Math Rock Classics: You Have to Hear Marnie Stern’s “This is It and I Am It…”

Ahh, the mid-2000’s… this was the golden era of math rock. Here’s how it worked:

There was a label called Sargent House based around Sacramento, CA. Run a stubborn yet warm-hearted industry veteran named Cathy Pellow, the label came into being because RX Bandits (managed by Cathy at the time) couldn’t find a good deal anywhere else.

The label made the unusual decision to sign a bunch of noisy, off-kilter rock bands. The list is now stuff of legends: Hella, Tera Melos, Maps & Atlases, This Town Needs Guns… basically all the biggest math bands of that wave.

Fast-forward a few years and drummer Zach Hill was playing in seemingly every loud band on the west coast. The dude was so prolific that in spite of his punishing, avant-garde style, he was building a cult of fans who would buy anything with his name on it.

Marnie Stern

That’s where Marnie Stern comes in. She was a guitarist in the Sargent House scene and picked up Zach Hill to play drums in her band.

The result was something bizarre and beautiful. Marnie’s guitar parts used simple ideas at maximum intensity, looping shreddy tapped riffs over harsh dissonances on the lower end. Her singing was aggressive yet coy, somewhere between speaking and yelling for much of the album.

Beneath her unusual soundscape was Zach - hitting approximately ten thousand kick drums per minute, shredding up and down the kit with cymbals echoing off of themselves and the earth rattling beneath his feet.

This is an insane combination. The result is beautiful. Check out this madness:

As soon as the drums kick in, it is on. I never hear intensity like this in most music - usually, you either go too stereotypical with the heavy (think heavy metal), or too light and brittle. In this instance the song kicks your face in over and over, there’s no escape, but it does so without chugging or doing any typical blastbeats or anything.

It’s restrained intensity, like a homeless guy who might be about to jack your shit. There is danger within the beat. I love it, just love it.

Here’s one more great one from the record:

Love this!!

50% of it is 100% Amazing

Half the songs on this record are incredible. I don’t necessarily listen to the album front-to-back anymore, but I can revisit the best songs as often as I want - they never get old.

What do you think of Marnie Stern? She had some hype for a while, tho I think she may not perform much anymore. Last time I saw her was ages ago, when Tera Melos’s old drummer Vince was touring with her…

MATH ROCK FOREVER!