"Punk rock wrapped in sugar!" Sirius Radio

---

"The Marianne Pillsburys latest EP has gal pals hanging out and making out and throwing up, CARS AND BREEDERS RIFFS, LIZ PHAIR MELODIES, and a double-gender-bent Prince cover." Chuck Eddy, THE VILLAGE VOICE

---

"MARIANNE PILLSBURY'S POP HOOKS STICK TO YOU LIKE CHEWING GUM and her '60s girl-group harmonies throw back to the malt shop...Her band, The Marianne Pillsburys, brings her songs to life with sweet but cheeky flair. 'Boo Hoo' is an 'It's My Party' style romp through AM radio's glory days, newly buffed and iPod-ready." ROCKRGRL MAGAZINE (May/June 2005)

---

"On her debut album, 'The Wrong Marianne,' Marianne Pillsbury is AS FRANK AS LIZ PHAIR AND AS TUNEFUL AND UPBEAT AS THE GO-GO'S, dissecting romantic disasters and then bouncing back with lighthearted choruses. She's as tough as she is irrepressible." 

Jon Pareles, THE NEW YORK TIMES

---

TOP 12 DIY PICK • PERFORMING SONGWRITER MAGAZINE • November 2004

"A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, and so it is with Marianne Pillsbury's debut CD. Catchy, sing-out-loud choruses and bright alterna-pop production deftly wrap around barbed and potent lyrics of the single gal's life in the big city, with all its one-night stands, jerk boyfriends and friends who don't know how well they've got it. PILLSBURY CALLS TO MIND THE BEST WORK OF LIZ PHAIR AND JULIANA HATFIELD. Guitars chime and roar, vocals soar and choruses call out to be sung along with. Fans of Jill Sobule will rejoice that there's now another independent female out there with a sense of humor.Maine-bred and now based in New York, Pillsbury plays regularly with her quartet, aptly named The Marianne Pillsburys. If they exhibit as much guitar glory, sass and humor as comes across on The Wrong Marianne, their act should amount to a fine night out."

---

"Missing 'Sex and the City' already? Let Marianne Pillsbury fill the void. She takes the bouncy girl-group pop-rock of the Bangles and the Go-Go's and adds Liz Phair-ish lyrics about love and sex that would make Carrie and the gang grin. A Maine native now living in New York, Pillsbury has crafted the songs on her "The Wrong Marianne" CD debut to deliver smart, sassy fun. And, yeah, they rock." THE BOSTON HERALD

---

"Marianne Pillsbury started writing songs while recovering from a bad advertising job, and she's used her commercial gifts to craft pop songs out of even the most banal subjects. The Wrong Marianne, her new self-released CD, has a sweet vibe reminiscent of the Blake Babies." TIME OUT NEW YORK 

---

“The Wrong Marianne, the debut full-length from NYC-based singer/songwriter Marianne Pillsbury is edgy pop perfection in the same vein as indie rock goddess Liz Phair. Pillsbury shares similarly ballsy and frank but cheeky accounts of relationships gone awry, never letting the angst that fuels her to run her right off the road.” SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

---

Editor's Pick at READMAG.COM...

"Very strong debut from this singer/songwriter who delivers intelligent, war-of-the-sexes, early Liz Phair-ish lyrics over newer Liz Phair-ish pop rock. The juxtaposition of smart, serious lyrics over fun pop is a bitter pill dipped in honey. For instance, on first listen, 'Sweet & Sour World' is a bouncy, almost disco-ish pop song, but the lyric is a serious warning to fellow young women who might find themselves in a similar bad situation. 'Supersize' and 'Swallow A Fly' are jangly, fun tracks that hide sarcasm behind the typical I love you, I worship you lyrics. Other songs offer up diatribes against exes and bad experiences against the backdrop of either grungy rock beats or infectious melody. Sweet and sour, Marianne Pillsbury is food for thought."

---

"Gnarly guitars and a cutsie-wootsie voice give Marianne Pillsbury's record THE WRONG MARIANNEan edge over a lot of female singer/songwriters. She's got the angst of an Alanis Morrissette, but the tenderness of a Jill Sobule. She pulls out the banging pop tunes with something like 'Layaway Girlfriend', then skips along with a ditty such as'Unintentional'. THE WRONG MARIANNE can get by on charm alone." SKRATCH MAGAZINE 

---

" The comparisons to Liz Phair and every other alternative femme rocker might fit, but it seems a bit too easy to pigeonhole the New York musician. When not fronting The Marianne Pillsburys, Pillsbury perfects a gorgeous sugar-coated power pop that is perfected on 'Supersize'. Just enough of an alternative blueprint working underneath, Pillsbury sounds as if she's aiming to get on the Empire Records soundtrack. But that isn't a bad thing, especially on punchy ditties like 'Layaway Girlfriend' and the sullen yet infectious Sheryl Crow-like 'Boo Hoo'..." POPMATTERS.COM

---

"Marianne Pillsbury's The Wrong Marianne is definitely in the Liz Phair mold but there's more wit and humor and less shock and roll. The New York-based singer-songwriter can slyly devise a song like 'Supersize' which extols the virtues of romantic obsession while simultaneously mocking them. 'Boo Hoo' makes wry observations like, 'When I stay in bed all day, they call it depression/ When two people stay in bed all day, it's called passion.' Pillsbury is a smart cookie and this debut is as comforting as a carton of ice cream after yet another really bad date." SANTA MONICA MIRROR

---

Review of our International Pop Overthrow show by our favorite secret groupie... http://apennysworth.blogspot.com/2005/11/wrong-marianne.html

---

"Though compared most often to early Liz Phair thanks largely to her confrontational lyrics and frank sexuality, this New Yorker by way of Maine more closely taps into the spirit of Juliana Hatfield, packing the acrid wallop of her confessionals in a Blake Babies sugarcoating. Ms. Pillsbury brings her eponymous three-piece, which features journeyman drummer Dave Oromaner and bassist Sandy Brockwell (of Jane Jensen), to the West Coast to support her full-length debut. Released on her own Average White Girl label earlier this year, The Wrong Marianne comfortably treads the middle ground between jangly and acerbic." FLAVORPILL LA

---

"Zig-zagging her way across the country, New York City singer/songstress and self-proclaimed artistic “brat” Marianne Pillsbury will be hitting The Gig on Monday, April 5th. An Alanis Morissette type who’s light on the deadly serious tone, but heavy on the acerbic wit, Pillsbury also brings some garage to her debut album, The Wrong Marianne, which has been released by Average White Girl Records." MUSIC CONNECTION MAGAZINE

---

"Marianne Pillsbury's debut CD is pure rock and roll fun, if not an absolutely outrageous and clever treatment of otherwise trite and stale themes such as life, love, sex and sadness." INDIE-MUSIC.COM

---

"The music is fun, punky pop/rock and Pillsbury's lyrics are intelligent and witty...The Wrong Marianne sounds like a summer CD to me. One that will be cranked in our backyard in a few months while we barbeque and have drinks." COLLECTED SOUNDS: A guide to women in music

---

"Pillsbury's tongue-in-cheek approach to lyrics and her hook-laden melodies make this a delight." MAINETODAY.COM

---

"This Maine-born local sweet-and-sour non-wallflower (and not your layaway girlfriend, she says) singer-songster's new CD (produced by 80s Frisco new waver Bonnie Hayes) ranges from post-mid-80s Chrissie Hynde to...exile-in-guyville indie nostalgia..." Chuck Eddy, THE VILLAGE VOICE

---

PRESS FOR THE WRONG MARIANNE EP:

 

"Marianne Pillsbury is a local singer-songwriter with a smooth voice that recalls vintage (i.e. the good side of) Liz Phair." TIME OUT NEW YORK

 

"...maybe that brash, humorous style that brought Phair to the limelight will propel Marianne Pillsbury as well. The Wrong Marianne is just an EP, but the promise that is flashed all over it by Maine-bred Pillsbury is tough to ignore...pop ditties, with crunchy guitars and synthesizers, and hooks that will set you to shouting along before you have time to stop and realize what you¹re saying. It¹s like the Bangles if Susanna Hoffs was singing the words you were thinking while you watched her coyly preen on the TV screen..." 

NORTHEAST PERFORMER MAGAZINE

 

"I would like to tell the world that I am officially smitten with Marianne Pillsbury. She is equal parts adorable and intelligent, pragmatic and clever. Only six tracks means I get depressed when the CD ends prematurely after 18 minutes and two heart-wrenching seconds... Pillsbury really hits the mark with 'Unintentional.' This is one of my favorite songs by anybody at any time ever...This EP is fucking great, and I am in love with Pillsbury...good singing and amazing, sardonic lyrics... more people need to express themselves the way Marianne does lyrically." AGOUTIMUSIC.COM

 

"A tough and triumphant rock sound comes from Marianne Pillsbury on The Wrong Marianne. Full of vigor and energy, the songs are pure fun even when Marianne defiantly proclaims, 'I'm not your layaway girlfriend." WOMANROCK.COM

 

"...power pop of the sarcastic exile-in-guyville sort...Marianne submitted a catchy tune...to the Voice World Trade Center benefit CD competition, and The Wrong Marianne is full of more of the same..." THE VILLAGE VOICE