Karen Stern
Virgin Mirth
© 2003 Karen Stern
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Light jazzy bluesy funky comedy folk
tracks
- 1 My Big Feet
- 2 Thrifty
- 3 Pantyhose Burglary
- 4 Have You Ever Dated?
- 5 My Boyfriend is a Jazzbeau
- 6 The First Six Months
- 7 Do Ghosts Get Fat?
- 8 Walk on the Woodside
- 9 So Sensitive
- 10 Jesus Chrysler
- 11 TV Head
- 12 Bored At First Sight
- 13 Twenty-First Century Trash
- 14 Pantyhose with Ensemble
- 15 My Big Feet (radio friendly)
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notes
Here's Karen's very first review, which appeared in the 'Hot Picks' section of a Santa Cruz, CA newspaper July 15, 2003, the week of Karen's first CD release party:
"Let's give another shout to the alienation inflicted on those of us deemed socially undesirable in high school. All of that free time allowed for the birth and meticulous development of yet another cunning perspective that might otherwise have drowned in vats of designer lip gloss. Meet Karen Stern: by day she holds the coveted Santa Cruz title of environmental activist. By night, she is the Bay Area coffeehouse queen, emboldening caffeine enthusiasts with her dexterous wit and light, jazzy folk. Careful, she's very charming, but the curtness of her keen has cut many a PR rep off at the knees. Her newest CD, Miracle Baby, features the catchy lyrical gem "Have You Ever Dated?" which serves as a romantic rejection of available poets, programmers, psychics, and athletes...and includes a query to alien life as an attempt to improve the gene pool. As a groovy, nonconformist, I know you'll be there (at Ms. Stern's gig.) As for those "rich-relation, hometown queens" of yore, they can scramble for a front row seat at the Brookdale and marvel invidiously at Stern's lyrical stylings."--AM
Thus spake Amanda Martinez in the Good Times, free weekly arts & entertainment guide of Santa Cruz County, one of the world's most jaded citadels of cool and an official "National Hipness Preserve" under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of Parks and Reincarnation. Wringing two words of praise from critics here is harder than a squeezing wheatgrass from bratwurst. So if you like lyrics that scream, "This broad still has maybe 4 or 5 fully functioning neural synapses--and she ain't afraid to use 'em," this is the disc for you! If it's a 'Hot Pick' in Santa Cruz, it's probably a 'Sizzler' elsewhere, so put on your spatter-proof apron & scoop it off the grill while it's hot...
ABOUT KAREN STERN
Discerning music scholars have failed to explain the source of Karen's amazing well of songwriting talent. This is not surprising since none of them have tried. It is known that her skill on fingerstyle guitar dates back to her lack of social success in a suburban New York area high school, where she stayed inside practicing while other girls compared hickies in the parking lot. Karen's social life improved slightly at Kenyon College, though not enough to prevent her from graduating with a B.A. in philosophy. She later recovered from terminal nerddom at a Zen monastery in the Catskills.
Karen has worked as a freelance writer and has published several humorous essays and poems which she has also read on KUSP-FM Santa Cruz. She received two letters from Chronicle Drive-In Movie Critic Joe Bob Briggs praising her parody newsletters. In 1996 she joined the Northern California Songwriters' Association and was chosen Best Performer from the Monterey Bay region. She has performed her songs in many coffeehouses in the Bay Area, including Berkeley's Freight and Salvage, and on KAZU, KPIG, Santa Cruz Community Television, and KKUP-Cupertino, where she served briefly as a guest host on the Friday Folk-Off. She received a phone call (she wasn't home) from Weird Al Yankovic after he heard an early tape of her songs. Since 2001 Karen has published numerous articles about the health impacts of expanding uses of wireless technology.
ABOUT MIRACLE BABY (Soon to be retitled 'Virgin Mirth')
MIRACLE BABY
A collection of the most ticklish tunes in many moons.
Has your laugh reflex reverted to a gag reflex as you watch the evening news? Reclaim your funny bone; stop the world and get off with
MIRACLE BABY
Two poems and ten songs in styles from light jazz (Pantyhose Burglary) to blues (So Sensitive, Jesus Chrysler) to 'beatnik rap' (Big Feet, Jazzbeau) to doo wop (The First Six Months) and more. Lyrically, each song contains "richly nuanced layers of pith, hard to remove once you step in them" (--Prof. K. Stern) as in Pantyhose Burglary, a thinly veiled tirade against corporate greed, and Have You Ever Dated and My Boyfriend is a Jazzbeau, thinly veiled tirades against Stern's ex-boyfriends. Augmenting your musical enjoyment are the crystalline voice of Sylvia Herold of Cats 'n Jammers on "TV Head", the sophisticated doo-wop harmonies of San Jose's hair-raisingly fabulous a cappella performers, The Aquanettas,on "The First Six Months", the outlaw dobro of funky white boy Jeff 'Felonius' Smith, and more. There's something here for just about anyone...
Check it out.