Marnie Stern built her reputation on two albums’ worth of finger-tapping guitar virtuosity. But last fall, she released a third self-titled record that, while packed with some of the year’s best guitar squall, entirely transcended its technical merits. Marnie Stern is a personal document of loss and recovery, full of worry and indecision and fear, yet flecked with glimpses of strength and hope.
On the heels of the most powerful album of her career, Stern took some time out of her crazy-busy CMJ week to curate and guest host an episode of the Flavorpill Fix. In the video, she performs a song from each of her three full-lengths, talks about the process of making Marnie Stern, introduces clips by some of her favorite bands (The Thermals, Grass Widow, Talk Normal, and Pterodactyl), and gives us the inside scoop on her hilarious tour blog, The Vagina Monoblog. As always, New Yorkers can watch this episode Wednesday night at 10:30pm on NYC life, channel 25 — although, unfortunately, the TV version will be pussy-free. Watch the unedited version after the jump.
Live performances:
Marnie Stern “Transformer,” from the album This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That “Her Confidence,” from Marnie Stern “Vibrational Match,” from In Advance of the Broken Arm Live at The Delancey, 10.23.10
Music videos:
The Thermals “I Don’t Believe You” Directed by Whitey McConnaughy
Grass Widow “Fried Egg” Directed by Hannah Lew
Pterodactyl “No Sugar” Souce footage from the Russian film Konflikt (Garri Bardin, 1983), with the Soviet animation production company Soyuzmultfilm, re-edited by Pterodactyl Brah Records
Talk Normal “In a Strange Land” Directed by Gennifer Leong and Pastor Alvarado
Interested in submitting your video to the Flavorpill Fix?
Email your video (in Quicktime format, via Sendspace, Megaupload, etc.) to seanruch@gmail.com. Also include: Contact info, a short list of credits (band, song, album, director, website) and any questions or special instructions you may have. We’ll get in touch if we plan to use your clip in an upcoming episode of the Flavorpill Fix.