Wankfest Overload

Photo by Ben Rayner

Guitar solos are ruling. No matter how much some old guy in the pub dribbling into his bitter at closing time goes on about how important three-chords and ’76 and blah and blah and blah, solos are still a massively important part of guitar rock. That’s why people stand on tables and play air guitar when people put Maiden on the jukebox. This is why I love Marnie Stern. She just played at Barden’s Boudoir and the show was like if Elmo from Seasame Street was in a band that did Van Halen and Don Caballero covers. What else? She looks like a beautiful, frail, elfin pixi. The usual sweaty guy doing windmills with his foot on the monitor and shorts so short his wrinkled turkey-skin sack is hanging out is nowhere to be seen. It’s a pretty great feeling. Vice: We heard that you didn’t listen to any music until you were 23. What were you doing instead? Marnie Stern: When I was little I’d listen to the classic rock station but while I was at NYU doing journalism I was really just into that, the studying really. Also, all I had to listen to there was the radio and the radio in New York sucks big ass. I was more into reading. I read mostly presidential biographies. Who are your favourite presidents? Lincoln, Adams and Clinton. Would that be your dream jam, you on guitar and Bill on sax? Maybe that would be my mom’s dream. So how did you go from Presidents to wanting to be a guitar hero? I went to go see Neil Hagerty from Royal Trux one night in Brooklyn and he had this big white double-neck and basically just wanked off all night and I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a guitar wanker. Your music sounds like you have attention deficit disorder. It’s quite the opposite. I am very compulsive. I knew I wanted to be good at the guitar so when I made that decision that was all I did. I would practice guitar for three or four hours a day. I am also very lazy and hate socialising so it all fitted in. I could just stay in my apartment, ignore everyone and practice in this weird reclusive world. To begin with I didn’t even have other humans to play with. Just my iPod. Now I have Zach (Hill, of Hella) playing drums which is pretty awesome actually. What was your iPod called? I didn’t know that you could give them names. Mine’s called Cuthbert. Prancehall’s is called Clarence. Errr. Cool? JAMES KNIGHT
Marnie Stern’s album In Advance Of The Broken Arm is out now on Kill Rock Stars.
www.myspace.com/marniestern1