Marnie Stern – Spinning Platters

Single of the Week: “Plain Speak” by Marnie Stern

I’ve had two doctors recently tell me that I need to cut back on my caffeine intake dramatically. And, although Matcha doesn’t seem to be cutting it, Marnie Stern seems to have felt my pain and struggle and released her first single in about ten years, and it’s the perfect substitute! “Plain Speak” is classic Marnie- as frantic and furious as a panic attack (which is the main reason I need to cut back on my caffeine and increase my time spent actually sleeping), combined with the tethering of lyrics that are optimistic without being cloying. Stern has perfected empathic composition, and, really, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Guitar master Marnie Stern’s new record, The Comeback Kid, is coming your way on November 3rd, which is exactly one week after my birthday, which is PERFECT! P reorders have already kicked off! And if you become a VIP member of Joyful Noise Recordings, you can get the fancy version with a bonus 7″, in addition to all the other perks of membership like random access to free tickets, the ability to download the full catalog, and fancy other stuff!

Picks Six: Six Defining Tracks from 5RC Records

The pandemic has put is knee-deep into MySpace-era nostalgia. Bands like My Chemical Romance, Limp Bizkit, and The Strokes play bigger venues than in their heyday. So, obviously, it’s time for the weirdest of the 00’s to get a chance to return, too! Kill Rock Stars have resurrected 5RC (5 Rue Christine), a home for more experimental works. The video above is their first release of the 2020’s, “Glass from Sand” by MV Carbon + Charlemagne Palestine (Full Length out Nov 4th)/ I spent A LOT of time with 5RC bands in the early ’00s, as I wanted desperately to be welcomed by the noise community.

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Show Review: Phono del Sol, 7/13/13

Phono del Sol is quickly becoming a festival to be reckoned with. In it’s third year, attendance seems to have more then tripled their attendance from the year prior, and I think, these year, have finally solidified itself as the tastemaking music festival of the Summer. It’s the perfect situation: a sunny day in one of San Francisco’s most underappreciated spaces: Potrero del Sol Park. It has a stage pre built directly in front of a skate park, making for a stage experience unlike any other show. This year they added an additional stage, doubling the amount of music. And, much like Treasure Island, the two stages were set up so there was no overlap, and, in fact, we got to enjoy 6 1/2 hours of continuous music.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 7/11/13-7/17/13

The week is going to be a glorious week of rock n roll madness.

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Show Review: Marnie Stern with SISU and E V Kain at the Rickshaw Stop, 4/28/2013

Incendiary guitar goddess Marnie Stern returned to San Francisco on Sunday night in support of her fourth and most accessible LP, the wondrously titled The Chronicles of Marnia. The show, which transpired at the Rickshaw Stop, drew a full house of giddily enthusiastic fans, or at least what passes for “giddily enthusiastic” on a Sunday night in San Francisco. By which I mean we all pretty much stood there stone-faced for three hours. But we were into it! Honest! I think Marnie might actually prefer our notoriously chill style of audience participation; when she noticed that the only overtly expressive dancers in the entire club had positioned themselves directly in front of her, she actually ordered them to go dance in front of her bassist, Nithin Kalvakota. “It’s distracting! And confusing! And it’s making me dizzy!” she protested in that vaguely “It’s Pat” voice of hers. And what the lady wants, the lady gets.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/25/13-5/1/13

Looking for a better time than a bath tub full of rubber duckies? Look no further!

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SXSW 2013: A Diary Of A “Crafty Veteran”

Some band playing some where in Texas... — Some band playing some where in Texas…

Having been dubbed a “crafty veteran” by one local bystander, there are a few certain truths that I have discovered seven years deep into South By South West culture. 1) Always carry your phone charger because the battery will die; the ABC’s (Always Be Chargin’) as we here at Spinning Platters like to call it. 2) Delicious food is only a food truck away when you need to take a break and refuel in-between day parties and evening showcases. And 3) there will be both bad, and good bands at aforementioned showcases. The payout for waiting through a not-so-awesome band, however, can be an amazing, week-altering experience that leads to months of fan-girl-ing out, post-South By. However, this is all contingent on actually being granted admission to that one thing one wanted to see the most. There are still things to be learned and sometimes learned the hard way.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 3/17/11 – 3/23/11

Check out the concerts happening around the Bay Area over St. Patty’s Day weekend — after the jump.

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Show Review: Marnie Stern, Grass Widow at The New Parish, 11/4/10

Marnie Stern us the kind of performer that people are desperate to describe in a single sentence. They usually toss together the name of a well known riot grrl band of some sort (Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, etc) with a highly skilled male musician (Eddie Van Halen, Robert Fripp, Les Claypool, etc). Although I understand how quick comparisons like this make it easy to market a musician, I feel that Ms. Stern is much greater than that. Her influences are widely varied, and her skill is incomparable.

The surprisingly small crowd on a surprisingly warm November night that came out to see her last night at The New Parish got to experience an impressive show of musical heroic, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 11/4/2010-11/10/2010

back_to_the_future_1_3 — Great Scotts! Delorean are playing Great American Music Hall on Wednesday!

I’d like to thank Jason LeRoy for taking over the list for the last couple of weeks. I hope that you listened to him, because if you didn’t, we’re just going to have to turn this website around and go back home…

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