Marnie Stern Issue #37

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 (Kill Rock Stars)

By Anne Anderson
Published: September 1st, 2008 | 1:03am

“Defenders get onto your knees!” Marnie Stern demands over and over on the first track of This Is It, her second full-length album. Amid exhortations and entreaties, she ferociously finger-taps her guitar on the way to thrash’s throne, matching her voice to the album’s ever-escalating notes. This irresistible follow-up to last year’s In Advance Of the Broken Arm preserves her instantly recognizable sound, which is at once excitingly singular and derivative. Blending the gnarl of punk, the virtuosic guitar stylings of Eddie Van Halen, the imploratory daring of Hole circa Live Through This, and a teen girl’s brashness might land you just outside Marnie’s squeal-punk doorstep.

“I present two sides: my hopelessness and my faith, my ego and my heart, my feelings and my brain,” she chants on the intro to the song “Roads? Where We’re Going We Don’t Need Roads.” This brief bit is an elusive iota of calm amid the frenzy of This Is It, and it acts as an antidote to what comes next on “Roads”: an ever-intensifying cacophony of high-pitched hysterics.

The frenetic staccato intro to the stellar “Simon Says” revels in in-your-face berserkness with Stern’s nasally, yawping vocals and guitar. She sings, “I’m drawing lines in the sand,” sounding like a spoiled teenager with a vendetta. Immediately following within the same song, she confesses, “Here’s what I want / Someone to come at me,” becoming all of a sudden a complex, hungry woman. Given either presentation, it’ll be all you can do not to rage all over the floor, perfecting your air-guitar technique.

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