Stern, Marnie / This Is It...
Album: This Is It...   Collection:General
Artist:Stern, Marnie   Added:Oct 2008
Label:Kill Rock Stars  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2008-12-07 Pull Date: 2009-02-08
Week Ending: Feb 1 Jan 25 Jan 18 Jan 11 Jan 4 Dec 14
Airplays: 1 1 1 2 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. Feb 24, 2015: Setting Fire to the Lab
The Package Is Wrapped
4. Nov 08, 2013: Fight or Flight
The Package Is Wrapped
2. Jan 29, 2015: A Visit From Drum
Prime
5. Oct 18, 2013: The Fall of Math
The Package Is Wrapped
3. Mar 18, 2014: Setting Fire to the Lab
Clone Cycle
6. Jul 08, 2013: Fight or Flight
The Package Is Wrapped, Steely

Album Review
Your Imaginary Friend
Reviewed 2008-11-29
One sheet says “Imagine a Guitar Hero showdown between Don Caballero, Hella and… Van Halen”. Sometimes the one-sheets are good for something. Woman guitar “hero” and vocalist from New York definitely with something to prove. Mathy, urgent, almost a Japanese Ruins spastic’ness, but then a poppy vocal hook comes along and a distinctly math rock beat takes over. This stuff is all over the map in a certain sense but it retains a fast paced urgency even in the “slow” songs. Her vocals are tastefully layered and its all well recorded and played to a technical “T”. Great stuff. One sheet mentions how she had to endure the onslaught of The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (whatever happened to those losers? Wait, like I give a shit now any more than I did then) in the early part of this decade to finally get an audience. Worth the wait. Cream rises. Shit sinks eventually.

1) simple if urgent beat with voice for first half then launches into great rocking swirling mess
2) urgent rocking as fuck!
3) starts urgent then shifts into a swaying gallop with female vocs
4) almost poppy in the heavy vocals
5) fast but melodic, hooky
6) fast and near proggy rock with some wanky guitar hook (Ragnar, get it up!)
7) mid paced, a bit more accessible and musical
8) good slammin rock and fucking roll
9) goddamn if some of the breakes remind me of old Emerson Lake and Palmer or something, this is some epic prog/math/crazy rock
10) off kilter and slightly halting
11) a triplet/waltz beat turns into chaos then into something 7/8 or the like, then back, good stuff!
12) halting, timing changes, this woman has a signature sound and must be amazing live

Track Listing
1. Prime   7. The Package Is Wrapped
2. Transformer   8. Simon Says
3. Shea Stadium   9. Vault
4. Ruler   10. Clone Cycle
5. The Crippled Jazzer   11. Roads? Where We're Going We Don't Need Roads
6. Steely   12. Devil In The Details