With Marnie Stern you know what you’re going to get before you listen, but that doesn’t make it any less thrilling. Her sophomore album’s very reminiscent of her first, last year’s In Advance of the Broken Arm, but at the same time, the formula feels more soulful, less tech-y. Outside of the overlong Beckett-esque title — 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 — it’s really natural, with more dynamic range and ebbs/flows (and more of Zach Hill‘s drumming). In Advance felt a little front-loaded, lost some steam as it headed to the finish line. This Is It works more as a start-to-finish listen. Plus, there’re great songs called “The Crippled Jazzer” and “Roads? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads.” (She’s right, we don’t.) For now, you can hear another highpoint, “Transformer.”
(Via P4K)
“I turn this moment into something new. / It’s true. / Are you ready to feel alive? / The ancient echoes crawling out from my insides.” Even though it isn’t a word I ever say aloud, “thrilling” really is the right descriptor for Stern’s music. Each track sounds like she’s stumbling upon something for the first time and blowing her own mind while doing it.
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 is out 10/7 via Kill Rock Stars. This is what it’ll look like:
[Hella headband photo from Marnie @ SXSW 2007]
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where we’re going we need 1.21 gigawatts. and hours of finger drills.
holy shit… a real guitarist.
Well…that was interesting. Mountain Dews a hell of a drink… Album cover doesn’t match music. Theres no pastels in that song. The old bait and switch…
Starbuck, is that you?
whether you like her or not, you have to give her credit. girl’s got skills. i find it really refreshing to see a female guitarist that can really play.
Yes, she can play. But she sure can’t name albums. Attention indie-rockers: your album titling inclinations are now in self-parody mode! Pull up! Pull up!!
Ya know I listened to this again and I liked It more… I suppose the production of it needs to be a bit more technicolor and zippy for it to REALLY be effective.
Pixies! “Planet of Sound”… take your head off is what I’ll do!
I don’t get it … Some of the super cool kid Pitchfork music makes sense. I loved Black Kids, Of Montreal, I loved Sam Beam’s newest album, got into TV on the Radio. Then some of this shit, like Marnie and Animal Collective … I dunno, It’s so highly acclaimed, but it still just sounds like noise to me. Maybe if I had robot ears …