The Comeback Kid

New York-based guitarist, vocalist, and composer Marnie Stern has an immediately recognizable style, one that utilizes technically dazzling finger-tapping guitar shredding while her songwriting is grounded in melodic art rock sensibilities. Stern arrived with this style fully formed on her 2007 debut In Advance of the Broken Arm, her intricate guitar compositions complemented perfectly by Zach Hill's equally frenzied drumming. Stern waited about a decade to release new music; she was busy playing guitar in the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers. She returned in 2023 with her fifth album The Comeback Kid.

Marnie Stern was born and raised in New York City and began playing guitar in her early twenties. She developed a style that relied heavily on intricate finger-tapping and wove this technique into songs with elements of melody, intensity, and movement, landing in a hard-to-define category of her own. Stern was signed to Kill Rock Stars in 2006 after sending them an especially impressive demo, and in 2007 the label released her debut album, In Advance of the Broken Arm. Made with Hella (and later Death Grips) drummer Zach Hill and bassist John-Reed Thompson, it was well-received critically. Second album 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 materialized quickly with the same personnel and was released the next year. By the time she released her third, self-titled album in 2010, Stern had amassed a significant following and critical buzz for her unique playing and songwriting presence -- she was regularly included on lists of the greatest guitarists of all time in publications like Spin and Rolling Stone. Her fourth album, 2013's The Chronicles of Marnia, would be Stern's first record without Hill on drums -- that role was taken up by Oneida drummer Kid Millions. Sometime after that album's touring cycle, Stern began acting as a fill-in guitarist for 8G, the house band for late-night TV talk show Late Night with Seth Meyers. She eventually became a full member of the band, and spent the majority of her time focusing on that gig and parenting until leaving the program in 2022. In 2023, Stern returned with her fifth album, The Comeback Kid, her first proper solo work after a decade away. The album was produced by and included contributions from Arcade Fire's Jeremy Gara and was released in November of 2023 on Joyful Noise. ~ Fred Thomas