No. 29: Marnie Stern Looks For Meaning In Six Strings
Because the song at No. 29 aims for something more than plain ol’ guitar heroics.
New York guitarist Marnie Stern earned most of her good press this year for her fleet, bloody-fingered, prog-noise guitar style, and when Maura gave Stern some shine less than a month ago, she praised her playing as being “probably one of the sunshiniest examples of absolute shredding I’ve heard in many, many years.” While it’s hard to argue with that, we should also note that songs like Stern’s “Every Single Line Means Something,” and the best of her rest on debut In Advance Of The Broken Arm, frame her hardcore hammer-ons and spidery melodies within a wonderfully wonky and woozy tune, the sort that makes it seem like no conicidence that we narrowly missed a Stern/Mary Timony show this year at CMJ. Side note: please go to Stern’s MySpace page right now, let the Lil Mama “remix” load, and scrape busted grill from floor.
Marnie Stern – “Every Single Line Means Something” [YouTube] Marnie Stern [MySpace]
