Marya Summers profile picture

Marya Summers

Band-free action!

About Me


I used to be HUNGER-THUMP when I had a band...but band boys are about as reliable as South Florida's public transportation...so now I'm kickin' it solo style til I can find new peeps to rock it with. "Dad's Song" is me doing all the vocals and guitar and my brother-in-law Mitch Siegal on bass.HUNGER-THUMP (what you're hearing in the other 3 songs) was a collaboration with Jeff Mark (electric guitar), Dan Hess (drums), and Ben Kmosko (bass) and of course me (vocals & acoustic guitar). New Times called us"a good sonic collage" (New Times Broward-Palm Beach) of poetry and music...you can decide for yourself.Having been compared by music reviewers to such bands as The Velvet Underground and The Cowboy Junkies, Hunger-Thump was my first musical enterprise, an exploration of my poetry within a musical experiment.Probably better known for my role in South Florida's spoken word & poetry slam scene (2000-2005) and for pushing boundaries (and buttons) on the national scene, I've performed on many stages from West Palm Beach's SunFest (2005) to the National Poetry Slam (Seattle 2001, Minneapolis 2002, Chicago 2003, St. Louis 2004) and Minneapolis Spoken-word Festival, among many others.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/8/2005
Band Website: this is all there is
Band Members: Hey, I'm just a girl who has a hard time sitting still. So I do stuff. It's not always good. But it's always sincere. My favorite quote lately is "Play well or play badly, but play truly" (David Mamet). I also play at writing. I've been a theater columnist, art writer, sex columnist (as Lily Morrigan for City Link Magazine), and, most recently, a nightlife columist for New Times-Broward Palm Beach. Google says my claims are all true.
Influences: I love any song that is well written and lyrically driven, from hip-hop to folk to show tunes. My influences are Simon & Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen, Ani DiFranco, Liz Phair, Patti Smith and other lyricists who use language evocatively. MySpace Graphics MySpace Layouts MySpace Backgrounds MySpace Codes Glitter Graphic MySpace Layouts MySpace Generators MySpace Editor MySpace Graphics MySpace Games
Sounds Like: Well, here's what the press said about Hunger-Thump:It's "rock'n'roll with a singer who appreciates the music of language...sounds like vintage garage rock," says Sun-Sentinel's Sean Piccoli, who also acknowledges there's something reminiscent of Patti Smith and the Cowboy Junkies in our music.Mark Keresman from New Times calls the band "a good sonic collage" of "an overlap of the poetry and music vistas."Bill Meredith from the Palm Beach Post says that my vocals remind him of Grace Slick. David K from Closer Magazine and the members of Friendly Fire confirm the Patti Smith influences in Hunger-Thump, too.
Record Label: Who listens to records anymore??
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Tropic Atomic

As seen in issue 51 of Closer Magazine, published on 2008-03-08 in the "Featured" section. Tropic Atomic FPL says "new nukes." Skeptics say "no nukes."By: Marya Summers If only our mothers had warne...
Posted by Marya Summers on Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:50:00 PST

Requiem for Swank

          It would be wonderful if we could give Jetsetter Lounge the swank send off to hipster heaven that it deserves. What made it so smartly ...
Posted by Marya Summers on Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:12:00 PST

Hugging: not just for trees anymore!

I got my first "free hug" on Monday. It was the first time I ever heard of the Free Hug movement. Here I am in Helsinki with my boyfriend Antti. We'd just come out of a bookstore and were in Kolmen Se...
Posted by Marya Summers on Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:42:00 PST

Funny business; or, The End of an Empire

So last night I went to Tate's Comics for "Sex and Science," an art show in the boutique portion of the shop known as Bear and Bird Gallery. You can check things out on their cite www.tatescomics.com....
Posted by Marya Summers on Sun, 26 Aug 2007 01:19:00 PST

Night of the Bazooms

Well-behaved women seldom make history," Harvard history professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich said. And that's why I say, "Get down with your cross-dressing, military self, Joan of Arc! Thanks for going t...
Posted by Marya Summers on Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:06:00 PST

Booze & the News

From Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjrdaily.org/behind_the_news/charting_the_connect ion_betwee.php Charting the Connection Between Booze and News Tony Dokoupil If you believe the apothegm ...
Posted by Marya Summers on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:11:00 PST

News from Finland

At the moment, it's like 40 degrees and melting snow...but it was 10 degrees colder for the first 5 days I was here.  A big shock from the Florida weather. I'm almost over my jet lag (left Thursd...
Posted by Marya Summers on Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:13:00 PST

A Cult of Personality...Crazy Fingers and their tribe

When the rest of the world's a bunch of haters, there's at least one place to find some love... http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/Issues/2006-11-16/news/night rider.html...
Posted by Marya Summers on Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:25:00 PST

Loud & Fast but Under Control

Loud and Fast but Under Control Promised no dancing, the noiseheads flocked to a night of Revenge. By Marya Summers  Article Published Oct 26, 2006 http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/Issues/2006-1...
Posted by Marya Summers on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 05:05:00 PST

The things that keep me going

After posting a blog about the difficulties I was having dealing with my dad's death, I discovered that there are wonderful people in the world who care, even if we didn't know they were there.  ...
Posted by Marya Summers on Tue, 17 Oct 2006 07:27:00 PST