In Advance of the Broken Arm

Marnie Stern | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 20, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Kill Rock Stars
• ASIN: B000MDH896
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #151,952 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Yes! It's hard to muster a more nuanced response to Marnie Stern, a previously obscure shredder and yawper who has just released the year's most exciting rock 'n' roll album. True, there are 10 months left, but you could spend at least half of them puzzling your way through ''In Advance of the Broken Arm,'' her riotous debut.

Ms. Stern builds her songs by pecking and slashing: she often taps out staccato patterns on the fret board, overdubbing fuzzy power chords to give these skeletal lines weight and force. She is joined by the jumpy drummer Zach Hill, from Hella, and by John-Reed Thompson, who adds some bass and other instruments. But this music feels, in the best sense, like bedroom music, homemade and meticulous. When Ms. Stern sings (the album s gnomic first words are, or seem to be, ''I am a vibrational match/In the water/We line up/Off a beach''), she sounds as if she s singing to herself.

Somehow these songs pick up momentum as they twitch: within those crosshatched guitar lines, the rhythm keeps shifting and tugging, and she peels off so many notes that you can t possibly hear them all. In ''Every Single Line Means Something,'' she slows down to a punk-rock strut, snarling and intoning the lyrics as those multiplied guitars divide and reunite and divide again.

This raucous, wriggly music will certainly make Ms. Stern a cult sensation, and no doubt she s not expecting anything more than that. But don't imagine that this album is some sort of endurance test: it s too joyful, and too pretty, to be considered difficult. One song, ''Grapefruit,'' starts off with scrabbling guitars but swiftly evolves into a scrambled variant of 1970s hard rock. (One pictures Ms. Stern windmilling on an arena stage, triumphant.) Another, ''Put All Your Eggs in One Basket and Then Watch That Basket!!!,'' revolves around a singsong refrain and a grand, descending chord progression. In an alternate and better universe it s a hit. Or, to quote a different song from this extraordinary album: ''Yes! Yes! Yes! The answer s yes!'' --The New York Times

Product Description

Ok. Let's get this out of the way. Marnie Stern can shred. She's a better guitar player than you, or me, or probably 99% of the people who have ever looked at a guitar. There. That's done.

Marnie came out of nowhere, or the Upper East Side of Manhattan to be exact. She didn't listen to ''good'' music (her words) until she was 23. The first thing she heard that made her head spin was Sleater-Kinney, followed a few years later by Hella, Boredoms, Melt Banana, etc. A Don Caballero video introduced her to the finger-tapping technique she now uses expertly. For the last several years she has played guitar for ''at least'' three hours a day because she feels guilty when she doesn't play. Marnie is one of the rare artists who was signed to KRS after sending in a demo tape.

Her debut record, In Advance of the Broken Arm, is culled from songs written by herself in her bedroom over a two-year period, with production and drum work by Hella's Zach Hill. Her songs are of the earth, birthed in an organic process where the finished product is much more striking than the individual parts: created in solitude, the songs contain a staggering number of layers, each one winding its way around the others, then counterpointed by Marnie's feminine, echoing, powerful vocals. Despite the artful pretensions of some of her influences, Marnie's lyrics are her secret weapon... every line has an understated elegance floating above the mindnumbingly complex guitar work.

What makes Marnie better than any of the other hundreds of nameless and faceless tech guitar wizards is her uncanny ability to somehow transform the most complicated guitar acrobatics into beautiful and concise 3 minute pop songs. Hers is an inspired, forward-moving art that you can take home to mom, and play for your kid sister. In Advance of the Broken Arm transcends any gimmicky ''recluse'' label because it is so present and immediate, and is certainly the most vibrant, original, empowering, and groundbreaking record released in a long time.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prepare to be destroyed, August 14, 2007

By 

Dodo-Calvaria "comeback tour 07" (austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Advance of the Broken Arm (Audio CD)

This album hit me like a Loony Tunes anvil from the sky. I got flattened by the melismatic shredding; the geometric ethereal vocals; the noise mastery; the 70s thick-bellied sci-fi hooks; the far-sighted lyrics.

And then we saw her show. Mother. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have believed it. Stern's fingers dance, my friends, while she smiles at you. Zach Hill - just furious, insane. And guitarist Robby Moncrieff is a treasure; he and Stern wove big magic for the ending of This American Life (probably my favorite). Left me breathless.

We shared a cigarette with Her Greatness before the show - what a sweetie. Nothing like what I've heard of New Yorkers. Kidding, kidding! (shout out to Fig Newton!)

Marnie Stern's record here helped restore faith in my generation. Thought we'd all grown up and forgot to rawk out, no prisoners, no visionless angst. I haven't enough arms to pump all the heavy metal salutes this inspires.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Sound!, October 17, 2007

By 

Russell Workman (Sydney, NSW Australia.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In Advance of the Broken Arm (Audio CD)

After hearing on radio just once a track from this album, I found it in Amazon and straight away ordered. After waiting impatiently for it arrive it finally came. It's been top of my play-list since.
Marnie, what a gentle name for such an amazingly fierce guitar player. Not only can she play fantastically, she sings great lyrics at the same time. Every track sounds live (and dangerous). Marnie Stern brings rock guitar at great speed into the new millenium, both hands on the fret-board! If she ever tours here I'll be in the front row!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lady Shredder, July 11, 2007

By 

Mr. Thistle (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Advance of the Broken Arm (Audio CD)

Stern's out-of-nowhere debut epic is quite a formidable listen. It's like a musical treadmill, this one. Stern is the most apt candidate for guitarist of the year this side of Mike Barr (who obliterated The Urban Lounge for those with kind of normal expectations when he opened for Gang Gang Dance this month). Listening to this female shredder is truly an endurance test. That may be a bit misleading because Stern has some super catchy, truly accessible tracks here on Broken Arm. It's just that I can't even imagine how some of these guitar lines are possibly being played by a human and there is no letting up through the entire album. Seems fitting that the drumming on the album is completed by none other than Hella mega-drummer Zach Hill (also a Mike Barr collaborator along with everyone else in the world besides you). This is the best pop/rock record set too alien guitar metal in the entire world. I'm not sure how to let you know why you should listen to this. I could reference Deerhoof or maybe the Ladies or something. Either way, In Advance of the Broken Arm will not disappoint and here is a guarantee that you will not want to try out these songs on Guitar Hero (unless your name is Bjorn Turoque). Now let me get some rest because I think that the live version of these songs might give me a heart attack tonight if I'm well rested.