (jaxon) ( .) ( .) (jaxon), Monday, 5 January 2009 07:47 (seventeen years ago)

it's no fleet foxes i guess

― k3vin k., Monday, 5 January 2009 07:51 (seventeen years ago)

dawg

― jordan s (J0rdan S.), Monday, 5 January 2009 07:54 (seventeen years ago)

lol @ people hatin on indie rock while talking about how 'fun' marnie is.

― the ref (ed hochuli ha ha) (call all destroyer), Monday, 5 January 2009 12:42 (seventeen years ago)

By the way I love this album and it is great to go running to, only I haven't been running in a while because I am lethargic and gross and I have dishes from yesterday to wash and need to go shopping.

― Plaxico (I know, right?), Monday, 5 January 2009 14:14 (seventeen years ago)

she opened for gang gang dance and ~~it was by far the worst show i've ever seen. subpar, highschool garage band deerhoof~~ rocked the fuck out.

― tipsy mothra, Monday, 5 January 2009 16:16 (seventeen years ago)

no she is terrible live, and also made a high-pitched-nasal-voiced scene in the front of bimbo's that night. i've seen a couple bills with stern on them and she has always disappointed me, even when i actually liked listening to her albums. and plus, she's super annoying.

wtf with the 'kissing booth' at that show, though? i almost felt bad that no one took her up on it, she did seem like she needed some money for some reason...

― psychgawsple, Monday, 5 January 2009 20:47 (seventeen years ago)

i think she said in an interview that it was for a speeding ticket?

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Monday, 5 January 2009 20:49 (seventeen years ago)

there is an interview on pfork in which she expresses surprise that a kissing booth is not an efficient way to raise funds for a $300 moving violation.

― the ref (ed hochuli ha ha) (call all destroyer), Monday, 5 January 2009 21:01 (seventeen years ago)

i don't care, i like her enough that i even think it's sweet when she sings about dolphins.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 07:30 (seventeen years ago)

marnie stern is fun

― ♪㋡♫㋡ (gr8080), Tuesday, 6 January 2009 07:44 (seventeen years ago)

yes.

― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 08:02 (seventeen years ago)

one month passes...

i hope she does rush covers live

― kamerad, Sunday, 8 February 2009 16:06 (seventeen years ago)

one year passes...

new album?

― David (davek_00), Sunday, 2 May 2010 21:03 (fifteen years ago)

Agreed. She really is fun! Over-the-top to the point of absurdity at time, which is OK by me particularly in certain moods. Looking forward to a future disc with a one-letter title to balance that dang LONG one!

― ImprovSpirit, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:01 (fifteen years ago)

last record was one of my favorites of 2008

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:02 (fifteen years ago)

Marnie Stern's music brings me a lot of joy!

― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:03 (fifteen years ago)

THE FUTURE IS YOURSELF FILL THIS PART IN

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:03 (fifteen years ago)

xp uh, i think that's kinda like, the point

― waka khan (samosa gibreel), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:05 (fifteen years ago)

It is a great point!

― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:06 (fifteen years ago)

she was on some P4k.tv show & it was one of the best things i've seen over there

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:06 (fifteen years ago)

fuck the P4k search function for real

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:08 (fifteen years ago)

rudeness/sarcasm was jk btw abbott

― waka khan (samosa gibreel), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:11 (fifteen years ago)

http://www.losanjealous.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/marnie_stern_09.jpg

MArnine Stern sez, "lol"

― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:13 (fifteen years ago)

weird seeing a photo, i had always imagined her as the pencil crayon drawing on the album cover

― waka khan (samosa gibreel), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:28 (fifteen years ago)

water-colour*

― waka khan (samosa gibreel), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:28 (fifteen years ago)

she looks kinda like cameron diaz in that photo imo

― J0rdan S., Monday, 3 May 2010 18:29 (fifteen years ago)

that photo makes her look older than she does, i like that video where she does a rodney dangerfield impression

― plax (ico), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:33 (fifteen years ago)

oh man, love that impression too. seen it too many times. here you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tF77_yU39g

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:38 (fifteen years ago)

i stick by this as running music, some of it is practically yelling at you to be awesome

― plax (ico), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:38 (fifteen years ago)

practically yelling at you to be awesome

^ one of the most OTM things someone has ever said abt Marnie's music imo

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:41 (fifteen years ago)

her last record never fails to make me feel really good

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:41 (fifteen years ago)

"Plato's Fucked-Up Cave" is such a good name for a song.

― This is four-dimensional art; the 4th dimension is incredibly powerful. (Abbott), Monday, 3 May 2010 18:45 (fifteen years ago)

hahahahaaha, truth bomb

― ksh, Monday, 3 May 2010 18:45 (fifteen years ago)

her last record never fails to make me feel really good

otm. she has this whole ecstatic transcendental vibe, almost like a sufi thing.

― women are a bunch of dudes (tipsy mothra), Monday, 3 May 2010 20:46 (fifteen years ago)

oh that's the second time on this thread i said sufi. well. that's what she makes me think of.

― women are a bunch of dudes (tipsy mothra), Monday, 3 May 2010 20:51 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

new single is good. more-of-the-same, i guess, but that's ok with me.

― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 22 July 2010 17:33 (fifteen years ago)

four months pass...

Last night in Glasgow, Marnie Stern's first ever visit apparently...

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v17/p23479930-3.jpg

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v12/p630117293-3.jpg

Click through for more, as ever...

― krakow, Tuesday, 23 November 2010 20:38 (fifteen years ago)

two months pass...

*marnie stern demo cassette on dog daze yes*

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Thursday, 3 February 2011 21:18 (fifteen years ago)

had a dream last night I stopped by the BMI office in nashville and marnie stern was there jamming with ornette and denardo coleman

― standing on stage and I'm grabbing my crüts (Edward III), Thursday, 3 February 2011 21:24 (fifteen years ago)

also I bought the s/t for E5 for her birthday, don't tell her shhhh

― standing on stage and I'm grabbing my crüts (Edward III), Thursday, 3 February 2011 21:37 (fifteen years ago)

THE TITLE OF THIS THREAD IS AWESOME AND APPROPRIATE!!!

― markers, Thursday, 3 February 2011 21:40 (fifteen years ago)

btw thx 4 the reminder, contenderizer

― markers, Thursday, 3 February 2011 21:41 (fifteen years ago)

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