1.26.2007

Marnie Stern Melting Faces



Noise rock, avant garde, experemental...all I hear is blah blah blah. Sure I listen to Sonic Youth and Hella and a few other random bands that come under those labels but mostly the type of the music means nothing to me.

But give me a picture like the one of Marnie Stern above and I pay attention. That picture was my first introduction to the guitar shredding wonder woman and it caused me to search out the music. And its really good.

Marnie's high pitched voice, Zach Hill's spastic drumming and the shredding guitar is bound to make your head spin on first listen but be persistant. Its a pretty rewarding listen once you're able to break it down.

The record will be available on Feb. 20th via Kill Rock Stars.
And keep an eye out. She's probably coming to your town.

Via Pitchfork:
Every Single Line Means Something

Via Marnie Stern's Site:
Precious Metal

Be Marnie's Buddy at Myspace


Haha...I was just checking out the Pitchfork description...darn them for using the same descriptive words as me...

1.06.2007

The Harvey Girls



I got to pick up a copy of the KJHK Farm Fresh Sounds sampler a week or two ago. Its loaded with rare and exclusive tracks by a number of bands I'd heard of as well as several that I hadn't. One of the bands that was new to me was The Harvey Girls. Its a name that I had seen in a few places but I'd never taken the time to really look them up. Now I wish I had looked them up quite a while ago. The Harvey Girls (which is really one girl and one guy...a bit deceptive, huh?) make great charming elctro-pop music. This music is usually not my type so I really don't know exactly who to compare them to. I guess the references to Prince Paul and the Shangri-las on their Myspace Page are as good as we're gonna do there.

But the fact of the matter is that they seem to be really cool people. If you swing by the sounds page at their official site, its obvious that they really want you to enjoy the music above all else. You can download all their albums, including a great cover album called "Our History is Your Kitsch", for free.

Yep. Free.

However, the full proper thing to do is to hit up the "donate" links on the right, or, as I am going to do, order a CDR pack. It's worth it.

Here's a couple of the wonderful individual tracks that they've made available for us to hear:
Parking Lot
Book Of Love (Magnetic Fields Cover)

And a couple more from lawrence.com:
Someone Who Looks a Lot Like Them
The Girls Sing
Mother's Heartbeat