Conventional songwriting isn’t really Marnie Stern‘s thing. Though her new record, The Chronicles of Marnia (Kill Rock Stars), is packed with beautiful melodies and sticky hooks, they’re not exactly spread out on a platter for you. Instead they’re woven into odd arrangements built from dense layers of finger-tapped guitar and heavily multi­tracked vocals. Stern has recorded with fiercely talented and equally idiosyncratic drummers—first Zach Hill (Hella, Death Grips) and now Kid Millions (Oneida)—and built her songs on their obtuse rhythmic foundations, giving her dreamy experimental indie-pop an excitingly weird and pushy feel. Yeah, there are some pretty tunes in there, but a whole lot more is going on.

Have you listened to it yet? I know you didn’t want to.

Part of it was that I had gotten a new computer, and my Pro Tools compatibility was all messed up. And I didn’t have the money to buy the new Pro Tools. So I downloaded it off the Internet, and it was a really messed-up version, so when I was recording, for a good six months, it just kept crashing every time I started. Maybe I’d work for ten minutes, and then if I didn’t save it right away—or a lot of times, I would pull it back up and all the tracks I had done would be missing. So I started doing much more stripped versions, because I just couldn’t sit for a long time and work on something because the thing kept crashing. It was so frustrating. Anyway—

Compared to your previous albums, which you don’t listen to either, do you feel happier?

That’s right. I haven’t. But yeah. That’s true.

So you think it’s best to not even worry about it for the time being?

Wed 4/17, 9 PM, Empty Bottle, $12, 21+.