After surviving a near-fatal brush with musical theater, Maine native Marianne Pillsbury attended Brown University where she showed her first signs of rock & roll rebellion by writing her senior honors English thesis, "Pop Icon Prince's Dual Obsession with Sexual Ecstasy & Religious Salvation: A Textual & Cultural Analysis."
In 2004, she released her debut album, The Wrong Marianne, on her own indie label, Average White Girl Records. Produced by award-winning singer-songwriter Bonnie Hayes (Bonnie Raitt's "Have A Heart," "Shelly's Boyfriend" from the Valley Girl soundtrack), the album received enthusiastic reviews from The New York Times, Time Out New York, The Boston Herald and The San Francisco Chronicle and elicited comparisons to the best work of Liz Phair, Juliana Hatfield and Jill Sobule.
Packed full of pop-rock songs with cleverly-crafted, hook-laden melodies and brash, witty, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, The Wrong Marianne was named a Top 12 DIY Pick in Performing Songwriter magazine. The song "Boo Hoo" from the album won Best Alt/Rock Song in The Great American Song Contest 2004 and was also selected for inclusion on ROCKRGRL magazine's Discoveries 2005 compilation CD.
Listen to tracks from The Wrong Marianne and buy the CD at CD Baby, baby...
Her Brooklyn-based band, The Marianne Pillsburys, bring Marianne's songs to life with an edgy punk-pop vibe a la Blondie, Elastica, Liz Phair fronting The Rolling Stones or Juliana Hatfield singing lead vox for The Pixies.
The band has played NYC venues like Mercury Lounge, Luna Lounge, Pianos, Arlene's Grocery, Sin-e and Southpaw, other cities including Boston, DC, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, OR, and London, and festivals such as M.E.A.N.Y. Fest (Musicians & Emerging Artists in New York), International Pop Overthrow, the Millenium Music Conference and ROCKRGRL Music Conference.
In April 2005, the band released a 3-song demo called "The Hot EP" produced by Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller, Ben Lee). The EP captures even more of the raw-yet-sweet brattiness that seems to be Marianne Pillsbury's formula for success. It also pays tribute to her all-time-favorite artist with a cover of the Prince classic "When U Were Mine".
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