The Days of Lore

Fun with math and Marnie

Friday, November 5th, 2010 | musiX, pdX | No Comments

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT listen to Marnie Stern if you’re looking to just kick back and chillax [Did you know "chillax" is in the Merriam Webster Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of English? Jesus Christ.---Ed.]. No, Stern’s self-titled third album (which has 29 fewer words than the title of her last KRS release) is ridiculously spastic, and defies categorization … and gravity … and logic and …

… And while Stern is known as the “female guitar shredder” (which she is), she should be given more credit for writing songs that are kinda weird and arty without being too serious; not that her lyrics are silly (they actually read like a diary)—it’s just that Stern still likes to rock the fuck out. Her noodling is the song, rather than being something that’s just slapped in the middle. Add Hella’s Zach Hill on drums and a tune called “Female Guitar Shredders Are the New Black” and Stern achieves the impossible: Making math rock fun.

“For Ash” - Marnie Stern

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Tags: Kill Rock Stars, Marnie Stern, Zach Hill

Why? Too. ¿Qué?

Monday, January 12th, 2009 | musiX | 1 Comment

The year 2008 has come and gone. Moves to Portland completed. Elections successful. Year-end lists, compiled. It all happened so quickly. Time really does go by quicker the older you get. Which means I’m ancient.

Now it’s 2009. The other day I was thinking about how it seemed like only yesterday that everyone was ready to party like it’s 1999. It also didn’t seem long ago that I was working at Costco, ringing people up as they purchased pallets of canned food and bottled water in anticipation that the world would stand still because our computers couldn’t comprehend the digits ‘00. I’m not making this up. People really were stocking up their bomb shelters. I also witnessed an elderly man drop dead in the food court line (something I would witness again exactly three years later). Again. I am not making this up. Needless to say all this reflecting was making me feel like crap.

Then I received a package in the mail. It was a few days after the conclusion of 2008. Inside the small, slightly worn, manila envelope was a compact disc and a Post-it note that read: “Lovin’ you in Chico, CA via this perfect dose of musical correctness. Happy New Year.” Yes. My good friend’s annual year-end mix. It included some familiar names as well as a few not-so-familiars. One track stopped me dead in my tracks …

I thought guitar wankery croaked the day Kurt Cobain came in and made dolts like myself believe they could play guitar. But Marnie Stern shreds. I mean, this chick could slice open your jugular by simply finger-tapping up and down YOUR neck. But don’t let her mad skillz scare you off: Marnie Stern also writes some wicked rock songs. Her sophomore record for Kill Rock Stars [inhale]—This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That—[and, exhale] was released in October. And she’s played with some ridiculously great bands including Blitzen Trapper, Animal Collective and Battles. Not to mention she studied journalism at NYU, where she’ll perform on March 5. I love her.

Oh. And my friend who sent me his celestial 2008 mix—you can find out what else he and his pals (including myself) are listening to at Your New Favorite Song. Needless to say I feel better about 2009 and the world in general.

“Transformer” - Marnie Stern

Tags: Kill Rock Stars, Marnie Stern, This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That an, Your New Favorite Song