THE LISA MARR EXPERIMENT
AMERICAN JITTERS
Sympathy For The Record Industry
September, 2003
Produced by Martin Beal, David Carswell and John Collins
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No Depression – January/February 2004
Lisa Marr Experiment: Beyond the Vancouver Underground & Neko
If her former life as the queen of cuddlecore taught Lisa Marr anything, it’s
that there’s no joy in being pigeonholed. From 1992 to 1997, the
Canadian-born bassist toiled in the indie trenches with Cub, a Vancouver trio
that started out as incompetent as the Shaggs and ended up landing glowing profiles
in magazines like Rolling Stone.
In the beginning, the band relied on its considerable cuteness to hide its shortcomings,
sitting cross-legged onstage, tossing out candy between songs, and offering
declawed versions of tunes such as Motorhead’s “Killed By Death”.
Before long, someone threw out the term cuddlecore, a description that stuck
long after the group evolved into a lethal, hook-happy pop combo.
“The whole cuddlecore thing started as a tongue-in-cheek joke, but it
became a rock that was attached to our leg, dragging us into the river,”
says Marr from her adopted home in Los Angeles. “I understand that
people want to know what they are getting with a band; they want something that
they can understand in ten seconds or less. I’m not really interested
in being one-dimensional, though.”
That’s borne out by the Lisa Marr Experiment, which has just released
American Jitters, a genre-jumping follow-up to the group’s eclectic 2000
debut 4AM. After crawling from the wreckage of Cub (and a subsequent project
called Buck), Marr decided she was ready for something different.
“I wanted to branch out from the basic guitar, bass and drums pop setup,”
she says. “The goal was to do something new. I had a bunch
of songs, some of them country, some of them not. What was interesting
to me was the idea of combining them all. It’s not about doing ‘I’m
going to make a record that sounds like George Jones.’ It’s
more about taking influences and messing them up with my pop sensibilities.”
Shifting gears with an easygoing effortlessness, the sixteen tracks on American
Jitters jump around from classic country to scrappy college rock to sweet pop
to straight-outta-the-70s MOR. While the band may bear her name, Marr
doesn’t go it alone; she shares the songwriting and vocals with multi-instrumentalist
Mike Flanagan. Other members are ace pedal steel player Dave Philips and
drummer Sherri Solinger.
When the four teamed up for 4AM, it wasn’t designed to go beyond that
record. “I figured I would record my songs with a band, but as a
one-off project, hence the name the Lisa Marr Experiment,” she explains.
“I had intended to keep things open in terms of who I played with, but
we all ended up liking each other so much that we kind of became a group.”
Helping make the shoestring-budget American Jitters sound like a big-budget
outing is a small army of guest musicians. Producers David Carswell and
John Collins of the New Pornographers pulled it all together.
Although the campfire pedal steel, Appalachian banjo, dime-a-dance accordion,
and pine-shack fiddle create some of the finest moments on American Jitters,
the songs would easily stand on their own if stripped down. Marr, whose
twangy vocal inflections sound more sixth-generation southerner than expat Canuck,
has always believe the best songs are simple ones, and she doesn’t deviate
from that belief here.
If Sheryl Crow spent her days at the loser’s end of Steve Buscemi’s
Trees Lounge, she’d be writing straight-up, bittersweet beauties like
“Monday Morning, Echo Park”. “Green Expectation”
would fit right in on a K-Tel 70’s Pop Gold compilation. “The
Boy With The Lou Reed Eyes” sounds like the Donnas kicking out the jams
in Big Star’s practice space.
But the Lisa Marr Experiment is at its best when sticking to dusty country backroads,
neon-lit honky tonks and tombstone-dotted cemeteries. “Carolina’s
Last Ride” captures the classic sound of 1960s Nashville. “Niagara,
Niagara” is all cornfield banjo and beautifully burnished pedal steel.
“The Return Of Donna Lee” is shot through with atmospheric lone-gunslinger
guitar work. Given how comfortable Marr sounds in a pair of cowboy boots,
it’s surprising that an artist with a pop past has so effortlessly made
the transition to roots music.
Or maybe it’s not. Among those who sat behind the drum kit during
Cub’s five-year run was a firecracker named Neko Case. (Marr’s
song “In California” appears on Case’s recent EP Canadian
Amp.)
“I think that she’s someone that really surprised everyone that
knows her,” Marr says of Case. “Nobody knew that she had that
big, beautiful voice inside her. I admire her on so many levels.
Would I have guessed that she’d be where she is today in the realm of
country? No, but she’s very tenacious, very focused on what she
wants, and very dedicated to making sure her vision is realized.”
When it’s suggested that Marr could easily be talking about herself, she
laughs but doesn’t necessarily disagree. The one-time queen of cuddlecore
is in no danger of being pigeonholed.
“People have a hard time with the project because it’s too poppy
for the country people, and too country for the pop people. I don’t
feel like I’m part of any particular group because what I’m doing
tends to transcend boundaries and cross over to various camps. It’s
always nice to be part of the in-crowd, but I can’t help but feel like
I’m sort of outside of it all. At this point, all that matters to
me is making work that I’m challenged by, and proud of.”
- Mike Usinger
allmusic.com
A lot of folks first got the word about Lisa Marr when fellow Canadian with
alt-country tendencies Neko Case covered her song "In California" (from the
debut Lisa Marr Experiment album 4 AM) on her EP Canadian Amp, and actually
Marr and Case would make a pretty good musical match. While Marr lacks Case's
wondrously clear pipes, she has a fine, strong voice that serves up both rock
& roll and honky tonk tunes with equal skill, and in Marr's lyrical world
things tend to go wrong as often as they go right. The 16 songs on Marr's second
album, American Jitters, veer back and forth between high-energy country, full-bodied
rock & roll, and edgy pop, and Marr and her band sound comfortable and accomplished
regardless of genre (especially second-in-command Mike Flanagan, who takes over
lead vocals on a few cuts). Unlike many latter-day twang-oriented acts, Marr
and company don't aim for camp or misery for its own sake; on American Jitters,
the busted relationships, bruised feelings, and general malaise over the current
state of their lives is the sound of normal folks trying to make the best of
what the fates have given them, and these songs ring true with the honest expression
of a lived life and a hard-won sense of humor. American Jitters certainly matches
the quality of 4 AM, and leaves no doubt that Marr has the makings of a major
artist if she can get herself heard by a wider audience.
- Mark Deming
poshlost.com
I’ve talked up Lisa Marr’s latest project before – her previous
album, 4 a.m. effected an impressive transition from the “cuddle-core”
of cub and Buck to a mish-mash of country styles. Problem was, I was never quite
sure whether she was serious or not. American Jitters proves that she is (or,
at least, if she’s not that 4 a.m. wasn’t just a one-off project).
The band has also gotten more mature and technically better in the last couple
of years, and this album is a much more finely-tuned machine than the last.
That means we lost some of the endearing schizophrenia that made 4 a.m. a lot
of fun, but it’s okay, since American Jitters is simply the better album.
It opens with Marr ripping through “Carolina’s Last Ride,”
which would be a murder ballad if there was anything “ballad” about
it. Mike Flanagan’s vocal contributions are better than those on the last
album (and that’s not to slight those songs), except perhaps the linking
track (and another murder ballad?) “The Return of Donna Lee.” Spotlights
are, aside from the opener, the wistful why-did-it-have-to-end of “Niagara,
Niagara;” the evocation of both place and distance in “Monday Morning,
Echo Park;” and the best rock track Marr’s ever recorded, “The
Boy with the Lou Reed Eyes.”
Chicagoboyz.net
Best Music of 2003
Long-time readers know of my fanatical devotion to the music of Lisa Marr,
formerly of Cub and Buck, and currently of The Lisa Marr Experiment(a/k/a The
LMX) and from time to time of the Beards. I discovered her because Kim Shattuck
of the Muffs, whom my wife and I love more than almost anything, said in an
interview (which I can’t find anymore …) that the only bands she
liked were Cub and Buck. This set me on an internet search for what promised
to be a new musical holy grail. I was not to be disappointed. I bought the Cub
and Buck records for my wife for Christmas 2001. I ended up listening to them
and getting into Lisa Marr’s music in the Spring of 2002. I was pretty
blown away, especially by the Cub Record "Come Out, Come Out". This led me in
turn to the Beard’s unbelievably brilliant record, Funtown, which was
the best record of 2002, IMHO. I then bought and fell in love with the LMX’s
4 AM. It was the most excited I have been about any currently active musician
in years and years.
Well, Ms. Marr blessed us with a new record in 2003, called American Jitters.
"Jitters" is a very good record, with several excellent songs (especially "Niagara,
Niagara", "Monday Morning, Echo Park", "Slaughterhouse Ceiling"), and one brilliant
one ("The Boy With the Lou Reed Eyes"). If you are not familiar with her music,
I’d say start with Funtown (which has seven out of eleven songs by her,
four by Kim Shattuck), and then 4 A.M. which has several positively brilliant
songs.
This all segues into the best musical event of 2003 for Lex, and one of the
best ever. As it happens, Lisa Marr’s planned tour to support the new
record did not come off due to a cascade effect of bad luck. But, being a trouper,
she drove out of LA with a guitar and a box of records, and did a one-woman
"tour", playing at locations of opportunity for a couple of weeks. By a combination
of circumstances too convoluted to detail here, Lex and Mrs. Lex managed to
be in the room when she played a "private concert" to a very small gathering
in the living room of one of her Chicago-area fans. This was a phenomenal evening.
She played a bunch of requests for older songs she would probably never have
played on stage. She’s a great vocalist, and she sounded great that night.
Her songs are so strong that they stand up very well to this type of minimalist
treatment. I’ll level with you: I was so happy to hear some of these songs
it was actually painful. From some musicians we don’t merely expect good,
or even great, but we expect the sun the moon and the stars. And just sitting
on the couch with an acoustic guitar, she rose to that stellar standard. She
mentioned that she was working on a "solo album" of "pop stuff", as well as
other projects. I anticipate many more great things from Lisa Marr in the months
and years ahead. She is truly one of the musical wonders of the age. Our Chicago
Boyz readers will be kept notified.
- Lexington Green
emusic.com
The Lisa Marr Experiment's follow up to 4 AM, American Jitters features another
round of music for the "Inner Schizophrenic" in all of us! Lisa says she left
a quiet socialist life in Vancouver, Canada for the fame and fortune of Hollywood.
Finding neither, she now works as a forklift operator in a warehouse across
the street from the city jail. Really??
No Depression – July/August 2003
Live Review - Neko Case/The Lisa Marr Experiment at the Derby - May 20, 2003
It wasn't Vancouver 1993 all over again. Neko Case and Lisa Marr
have both come a long way since the days when Case was an occasional drummer
for the Marr-fronted cuddlecore band Cub.
Marr expressed excitement about sharing a stage again with her old friend, but
she deserved to be equally excited about the songs she was showcasing from her
band's upcoming Sympathy For The Record Industry disc, American Jitters.
Her "Experiment" is attempting to combine her love for country and punky pop
music, and judging from this set, the results are positive.
After opening with a pure honky-tonker called "Shooting Stars", Marr and her
band skillfully delivered the Aimee Mann-gone-twang ballad "Niagara, Niagara",
the revved-up country ditty "Little Red Bird" and the folk-rock murder tale
"The Return Of Donna Lee", on which guitarist/mandolinist Mike Flanagan handled
lead vocals. Giving guest pedal steel player Dave Phillips a siesta, they
devoted the second half of their 50-minute set to more guitar-pop numbers, highlighted
by "The Boy With The Lou Reed Eyes" and Marr's loving ode to her current hometown,
"Monday Morning, Echo Park".
- Michael Berick