Marnie Stern

The frenetic guitar work of Marnie Stern might get the most attention from people (and who can blame them, as it’s jaw-dropping even on the 300th listen), but coursing through her manic fretboard tapping and latticed vocals is a pop sensibility that turns all of her songs into earworms. Stern’s self-titled third album is a hyperspeed run through metal, pop, thrash, and any other music that can be described with the exclamation “whoa”—and on tracks like “Her Confidence,” she throws Siouxsie Sioux’s swagger into the blender. Live, she adds a little bit of David Lee Roth sass to her Eddie Van Halen-inspired riffing, cracking wicked jokes between songs. 

Updated 10/27/2010