Mary Timony

I wasn't able to catch her on the Ex Hex tour, so I missed out on the early days of the band. Last night they were SOLID. The new stuff shows promise. Seriously one of the best guitar players out there, even better than Uncle Tom.

So her new album The Shapes We Make is basically a continuation of Ex Hex although it sounds even more like Helium. She won't win any originality points for her guitar riffs, but at least the songs are good.

i used to really like "xxx" - i think if i heard it now i'd want it to be twice the speed

sharpshooter is a heck of a song! my verdict is still out on if i like this new one better than ex hex. we'll see. i think it's actually harder and more "up" than the last one, which is the direction i want her to go in. i like the golden dove, but i love it when she rocks on the guitar. yes yes yes.

i saw her open for le tigre (weird bill, right?) and she was great, even if she was playing to a crowd of disco lesbians.

She's out touring with a band in the US for the next week or so--Bloomington tonight. She's also been doing some shows as a member of Amy Domingues band Garland of Hours.

ex hex left me kinda cold, but she earned back mega points with me when i saw her touring it in toronto and she covered "i'm your man".

I like the new one, too.

A bro of mine is playing drums on this tour.

"rockman" is a fucking jam. in a better world people would listen to this chick

I saw that Reckless had a used copy of Ex Hex via their site, but when a went to the store a couple hours later it was sold. I wonder if someone else was inspired by this thread? I did pick up The Shapes We Make, and about to listen to it now. I can't believe I missed these before!

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/10/09/listen-a-song-from-ex-hex-mary-timonys-new-band/

Really like the new song, but the melody is insanely familiar. Crimson & Clover? Something else?

She played a really fun set of all Prince covers at the Black Cat 20th Anniversary thing with members of Shudder to Think and GVSB. I hope somebody recorded it.

I should have Googled it first!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyio6NTZq_M

Wish I had seen the Black cat anniversary gig

>>Really like the new song, but the melody is insanely familiar. Crimson & Clover? Something else?

Sounds like a riff that's been used many times over the years. Superdrag came to mind of all things, especially the guitar solo/melodies on "Sucked Out" / "Destination Ursa Major"

Baba O'Riley? Toto's I'll Supply The Love? I think the bridge from My Sharona is in there as well.

Songs with the Baba O'Riley Chord Progression

xp: damnit

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2013/10/17/one-track-mind-ex-hex-hot-and-cold/

Timony says she derived “Hot and Cold” partly from Tommy James and the Shondells’ 1968 hit, “Crimson and Clover.” But she also extracted inspiration from a shiny new toy: her 1977 Les Paul Special. “I have a new guitar and I’m really psyched about it,” she says. “It just sounds a lot different from my other guitars so all these [new] songs come from that.”

The new Ex Hex tune streaming at Pitchfork is great. So happy she's back without Wild Flag.

http://pitchfork.com/news/53800-mary-timony-helium-wild-flag-s-new-band-ex-hex-shares-single-hot-and-cold-announces-tour/

To answer my own question from three months ago...

Really like the new song, but the melody is insanely familiar. Crimson & Clover? Something else?

The part of the verse starting at :18 seconds was killing me, but it's the "It was only fantasy / the wall was too high, as you can see / no matter how he tried, He could not break free..." part of "Hey You" by Pink Floyd that was itchin' me

http://brightestyoungthings.com/articles/byt-interviews-ex-hex.htm

They're gonna record their album with Mitch Easter

mary timony/helium/etc

other thread

Saw Ex-Hex live last night. As I noted in the Capital Swamp DC thread--Ex-Hex are going for a 70s glam meets Runaways rawk sound. Mostly fun too. Timony and company looked like they were enjoying themselves. A 70s Nick Gilder cover as one of the encores...

that's awesome. i'd be up for some more knotty/proggy stuff but i will buy whatever she's selling

In that Brightest Young Things interview above she spells out more where is guitar-wise these days

You cite Sweeney Todd and Roxy Music songs as touchstones for the group. What about glam rock appeals to you at this point in your career?

With this group of songs, I was thinking a lot about what music sounded like when I was in fourth or fifth grade and getting into songs on the radio. I was trying to write songs that would fit on Casey Kasem’s Top 40.
….

Wild Flag was incredibly fun. I learned a lot from being in that band, like how to be a better songwriter. I started playing in standard tuning on my guitar again, which was kind of informed the direction of this band. I used to always play in a Drop D tuning, with the B string – the second string – being tuned down, which gives you chords that sound a little different. It gives you a lot of nice chords and stuff. But now I’m playing in standard tuning, so all of the chords are pretty normal, I guess. [Laughs] That came from my time in Wild Flag. It’s made me approach the guitar neck in a different way.

And I think that Janet is a really talented kind of producer. That was her role in the band. I was really trying to write songs for Wild Flag that would work for the band and she help me think of songs that were catchier or whatever. Some of these [Ex Hex] songs come out of that mainframe, for sure. They’re more poppy than stuff I was doing before Wild Flag.

where she is guitar-wise these days

they're playing Baltimore tonight, may go if i have the energy for it

A 70s Nick Gilder cover as one of the encores...

...and a Slant 6 cover as another one (according to my pal who was there)!

How'd I not recognize that. Guess it's been awhile since I listened to Slant 6.

You can hear the cover here (it's very faithful):

http://www.rookiemag.com/2013/11/theme-song-ex-hex/

Oh yeah

Certain songs sounded less mid-70ish and that was one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bhLw3v_tiY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2bhLw3v_tiY

oh ffs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bhLw3v_tiY

Ian Svenonius as an unearthed Kevin McDonald Kids in the Hall character is a video concept I full support.

fully, even.

The whole Ex Hex album is streaming at NPR. On first listen this is one of the best records of the year.

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/28/350589315/first-listen-ex-hex-rips

was just looking for a rolling thread to post this in but hey, there's a Timony thread!

anyway, yeah: this slays

my fuzzy recollection is that ILM's general response to the high placement of Wild Flag (who I didn't like) in that year's P&J was "wtf is Wild Flag?" :\

I had zero use for Wild Flag but this rules.

I liked the Wild Flag song that sounded most like a Timony song ("Glass Tambourine," I think).

yeah this is cool.

i have never heard Helium. what does Helium sound like? like this?

Timony has a pretty consistent sound, though it varies in rockingness.

what ever happened to her?? what made her lose the finely crafted 'dirty Helium' and go into 'rainbow land Helium'?
i dont know if you've noticed the trend of hipsters going folky, but i think mary was ahead of the game on this one. now she's back to rocking more,

Kinda sucks that if you bought the EP on iTunes, those songs don't carry over to the LP, meaning that you'd have to re-buy those tracks as part of the whole album. Minor gripe, though, I suppose. Listening to the whole on NPR now.

Nevermind - the versions on the LP are different than on the EP.

Even Helium varied from record to record. The Dirt of Luck is more or less basic indie rock while The Magic City is close to a prog album.

I really like this so far. I always liked Timony a lot as both a guitarist and singer but there was never a Helium record that really nailed it for me, and I wasn't grabbed by Wild Flag either.

i like the proggy Helium the best.

this new one is good, confirming my suspicion that most of the stuff i liked about Wild Flag was her