Lisa Marr is a musician, songwriter, film-maker, photographer, and educator from Vernon,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, Canada, currently based in
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, British Columbia, Canada. She has performed as a solo artist and as a member of The Evaporators, The Indecisives, The Bombshells,
Cub, Buck, The Beards, The Lisa Marr Experiment, The Here + Now, and Soda & His Million Piece Band. She is sometimes known as Miss Marr in her solo work. She has been credited as the originator of a subgenre of music known as
cuddlecore
Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 ''NME'' compilation ''C86''. Characterised by its simplicity and perceived innocence, some of its defining features are boy–girl harmonies, catchy melodies, and lyrics about love ...
.
Music
Lisa Marr's music performing career began when she was invited to play bass for
The Evaporators
The Evaporators is a Canadian garage rock band formed in 1986 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Nardwuar, its founding member, is also known for interviewing musicians and celebrities. As of 2007, the band consists of vocalist/keyboardist Nardwuar ...
by
Nardwuar
John Ruskin (born July 5, 1968), better known as Nardwuar, or Nardwuar the Human Serviette, is a Canadian interviewer and musician from Vancouver, British Columbia.Doug Ward, "Trudeau rolled by Human Serviette", ''Vancouver Sun'', November 17, 1 ...
five days before a show. She taught herself to play bass in that time by listening to
Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
records. Nardwuar and Marr, as well as the founders of Mint Records, were associated through their work at
CITR-FM
CiTR-FM, is a Canadian FM radio station based out of the University of British Columbia's Student Union Building in the University Endowment Lands, just west of the city limits of Vancouver, British Columbia. Its transmitter is also located on ...
, the University of British Columbia's student radio station. Lisa began working at the station with her own show focused on
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. As she met friends at the station, she began to be more focused on music.
cub
Marr is a founding member, primary song writer, lead singer, and bass player for indie-pop band
cub. The term
cuddlecore
Twee pop is a subgenre of indie pop that originates from the 1986 ''NME'' compilation ''C86''. Characterised by its simplicity and perceived innocence, some of its defining features are boy–girl harmonies, catchy melodies, and lyrics about love ...
was coined to describe their music.
Destroyer (band)
Destroyer is a Canadian indie rock band from Vancouver, formed in 1995. The band is fronted by founding member Dan Bejar, with a collective of regular band members and collaborators joining him in the studio and during live performances. Alongsid ...
guitar player Nicholas Bragg invented the term as a joke, and also produced the band's hot dog day EP. Band members have expressed mixed feelings about the label
, though it was included in the artwork of their second album. Neko Case first toured playing music with cub as the drummer after founding drummer Valeria quit the band. It was also Case's first time singing on stage. cub toured with
They Might Be Giants
They Might Be Giants (often abbreviated as TMBG) is an American alternative rock band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as a duo, often accompanied by a d ...
, who later covered their song New York City.
Buck
Buck (sometimes stylized as BuCk or Bu¢K) was Lisa Marr and drummer/vocalist Lisa G's band following the break-up of cub. Marr continued to sing lead vocals and play bass. The two were joined by guitarist Pepper Berry, playing in his first band.
Other notable musical projects
*The Beards was a rock supergroup in which Lisa Marr played bass and shared singing and songwriting duties with
Kim Shattuck
Kimberly Dianne Shattuck (July 17, 1963 – October 2, 2019) was an American singer, musician, and songwriter. She was the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of the American punk rock band the Muffs, which formed in 1991. From ...
. The Muffs had headlined a show with cub opening. Soon, Marr married the bass-player from the Muffs, and later, Marr and Shattuck collaborated on The Beards.
*The Lisa Marr Experiment was a country rock band. Neko Case covered "In California", a song from their first album, 4 am.
Visual arts
Marr was a 2014 Visual Art Fellow for the California Community Foundation.
Marr has made films on her own and is currently the operations director and youth film coordinator, as well as director, at the Echo Park Film Center. Her first major film project was a documentary entitled Learning How to Fail, which was screened at the Darklight Film Festival. She is also one of the few modern filmmakers to shoot on 3mm film.
Solo exhibitions
* 2013 Natural History, A Free School, Los Angeles, CA Echo Park Film Center Road Show, The Hanoi Bicycle Collective, Hanoi, Vietnam
* 2012 The Sound We See: City Symphonies in the 21st Century, Directors Lounge, Berlin, Germany Imagined Cinemas, Blaak 10 Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Group exhibitions and community-based art
* 2014 Films from Echo Park Film Center, Distrital, Mexico City, Mexico Burning Bungalows: Experimental Film and Animation from LA, National Tour, USA
* 2011–2014 Out The Window, Freewaves/Public Matters/UCLA REMAP, Los Angeles, CA
* 2014 The Sound We See: A Guwahati City Symphony, Desire Machine Collective, Guwahati, India
* 2013 Likuvarnya, Museum of Tripolian Culture, Legedzine, Ukraine
* 2013 The Sound We See: A Hanoi City Symphony, Doclab/Goethe Institute, Hanoi, Vietnam
* 2012 The Sound We See: A Rotterdam City Symphony , WORM/Creating 010/RAIR/Piet Zwarte Institute/Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands
* 2010 The Candahar, Cultural Olympiad, Vancouver, Canada
Other fellowships, grants, and awards
* 2014 Cultural Exchange International Fellowship, Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles and British Council, UK
* 2014 Open Electives Fellowship, National Institute of Design, Guwahati, India
* 2013 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Artistic Innovation and Collaboration Grant
* 2012 Research Fellowship, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam, Netherlands
See also
*
Music of Canada
The music of Canada reflects the diverse influences that have shaped the country. Indigenous Peoples, the Irish, British, and the French have all made unique contributions to the musical heritage of Canada. The music has also subsequently been ...
*
Music of Vancouver
Vancouver, British Columbia, is one of the Canada's largest cities and foremost cultural centres.
History
That music was for thousands of years an integral part of the culture of Vancouver's First Nations people is clear but was not documente ...
*
Canadian rock
Rock music of Canada is a wide and diverse part of the general music of Canada, beginning with American and British style rock and roll in the mid-20th century. Since then Canada has had a considerable impact on the development of the modern po ...
*
List of Canadian musicians
This is a list of Canadian musicians. Only notable individuals appear here; bands are listed at List of bands from Canada.
0-9
*347aidan - rapper
A
* Lee Aaron – jazz and rock singer-songwriter, also known as "Metal Queen"
*Abdominal – hi ...
*
List of bands from Canada
This is a list of bands from Canada. Only bands appear here; individual musicians are listed at list of Canadian musicians.
0-9
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
See also
...
*
List of bands from British Columbia
The following is a list of bands from British Columbia. By city
Abbotsford
* Hedley
*You Say Party
Burnaby
* The Skulls
Chilliwack
*The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets
*Mystery Machine
*Pardon My Striptease
*These Kids Wear Crowns
Coquitlam
* ...
References
External links
Echo Park Film CenterArchived version of Lisa Marr's personal websiteLisa Marr's Personal Art-focused websiteThe Sound We See, A Global Collaborative Film Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marr, Lisa
Living people
Canadian indie pop musicians
Canadian songwriters
Canadian film producers
Year of birth missing (living people)