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Avg: 3.5 (73 ratings)
- Date Released: February 20, 2007
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Punk, Alternative
- Label: Kill Rock Stars / Redeye
Kill Rock Stars’ phenom guitarist puts out her solo debut.
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We Say...
“Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!” is the best song on Marnie Stern’s stunning debut album. It’s also a great metaphor for her modus operandi: reportedly practicing the guitar for more than three hours a day for the last several years, Stern has given her all to the craft of shredding. But it’s a fertile basket: even masterly Don Caballero/ Battles six-stringer Ian Williams might have trouble recreating Stern’s manic guitar pyrotechnics. While that fact might send some listeners running for the hills in fear of the cartoon violence and brutal prog that such virtuosity frequently brings, Stern crucially grounds her tunes in pop structures, rarely turning in a track that’s longer than four minutes. Her chirpy speak-sing vocals offer a modicum of relief from the surrounding maelstrom as well bringing the sometimes-unhinged drumming of Hella’s Zach Hill back down to earth on songs like “Healer,” where she wails Hill into eventual submission. In Advance of the Broken Arm isn’t an easy listen — and Stern rarely gives you a way in, despite what the burned-out slow jam “Logical Volume” or the abstract funk of “Every Single Line Means Something” might have you believe — but those repelled by the goofiness and obscurantism of bands like Hella and Crime in Choir may find just what they’re looking for in Marnie Stern.
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They Say...
On the one hand it's almost hilarious to call Marnie Stern's music "indie rock," given the quality of her technical gifts as a finger-tapping electric guitarist (bottom line: she's a firebrand). She has a unique style that is precise and knotty and seemingly would be at home in some prog rock band of her own design. Except for one thing: her songwriting adheres to quirky lyrics and is defined by a flip-flop, herky-jerky (somewhat ) homemade rock & roll aesthetic. In Advance of the Broken Arm was written over a couple of years in her apartment on New York's Upper East Side, and was co-produced with the equally hyperactive and truly inventive drummer Zach Hill (Hella), with contributions from John Reed Thompson (who also engineered and mixed the set). Hill remains a pop songwriter -- albeit a fractured one. These songs are noisy, full of shards and sharp edges -- there is a New York no wave lineage at work here to be sure -- but they contain unmistakable hooks and strategies that set them firmly in the pocket. This music is loud and obnoxious but endearing, and in the sonic wail and skip of "Vibrational Match" one can hear everything from the lineage of David Byrne's irresistible outsider charm from his days with Talking Heads to the sonic rock & roll attack of Chavez, the rock & roll swagger of Sleater-Kinney (Stern's initial inspiration to write songs), and the free-for-all fun of the Boredoms and Melt Banana. Stern's multi-tracked vocals are elfin and authoritative as well as playful. She can conjure a chanted rock & roll anthem with power chords or knotty twist-and-turn lead and sung lines ("Grapefruit"). She can transform a standard six-string riff into an intricate, turn-on-a-dime, sonically warped avant construct without losing her groove ("Every Single Line Means Something") or engender jagged-edged chaos -- with help from Hill's frenetic, over the top drumming ("The Weight of a Rock"). There isn't anything subtle about In Advance of the Broken Arm. It swaggers and twirls, careens and cavorts with disaster at every moment, but always manages to keep its insane energy in focus with infectiously good humor to boot. This album is the prescription for anyone who thinks rock has imploded or has nothing new to offer. This record may flaunt its excesses -- and there are many but they're mostly all welcome (Stern's album is "maximalist" indie rockism, after all) -- without concern or hesitation, but it is perhaps forward enough in its reach and ambition to act as a spark for as-yet-unheard rockers writing in bedrooms everywhere.
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| 01. |  |
Vibrational Match |
3:37 |
|
| 02. | |
Grapefruit |
2:47 |
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| 03. | |
Every Single Line Means Something |
3:41 |
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| 04. | |
Precious Metal |
3:11 |
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| 05. | |
Put All Your Eggs In One Basket And Then Watch That Basket!!! |
2:41 |
|
| 06. | |
Logical Volume |
3:41 |
|
| 07. | |
Absorb Those Numbers |
3:21 |
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| 08. | |
This American Life |
4:05 |
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| 09. | |
Letters From Rimbaud |
3:40 |
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| 10. | |
The Weight Of A Rock |
2:30 |
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| 11. | |
Plato's Fucked Up Cave |
3:30 |
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| 12. | |
Healer |
3:30 |
|
| 13. | |
Patterns Of A Diamond Ceiling |
4:25 |
|
13 Total Tracks, 44:39 Total Length
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Credits
- John Golden - Mastering // Bella Foster - Artwork // Zach Hill - Bass // Zach Hill - Bass // Zach Hill - Piano // Zach Hill - Piano // Zach Hill - Arranger // Zach Hill - Arranger // Zach Hill - Drums // Zach Hill - Drums // Zach Hill - Keyboards // Zach Hill - Keyboards // Zach Hill - Producer // Zach Hill - Producer // Marnie Stern - Guitar // Marnie Stern - Arranger // Marnie Stern - Keyboards // Marnie Stern - Vocals // Marnie Stern - Engineer // John Reed Thompson - Bass // John Reed Thompson - Piano // John Reed Thompson - Keyboards // John Reed Thompson - Engineer // John Reed Thompson - Mixing
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