I mentioned that the great thing about David Bash’s International Pop Overthrow festival is that each year, I discover a great band or two that I hadn’t heard of before, and who totally rock my world. Last year it was New Jersey’s Soul Engines and Brooklyn’s Marianne Pillsburys, fronted by, uh, Marianne Pillsbury. Last night saw the return of Marianne and her Mariannes to IPO, and yes, they rocked the house.

Marianne is a sexy, bratty (in a good way) singer-songwriter who has been compared to Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield, and our own Jill Sobule. Her sound is pop-punk, but her songs are far too clever and literate to be punk; I’d call her a Power Pop Princess with extra luster and bounce. In 20 minutes, the Pillsburys ripped the joint, with taut arrangements and crisp playing, and great songs (and it is, after all, ALL about the songs.) In addition to playing some of our faves off of The Wrong Marianne LP, the band favored us with several new songs, notably the opening “Girls Night Out,” off their Hot EP; and “Boys,” inspired by some oaf who had the temerity to reject Marianne. I mean, what the f---?


The MPs closed their set with a smoking cover of Prince’s “When U Were Mine,” stripping it down to its essence, mining the longing, sex and pop at the song’s core (especially fitting given that Marianne wrote her senior thesis on Prince.) (Man, the crap you learn on the Internet.) The 20-minute IPO set left us wanting much, much more from the Marianne Pillsburys, and we’ll have to go see them again soon. As should you.

Check out the Pillsburys’ MySpace page, where you can hear—- and download!—- all three songs off the new EP (girls, you’ll love “Girls Night Out”) as well as a live version of the old school Marianne Pillsburys classic, “Boo Hoo,” recorded live (which is the way nature intended this band to be experienced.)

It should be noted that we really liked Marianne’s shoes. Also, that she’s our secret rock crush. But ix-nay, ‘cuz that part’s a secret.

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In other IPO news, APW played the air trumpet with Marykate O’Neill on Ringo Starr’s “Photograph.” Marykate’s new album comes out March 8, and we’ll be lining up at midnight at Tower records the night before to get our copy. She’s jazzed about it, just finished mastering, and it sounds like it will be another winner.

Labels: The tunes