Mary Timony

Overall, I think her single best song is "XXX" from Pirate Prude, though.

Hole In The Ground
Lucy
XXX
I'll Get You, I Mean It
Pat's Trick
Trixie's Star
Baby's Going Underground
Honeycomb
Superball
What Institution Are You From?
Leon's Space Song
Lady of the Fire
Ancient Cryme
Devil's Tear
Silver Strings
Poison Moon
I Fire Myself
Hour Glass
Dr. Cat
Musik And Charming Melodee

I'm going to hunt down the Helium album. I think it would be interesting to hear her work within a group and without the Phil Spector-like Mark Linkous all over the house.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040401020425571091&sql=Busuf6j2h71l0

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB040401020425571091&sql=A1arsa9wgb23d

Diminishing returns, basically.

Search her French radio session performance of ye olde folk song "The Outlandish Knight", "Ligeia" with Team Sleep, and the Hole in the Ground 7" also. Yeah, and Autoclave...

I like the Golden Dove a lot, I think the letdown factor is just that it's very similar to Mountains so it's kinda like Mountains pt. 2. There are some fantastic songs on it though.

Her solo albums are pretty good too, but they don't seem to hit as many highs as she did with Helium.

please be in the age range of 13-18, otherwise, i think lawsuits will be in yr future...

Former Helium frontwoman Mary Timony has signed to Lookout! Records, which will release her new solo album, "Ex Hex," in mid-April. The indie veteran has released two solo albums on Matador Records, also the home of Helium. The most recent was 2002's "The Golden Dove."

Produced by Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty, "Ex Hex" features Timony on guitar and vocals and Devin Ocampo of the Medications on drums. As previously reported, Medications appears on Canty's new live DVD series, "Burn To Shine," which will be released later this month via Trixie.

what ever happened to her?? what made her lose the finely crafted 'dirty Helium' and go into 'rainbow land Helium'?

my guess, the meds.
too much. too much. too much.

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, so i have a feeling in 2-3 years, indie rock will "rock" once more.

also, i never liked her D&D turn originally but in listening to a lot of the helium b-sides & whatnot, its not an especially new concept with her. you may even consider the sluts & whores of her pirate prude days to be symbolic princesses & witches.

Yes, I think she's attractive too, but this picture bugs me. What the hell is she doing with the headphones there? Cause she's twiddling the bass knob on a Silvertone Twin Twelve amp head. That's not some vintage hi-fi, it's a damn tube guitar amp, and it doesn't have a headphone output... So what the hell is she doing?!

To the majority of people looking at that photo, it's a cute girl listening to music on headphones.

i http://ctomag.com/may16cto/timony1.gif

i http://www.iheartny.com/yourenotthere/waspsnests/6timony.GIF

Yeah yeah I get it. But remember how ridiculous it was in Independence Day when a Mac was used to hack into a non-human-designed computer system? Well, it's silly like that.

I agree with Maria too re: less actual departure from original content when Mary shifted from seamy to sorcery.

And I'll be eyeist if I want to be--just because the anti-eyeism mafia has ILM in its iron, wonky-eyed grip doesn't mean that I'm not free to express my (carefully thought-out) opinions.

New MP3 from EX-HEX over here

Any album with a song called "Return to Pirates" is an album I'd like to own. This also reminds me, I should go download "Ghost Car," the "Pat's Trick" B-side which never came out on CD and is one of my favorite Helium songs ever..

the magic city is actually quite good -- its new wavey!

Just wait... there's a Scout Niblett album a'coming.*

there is such a thing floating around slsk--someone's compiled them

Two spins so far. Not sure how I rate Ex Hex. On the one hand it sounds so different from MT's recent efforts -- just deeper and more showy in a good way (i.e. I thought The Golden Dove was her reaching the end of the sound she was doing then -- it's my least favorite of any of her efforts, despite the indisputable greatness of "Blood Tree" and a few other okay tracks I can't make myself listen to the while thing) -- but it hasn't got me flippin' my shit just yet. A grower, maybe. It's like when I first heard Pig Lib and thought "Whoa, what's happening here, this is UGLY" and then the next day it all made sense and I was in love.

It’s like she all of a sudden realized that it was time to change things up a wee bit.

http://www.carondelet.pvt.k12.ca.us/Family/Science/Nitrogen/r051.jpg
http://www.carondelet.pvt.k12.ca.us/Family/Science/Nitrogen/images/sb_element2.jpg

http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/t/timony_mary/ex-hex.shtml

i dont like to hate on pitchfork but this disappointed me.

her set is surprisingly rocking. very good drummer.

her set is surprisingly rocking. she has a very good drummer.

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

For me Magic City didn't stick. I really loved Dirt of Luck but have been bad about revisiting that one, too.

DIRT OF LUCK FOREVER

― maura, Wednesday, October 30, 2013 5:53 AM (11 months ago)

whoa i haven't thought about her since... 2001? nice to know she's still at it.

This new one is produced by Mitch Easter, who I just read also co-produced 1997’s The Magic City, the second album by Helium, Timony’s second band.

Really digging 'Waterfall' off this record atm

I had zero use for Wild Flag but this rules.

This is so weird to me - Timony's Wild Flag tunes could pretty much easily be sequenced into this album! Black Tiles, Electric Band, even Glass Tambourine

this album rules. she rules. hard to believe people still overlook her -- every bit the guitar hero j mascis, s malkmus, and d martsch are. she's traveled so many styles too

yeah was gonna say i said upthread made me realize that all the good wild flag songs were timony

Problem with Wild Flag was never Timony. Her songs are fine, but not enough to make listening to the band worthwhile.

my prob was more carrie brownstein's uh-UH yah yah yah yah ya---UH vocal mannerisms which were really over the top in that band as compared to SK

I'm not really into the Ex Hex album :( The songs are too simple and referential and I'm not crazy about the production. It didn't help that I went back and listened to "Magic City" this weekend, which is so much better.

Heather Phrase (AMG) claims the new record is the closer she got to the Helium sound/atmosphere.

if so, i'm in.

Phares

I'm not really into the Ex Hex album :( The songs are too simple and referential and I'm not crazy about the production. It didn't help that I went back and listened to "Magic City" this weekend, which is so much better.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, October 13, 2014 11:26 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

basically agree with this, it's not a bad album but too simplistic and garagey for me i think. willing to give it a couple more tries.

Production-wise it *is* weirdly muddled in places - compare the "Hot & Cold" from the 7" to the album version and it's so much thicker.

New video, this is prob my favorite track on the album: http://vimeo.com/106394455

That video is fuckin' awesome. Alec MacKaye getting laser-blasted!

This track was an iTunes bonus track on the Wild Flag album and *totally* sounds like it could fit on Ex Hex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1sEhUNrAKQ

I'm not really into the Ex Hex album :( The songs are too simple and referential and I'm not crazy about the production. It didn't help that I went back and listened to "Magic City" this weekend, which is so much better.

― Immediate Follower (NA), Monday, October 13, 2014 10:26 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, I listened to this yesterday and was surprised at how much I liked it. But I'm not as invested as you are in Mary Timony specifically or this type of thing generally.

very excited to be playing with ex hex and speedy in november :^) RIPS is great

Just listened to the Ex Hex album this morning and really enjoyed it. Love Timony's tone and lead guitar lines.

(Admittedly, I was totally listening for Timony's playing. The songs are pretty simplistic so I guess I'll see how well the album holds up for me over time. Seems like fun right now, though.)

I've completely forgotten to check it out myself! Thanks for the reminder.

this is good!

Album has grown on me a lot. It did seem too simplistic at first, and the guitar tuning is so straightforward and un-Timony-like, but around listen 4-5 it clicked for me. I wonder if the male character in "Waterfall" is the same as the one in "On The Floor." So many ex-boyfriends passed out on the kitchen floor....

Maybe this is obvious but it reminds me of a lot of late 70s/early 80s stuff like the Cars, Blondie, Go-Gos.

My initial take was a Cars/Ramones mashup.

Feel like Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner" is quoted differently in two tracks too.

I fucking love this Ex Hex album.

I saw Ex Hex last night. Really fun set, played basically the whole record.

this record is definitely a much better version of wild flag

man I totally missed that Timony was part of this band, will investigate

Good livestream at the moment: http://blog.kexp.org/pickathon-2015-video-webcast/

Ex Hex, that is

I once hitched a UK tour with her, trying to think who the band was. That is to say she was with a few people doing the hitching following another band around not that we were hitching following her.
Would be some point towards the end of the 80s anyway.

My 8yo daughter is OBSESSED with Mary T. My fridge is plastered with pictures of her. She has a Spotify playlist which is just Ex Hex and Wild Flag ("but you can just put the LPs on... Your sister has lots more in hers..." "NO").

I'm a Betsy Wright man myself.

Does she know about Helium? Haven't checked Spotify for them.
the xpost livestream set was so cool, kinda laid-back at times, but guitars kept careening over the top, then back to the groove, where I waited for the next payoff (rock kindergarten, teaching me patience). Nice!

I think she has some Helium singles. I'm not sure what she'll make of MT solo. Hearing her absent-mindedly harmonise with the middle eight of "Glass Tambourine" was my Saturday morning highlight of the year.

Anyway, back to Mary.

Mary's songwriting seems to be at its best when she is a band, presumably bouncing off ideas and not being backed by just herself and drums/keys. But if you'd put all the best tracks from her four solo albums together, it would be as good as Helium.

I'm a Betsy Wright man myself.

― Michael Jones, Monday, August 3, 2015 6:10 AM

On Instagram Mary Timony says she is recording a new solo album

🙂

And we’re back

https://marytimony.bandcamp.com/album/untame-the-tiger-2

i like it! very nice minimal arrangement

reminds me (musically not vocally) a bit of The Evens

I like the minimal straight forward pop of that song too. Sometimes she’s too prog & old school art rock for me , but not on that dominoes song

Really nice stuff

2024 tour date tickets go on sale at 10 am ET today

New track, “The Guest”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=780u_kPEXcA

First date of the tour tonight in Baltimore. Sweet, short set, heavy on the new album with two Helium cuts. There were some nerves and a missed lyric cue or two, but a really strong band, having fun up there. Timony’s solos on “The Guest” were especially on fire.

See ‘em when they come to your town

I was there too. I liked Anna on the pedal steel, but must confess to get bored at times by Timony and Betsy leisurely jamming on so many songs . Felt like circa 1972 rock with not enough energy and rhythm. I liked Timony vocals and how songs started but some just didn’t hold my attention. Maybe I am not the ideal audience member for this tour.

getting bored

Yeah, the jamming was definitely the point to a large degree - the vocals acting as a starting point/tee for glassine guitar riffs and extended vamps. Not for everyone, but it’s possible that this will change as the tour proceeds and she gets more comfortable in the role of singer/bandleader/guitarist - with Hammered Hulls she just had to be the bassist, which was probably a relief.

The openers were OK but I was kinda patiently waiting for the main event - it’s always been that way but even more so as I age.

I get that. I had seen them before and kinda liked them, so was fine with seeing em again even on a midweek work night. But yeah, was glad there weren’t too many delays.

Birthday Girl are a good band but as I was texting some friends during that set:

“They make me a little nostalgic for a time when I listened to a lot of music like this (in a different century, mostly)”

I hear Birthday Girl DC as a throwback to one style from the last century, and Mary Timony’s current live approach a musical throwback to an even earlier style ( even if both of them are using lyrics that relate to their own 21 century issues)

I like the Mary Timony album better than I liked the live show. The guitar vamps don't go on as long.

At one point, Mabel Canty (before I knew her full name) announced their parents were actually accompanying them on tour, and I was like "aw, that's so sweet - every parent should be like that" and then someone informed me who their parents were - had no idea!

wau

lol her bassist is Isabella MacKaye

That is Alec Mackaye's daughter. Mabel Canty is 16 . Mary Timony gave Mabel Canty some lessons and produced their music

Ny Times on Mary Timony guitar teacher to Mabel Canty , Snail Mail’s Jordan, & others

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/26/arts/music/mary-timony-washington-dc-mentor.html?unlocked_article_code=1.2k0.ksg-.0MUlpW-zoQ8Y&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Coincidentally was just about to mention Untame the Tiger in the 2024 AOTY So Far thread; I think it’s probably my most-listened-to of the year at least.

https://www.threads.net/@garlandofhours/post/DEz6urZxo-6?xmt=AQGzZpxAhiG883nJKSjrHFtbZNCctECH4Tg46FAlcybfqQ

Mary Timony was just recording at Tonal Park in Md with Amy Domingues (cello player for Garland of Hours & once played on a Fugazi song) , Mark Cisneros (guitarist w/ Kid Congo; Hammered Hulls & others), Winston Yu, Job Cain (David) who toured in Timony's band on recent tour