BIOGRAPHY:

Maine native Marianne Pillsbury writes pop-rock songs with cleverly-crafted, hook-laden melodies and brash, witty, tongue-in-cheek lyrics. Released in 2004, her debut album The Wrong Marianne has 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. The album was named a Top 12 DIY Pick in Performing Songwriter Magazine. The song "Boo Hoo" 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.

Her Brooklyn-based band The Marianne Pillsburys bring Marianne's songs to life with a raw punk-pop vibe. Think: Blondie, Elastica, Liz Phair fronting The Rolling Stones, or Juliana Hatfield singing lead for The Pixies. The band has played NYC venues like Mercury Lounge, Luna Lounge, Pianos, Arlene's Grocery and Southpaw, out-of-town venues in Boston, DC, LA and San Francisco, and festivals like M.E.A.N.Y. Fest (Musicians & Emerging Artists in New York), International Pop Overthrow and the Millenium Music Conference.

In April 2005, the band released a 3-song demo called "The Hot EP" produced by the fabulously talented Roger Greenawalt (Ben Kweller, Ben Lee).

MEET THE MARIANNE PILLSBURYS:

Recently, Alina Moscovitz & Eric Shaw of the punk-pop trio, THE DOMESTICS, have been backing me up. Check them out. They're fantabulous!

Past Pillsburys:

Sandy Brockwell (bass & backing vox)
Hailing from the grande state of Tejas, Sandy B. Rock-well certainly lives up to her name. Besides rocking well, her interests include surfing, horror movies, economics and tequila.

Mitch Distefano (lead guitar & backing vox)
Mitch enjoys his role as the whipping boy of the band. Being a Brooklyn native, he can of course hold his own. In addition to being a rock star guitarist, he also gives rock star guitar lessons.

Dawn McGrath (drums)
Queens native Dawn (pronounced "dwon") has earned her black belt in drumming by eating, breathing and sleeping drums while surrounded by her 700 bald Cabbage Patch Kids.

Deb Schuster (bass) 2001-2004
Another Bay Ridge rocker, Deb left The MPs to create her own "rhythm section" by marrying a drummer! She ended up joining his garage rock band, The Dark Marbles. Check them out!

Dave Oromaner (drums) 2001-2004
Also known as "The Dough Boy" for reasons unrelated to being a Pillsbury, Dave now plays with art rock band, Changing Modes. He's also a drum teacher. Check out his site.
MARIANNE'S FAIRY TALE BIO:

Marianne was formed in the 1970s in Portland, Maine. After a near-fatal brush with musical theater, she attended Brown University where she showed her first signs of rock & roll rebellion by writing her senior honors thesis Pop Icon Prince's Dual Obsession with Sexual Ecstasy & Religious Salvation: A Textual & Cultural Analysis. She then moved to New York City where she worked as an advertising copywriter for several years, perfecting her barbed lyric persona and learning to play guitar in her spare time.

Then one day she decided her life would be 33% new & improved if she moved to San Francisco. There she successfully parlayed her talent for concocting clever advertising concepts into crafting contagiously catchy pop songs. She also met her Fairy Godproducer, Bonnie Hayes, who rescued her from the evil clutches of Corporate America and convinced her to record some of her songs, 5 of which were unleashed on the world via The Wrong Marianne EP. The song "Supersize" received Honorable Mention in the 2001 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.