New
York guitar virtuoso Marnie Stern is something of an enigma. She plays jagged,
erratic noisy pop that is hard to characterize as anything other than “math
rock.” But it’s different than many artists that have had the math rock
designation assigned to them. Like its older and equally as polarizing cousin,
“prog,” it’s almost as though much of it is defying you to like it. For one
thing, it never stops moving. Like a shark feeding frenzy, it’s all over you
immediately out of the gate and doesn’t let up. It revels in its own excess,
actually defying you NOT to like it. Like when Jon Spencer name-drops his own
band in 75% of the songs on a Blues Explosion record, it insists upon itself in
the most endearing way possible. It’s bragging without saying a word. It’s hard
to imagine anyone not getting immediately excited within seconds of their first
listen to Stern’s 2007 debut record, In Advance of the Broken Arm.
Stern
came seemingly out of nowhere with this debut, having suddenly inked a deal
with Kill Rock Stars after they heard a demo of songs that she wrote in her
bedroom over the previous two years. The album showcases Ms. Stern’s angular
finger-tapping style, over her own reverb-laden vocals and washes of discordant
synth, then adds in some of the most hyperactive drums ever recorded, courtesy
of fellow noise rock mainstay, Hella’s Zach Hill, who also produced the album.
What sets this record and Stern’s subsequent output apart is her ability to
take this chaotic sound and create killer pop hooks that are as heavy as they
are catchy.
I
cannot reiterate enough just how Stern’s proficiency on the guitar really makes
this record come alive. She genuinely shreds, for lack of a better term. Think
Robert Fripp-level mastery combined with the complex time signatures of Don
Caballero or Oxes and you might get a slight idea of what’s in store for you
here. “Plato’s Fucked Up Cave,” for example, offers a bouncing, progressive
rock guitar pattern with a Hill drumbeat that sort of staggers ahead drunkenly.
In the opener “Vibrational Match,” Stern demonstrates a repeated finger-tapped
riff with definite nods to the NYC no wave movement. “Every Single Line Means
Something” is a stomping rocker akin to Sleater-Kinney (one of her biggest
influences) and “Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket,”
is a simple pop offering with vocal refrains that sound almost ‘60s girl
group-anthemic. 
There
was a time there in my late teens and early 20’s when I was a kind of a math
rock fanatic. I listened to bands like Don Caballero, Melt-Banana, Dysrhythmia
and the Boredoms fairly religiously, but by 2007 I had sort of moved away from
like that. When this record came out, it brought me right back in. Marnie Stern
has released some of the most interesting and intricate guitar-based music of
the 2000s and even though In Advance of the Broken Arm is by no means
her strongest effort, it is a very strong debut. And it’s an indication as to
what would become of her songwriting as she matured from record to record. She
really isn’t discussed near as much as she deserves, which is a shame because
this girl can shred like very few others can shred. But her music is about much
more than just showing off her wankery. It’s about rock n’ roll excess and at
the same time about undeniable pop sensibility. It’s about the song
first and foremost. The wankery is just gravy.
-
Jonathan Eagle
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