Kristin Hersh (solo) - C/D, S/D, OPO, RFD, &c.

From Rolling Stone:

The title is a joke: at forty, Kristin Hersh has a voice that's worn as hell -- all two-packs-a-day rasp and vinegary bite. On her seventh solo album, the former singer for poetry-addled alt-rockers Throwing Muses finds a fitting counterpart to that somewhat disturbing voice in largely dark, largely acoustic songs that toss in string arrangements and often work up smart, stormy tumult. Though Hersh outfits the waltz-y "Ice" with a great slo-mo chorus, tunecraft isn't exactly her strength, and sometimes the album slips into haziness. But the best songs are unsettling in a good way: The haunting, plaintive "Sugar Baby" builds to a cathartic climax, and "Under the Gun" conjures a long night filled with fever dreams. Like a Star proves Hersh can rock powerfully; if she had some stronger material, she might be able to make a truly killer record.

CHRISTIAN HOARD

eww

i had a dream last night that kristin was in my town, somehow passing through on a train, and she wrote me a note and left it on a telephone pole near the station. and then i lost the note, and i was looking for it all over town, shit scared. then i woke up and put Learn TO Sing Like A STar on, and now i'm listening to surf guitar.

okay i'm sorry

i really am. but it had to be done

me and my Charms

kills.

so Sunny Border Blue is on in my apt, with the blue screen of the Memorex CD player, and it's so, so pretty - makes me wanna have a beer and play some poker.

geez i really wanna do that n e way... maybe i'll have a poker night?

whoa wat just happened in song#2

this is why. now here, tho, i could stand the vox a TOUCH louder

wow... song3 no disappoint. haha, well i have to go to work soon sooo i'll have to stop at song 3 :-) wait song 4 sounds good...

i can't find a mention of White Suckers on this thread, which surprises me even tho it seems like a run-of-the-mill song. It still really, really shakes me. "Drivin' around in your souped up jeep, like u got somewhere better to be" - totally reminds me of growing up on long island, lol...

So you kinda like her, huh?

=P

Me and My Charms is one of the best songs ever, I agree. I love Hips and Makers overall as well, although I haven't ventured past that for some reason.

aww u should venture

I know. The reason why tho is that I went to college and then I traveled and then I had kids, and so I am frozen in the past. All my CD money goes into 529 plans now.

oh my god

=P

I used to feel this way about Tanya Donnelly, many moons ago. We were both attending the University of Rhode Island when I wrote a positive piece about the Muses for the student newspaper (this is well before their debut album). Tanya met up with me on campus to thank me, and her smile made my knees buckle.
Shortly afterward the band moved to Boston, hit it huge in England and my dream of becoming Mr. Tanya Donnelly quickly faded.

FUCK that's so hot

i can't imaging looking at tanya smiling, i might faint

i still can't believe i was in kristin's face and all i could say was "What a great show tonight"

what is wrong with me?

What do you say? Thank you for inventing the sound of modern rock and roll? Maybe that's what you should have said, because somebody has got to thank the muses.

heh, i know... thank you for making me cry in my room week after week? thank you for always singing exactly what's on my mind? thank you for consistently leaving me dumbfounded?

i guess, you're right, i could have said all those things. and i didn't.

Touring Australia in October....

"It’ll be her first visit to Australia since 1994, so fans will be lining up for this one. Tickets go on sale on Monday August 27.

Thursday October 11: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Friday October 12: The Palais, Hepburn Springs
Wednesday October 17: The Heritage Hotel, Bulli
Thursday October 18: Clarendon Guest House, Katoomba
Friday October 19: The Basement, Sydney
Sunday October 21: Fremantle Arts Centre"

http://www.fasterlouder.com.au/news/local/10182/Kristin-Hersh-returns-to-Australia.htm

Bulli???

Hepburn Springs!? Sounds like she's using a tour as a neat adjunct to an Aussie holiday ;D I mean Hepburn Springs, Blue Mountains, Freo.

I'd like to go to this. I saw her '94 shows, they were entrancing. I wrote a gushy fan letter afterwards that I piked on sending her (or her label or whatever). Unfortunately I havent kept up at all since "Strange Angels" so I guess I'd have to do that.

girl u have to listen to the new one

Apparently the Freo gig is a support(!!!) for Sarah Blasko...

The Corner gig, for which I've just brought a ticket, is thankfully not.

SHE is supporting Sarah Blasko? Oh for the love of... GRARGH!

Corner gig not sold out yet is it?

Heh I saw the 'Muses at the Corner in 92 or 93. They did "Cottonmouth" and some guy in the audience kept loudly hollersinging along to the "YOOOOOOO snake/yooooo cottonmouth" bit. So much so, Kristin was having a hard time not cracking up laughing. At the end of the song, the guys gf turned to him between songs and loudly declared "I'm not going to a gig with you EVER AGAIN" and everyone cracked up laughing inc the band.

They also did Delicate Cutters. Sigh. So wonderful.

No, not sold out yet, but the default 'selling fast' was on the email-out I got on Tuesday.

I saw TM on the same tour, but in Perth. Fortunately, their relative obscurity made being 'down the front' a piece of cake. :)

Anyone planning to go to this?

Kristin Hersh is an introvert. She is extraordinarily shy. Paradoxically, she is known as an artist for her sometimes brutal emotional honesty and openness.

"Paradoxical Undressing" by Kristin Hersh is a live spoken word project incorporating film, music and essays. The show will feature excerpts from Kristin's upcoming memoir, "Paradoxical Undressing" read by the artist, with musical accompaniment.

The show tells the story of a teenage girl wrestling with issues of extreme creativity, mental illness, pregnancy and life in the music business as founder of seminal American indie rock band Throwing Muses.

The first paradoxical undressing performances will be held in the UK at St. Andrew's in the Square in Glasgow on 25 March 2008 and at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 26 March 2008.

I've just booked a ticket for the QEH performance (though I only seem to end up making it to about 3 out of 5 events that I book in advance)

dang

will KILL to see this

werd

my KH interview, from last year: http://wildcat.arizona.edu/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=572e2352-0b06-45e8-ab11-3c4e2413bc9e

Did you wind up going to KH at the corner, Trayce? I did. Loved it.
There was a man singing along every word too.

Totally getting the book when it comes out

That man was me. (probably) :)

I can't wait for this. I ordered my ticket just now just in case.

listening to HIps and Makers now, it sounds much more Muses-y than i had originally thought

Really, the single greatest solo release from Kristin is the bonus disc, _Live At Maxwell's_ that came out with the all-but-forgotten _Red Heaven_. The best Muses tracks done just voice and guitar, oh man...

"Paradoxical Undressing" by Kristin Hersh is a live spoken word project incorporating film, music and essays. The show will feature excerpts from Kristin's upcoming memoir, "Paradoxical Undressing" read by the artist, with musical accompaniment.

I found this event pretty hard going this evening. I had had a really tiring, frustrating day at work which was maybe why I was dropping off during the spoken word bits.

Just the songs please next time.

iiiinteresting!

So I'm a teacher, planning my lesson for the day, and I see that one of the supplemental exercises is about someone named "Hersh"

KRISTIN HERSH

She is in my developmental English grammar textbook! There must be a fan on the editorial side. Ha.

What, her lyrics are in the book? Please tell us more.

HA seriously, what??

No, it's like a grammar exercise about "musician Kristin Hersh"
It's about how she balances work (being touring musician) and home (being a mom/wife). It is used to practice correcting run-on sentences.

"I had to play the Palladium Thursday night but first I needed to take Dylan to a doctor's appointment because he had an ear infection so I arrived late to the gig and David was really pissed at me so he threw a tom-tom at me and hit me squarely in the eye and I had to go back to the very same doctor which I thought was pretty funny."