50 Foot Wave / Kristin Hersh

Here's a picture I took of KH outside the ICA 13 years ago (at the 13-Year Itch show! Blimey - another decade and a third just went by) - just after she'd dyed her hair for the first time.

http://static.flickr.com/53/133765068_db3e168a92.jpg

in-studio with new songs

i interviewed kristin over the phone a few days ago. she's easily, i mean like far and away, the nicest, funniest and most instantly likeable famous person i have ever encountered. which makes it all the better when you see her walk onstage and start screaming like she's possessed.
-- J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, September 4, 2006 7:21 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

i love that. why is she the nicest ever?

i'm just now listening to 50 Foot Wave, and loving it. I'm not surprised, really, but it's always amazing how much she puts out.

the songs on this are off the hook, but i keep wondering why the vocals aren't louder - i know sometimes she does that, but on this first listen i'm really wishing i could hear some of the words better.

Kristin's son Dylan finally has a band of his own, too.

!??!!? OK Liz Fraser's daughter singing with Mahogany, and now this. Grumble. Olllld.

everything this band has ever done is now available for free at http://50footwave.cashmusic.org/ including a pretty spectacular new ep called power+light. /streetteam

Apparently not free anymore. A shame that you have to go through this to get the new stuff. When our inevitable 00s poll comes around, I will be repping HARD for Golden Ocean.

what? it's all still there, just click "free music" at the address upthread. or if you just want power + light, right click "mp3".

Apparently everything she does is released under a Creative Commons licence these days, downloadable in 128kbp mp3, 256 kbp mp3 or FLAC, with cover and (!!) mix parts, one's work on which can be uploaded to the so-called "rw" (read/write) section... songs for next album made available as they are recorded etc -- this is a pretty awesome way of doing stuff I think!

Oh jeez, the night I was so drunk I couldn't download free music.

lol the beautiful struggle

I will be repping HARD for Golden Ocean.

yeah, fuckin fantastic record that

She's good value on Twitter btw. One of the few musicians worth following.

She's the only "celeb" I follow thesedays. And you, obv, Dorian.

golden Ocean is just like, really good and straightforward. kinda wish the vocals were mixed higher.

her twitter! i need to get on this

Yeah, her Twitter is awesome. She's DMed me a few times in response to things I've written to her, so assuming I'm not special, she's good about the interaction and not just posting to hear herself talk.

My personal assesment of Golden Ocean is that it is what Nevermind wished it was.

Or what I wished Nevermind was.

So I have the very first self-titled EP, which is great, and I sold "Golden Ocean" as it just didn't measure up to the EP. Is there any other 50 Ft Wave material I should consider?

The hell you say Golden Ocean doesn't measure up! Anyway, uh last year I guess they put out Power + Light, which is pretty interesting, but I won't guarantee you'd like it just because you like the older stuff. It's sort of um, Jane's Addiction-influenced or something?

Anyone read "Paradoxical Undressing"?

Is there much about mental health/schizophrenia in there?

Ordered it from Amazon UK, but it hasn't arrived yet. Intentionally avoided reading anything about it. Want to find out myself. Her writing online and in the "Crooked" book was really good though... I have high hopes.

Love this interview -- particularly the part about when 50FW opened for the Muses and how it's totally cool with her that the respective fans could be different sets of persons. Reminded me of a thing I then had to google up from her website:

Wicked, I thought. I never know what people want to hear. Some seem to only like old Throwing Muses songs, some only like the most recent release, some people only like Sunny Border Blue, some people want unreleased material, some like me to scream real loud, some like me to whisper, some just like Your Ghost over and over and over again.

And she's OK with people only wanting "Your Ghost" over and over and over again. I love that.

Now, if someone only wants to hear "Dizzy"... ;)

and btw very annoying that there is not a youtube of "Fish", which afaik was on a commercially released videotape ffs, on youtube without it being muffled, distorted, or unsynched+supertitled... :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xovWgb4MZWI

Anybody sen her on tour for Rat Girl? I'm going tomorrow (well, later tonight). Read that she does music as well as reads. And I have a few extra tickets, if anyone's in the LA area.

saw her do readings with giant sand making soundtracky noise behind her in london last year, it was remarkable. interviewed her in january for a magazine that might not be coming out now, as ever she was wonderful, funny, moving, etc... she just rules, doesn't she?

Always a good idea to check out the website every once-in-a-while to see what's new for public consumption.

http://50footwave.cashmusic.org/

So obviously there are like 50 years worth of other bands and songs that could have done this for me, but listening to Power + Light pretty much nonstop over the last few weeks just inspired me to my first fuzzbox purchase.

nice. wat fuzz u get for ur fuzzin' needs?

Just a Little Big Muff. I'm on a pretty tight budget these days. But the fields of fuzz from this album are just impossible to resist and I want to play in them too.

lbm is a great muff imo. some will say otherwise but it's kept a few pricier boutique muffs off my board. between the tone and sustain knobs there are a lot of great and classic sounds in there. smooth sustainy gilmour lead fuzz, massive wall of pumpkins fuzz, trashy dime store black keys fuzz etc.

there are a few distinct flavors of fuzz and iirc kh used a roland bee-ba a lot on that record. discontinued now and hard to find but if you want to explore more fuzz flavors there are now several good versions available from independent builders.

According to the guy who recorded them, she primarily used a Quadrafuzz, which is a build-your-own kinda thing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v511/mudrock5000/CIMG0575.jpg

http://www.kristinhersh.com/forum/topic/just-a-gear-question-for-k

whoa. nice. that microsynth has some crazy stuff in it too.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5x0-sWeStg

haha, cute. is there a duet album in the works? Throwing Francis

lord almighty this woman can howl. "a rushing" has been killin" it for me.

So, this happens
No it doesn't
Yeah, this happens
Well it shouldn't

Here comes the thunder
There goes the rain

where is this new muses album that's been done for ages?

if by "ages" you mean "a couple of months"? but anyway it's being released with an accompanying book (like Crooked) so there's that to get done. official word is late summer:

http://www.kristinhersh.com/forums/topic/new-muses-album-release-date/

specifically: "Two conversations yesterday with Harper Collins in London and NYC and we’re looking at Aug 22, right now. This date could change a bit, but not too much."

does it really have 32 songs on it?

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148322-dis-meets-kristin-hersh--listening-is-hard-work-i-respect-people-who-can-do-it-well

50 Foot Wave album coming soon.

yessssssssss!

Oh, and some of the works in progress available here:

https://www.kristinhersh.com/Releases/50-foot-wave_night-blooming/

More at same link now?

grungy goodness.