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

"you don't inspire / a metric tonne of trust"

and

"and we dance all night"

It's been ear-worming on me these past few days.

Bah xpost!

It's really REALLY good.

I think I'm gonna make this year the one I finally get round to investigating Kristin's post-'Strange Angels' (which I didn't like much) solo stuff. Starting here, and 'Murder, Misery and then Goodnight' which I've been meaning to get for too long. Only recently discovered the pretty damn great 50Ft Wave record...

1. Relentlessly downbeat (even for Kristin). Veering close to self parody at times.
2. Dave Narcizo drums on nearly all the tracks. This helps make the overall sound a lot closer to Throwing Muses than most Hersh solo LPs have been (a plus for me). I like the string arrangements too.
3. A couple of good tunes, but no obvious standout tracks.
4. Her voice is completely shot these days. Does this make the album title ironic?

the world of kristin. alone.

Yeah, I have a 2005 live recording by her and it's a bit sad to hear her settling into her late-70's Marianne Faithful phase.

scratchy, for lack of a better word. like it always made sense to me that she sang about kissing gravel on Limbo.

You're right in that she is fairly limited, vocally ... she doesn't have much range, so her voice is easily stretched. This isn't a bad thing, mind you (it gives the songs a "gutsy" quality), and for the most part she can sing powerfully enough to pull it off. But now, she sounds hoarse even the middle of her range.

no but totally not a bad thing - i always LIKED the "gutsy" stretching stuff

lots of character

i have to hear the 50 ft wave.

As an addendum to this thread, the additional CD of Kristen Hersh performing Throwing Muses songs solo live in Hoboken that came free with early editions of Red Heaven is well worth tracking down...

http://www.discogs.com/release/534791

In finding that link however I did find this which maybe pretty good too...

http://www.archive.org/details/KristinHersh1999-10-22.cm-s20.flac16

And yeah, her voice was definitely pretty raspy--i.e., my friend who'd never heard a note of Hersh things prior
remarked that Kristin sounded like an 80 year old smoker.
Though, I don't know if I'm just accustomed to her voice,
--I mean, I do usually enjoy my music a little scrambled anyway,
but I really enjoyed her delivery. It was raspy, but it was completely "in there" and sincere.
I just love her, she's great.

only just got round to hearing the "Live at Noe Valley Ministry" official thing too. Good!

Stream the new one in full here :)

Ha, I did the same thing. Only one library in Rhode Island has reserved it so far.

So this interview with Hersh is beyond kickass.

100 pages into Rat Girl and I can't recommend it enough. So endearing.

I really need to buy that book.

UK title: Paradoxical Undressing. The book version of her latest album is really good as well!

I've only written one book and I didn't know how to write that

Good interview in the Guardian:
"Yeah, I hate music. Everyone knows that about me. Even my kids hate music. When they're watching a kids' show on TV, as soon as a song comes on, the TV is muted." She reconsiders. "Maybe hate is the wrong word. We can't bear it. The intensity of good music is too much to bear. And bad music is so offensive that that's also too much to bear. I'm in heaven when it's good, but that doesn't happen very often. And anyway, you don't want to be crying over the breakfast table. I don't want that life."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/aug/22/kristin-hersh-memoir-interview-edinburgh

i interviewed kristin in 2007 and she told me the same thing. sadly i can't seem to find the article i wrote about her online at the moment. love her, of course -- i might even like the solo stuff more than the muses.

For anyone interested, there are still a few copies of Kristin's 2015 Record Store Day single 'Sundrops'/'The Cuckoo' available via the label's website (heliospheric.co.uk).

It was only released in the UK, so this is the best chance for US and European fans to get hold of a copy before they all go. The two songs are acoustic versions recorded for a never-broadcast local radio session in 1994 while Kristin was in the UK touring 'Hips and Makers', and have never been released until now. They are fab and all KH fans should hear them!

Wyatt At The Coyote Palace streaming now at NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2016/10/27/499145143/first-listen-kristin-hersh-wyatt-at-the-coyote-palace

Saw her in Cambridge MA tonight. I haven't followed her work in a decade but it was a great voice and guitar performance with lots of anecdotes and poetry between songs.

oh shit new throwing muses AND new solo kristin hersh next year (I really need to renew my lapsed subscription)

aforementioned new solo tracks are arriving; this has a bit of a "Rubidoux" feel https://pitchfork.com/news/kristin-hersh-announces-new-album-shares-new-song-listen/

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/172053-kristin-hersh-possible-dust-clouds

(Shocked to see it isn't on 4ad ... but perhaps she hasn't been with them for years??)

think her last 4AD release was Learn to Sing Like a Star in 2007 (or the Throwing Muses Anthology in 2011)

Haven't really been paying attention (obviously).

and a UK tour next March: https://www.kristinhersh.com/appearances/

including a few places off the usual tour circuit, such as my home town - hooray! I confess I have also not been paying attention but perhaps this is a good motivator to do so

Oh wow, KH at the Phil (ok, not the pub) in L'pool in March sounds like it's worth a trip. Almost the 30th anniversary of seeing the Muses for the first time in L'pool. Jeez.

I doubt I can get to Rough Trade East after work in three weeks' time for that appearance.

x-post. Thanks for the tip-off re the shows, Spacecadet. The Holywell Music Room in Oxford seems a tiny venue for her but having checked Wegottickets sales seem fairly stagnant. That said, I hadn't noticed anything about the show.

Ooh, I'm ready for new stuff. Strange Angels and Sky Motel have been sounding so good to me recently. Don't know why I never spent much time with the latter.

sky motel is so damn good

this is a good album. is she even capable of making a bad album? I've never heard one.

like, all muses albums, all her solo albums, the 50 ft Wave stuff...all of it's great. some greater than the rest obviously but I will always listen to one of her records all the way through.

btw did she play everything on this? I can't find any decent credits or liners online. Who sings backup on Halfway Home (my favorite on the album; I listened to that on repeat 4x yesterday)

if you ask her on twitter she'll probably tell you!

My song of the day was "Gin". I heard it on a radio podcast walking home after work without knowing who it was and I thought I know that voice from when it was not as broken (which is by no means bad). Great song which catapulted me back into the early nineties. The Throwing Muses was one of the first indie bands I got to know. In the podcast the radio dj said something about her being bipolar. I hope the music helps her to get through the day.

she did a recent interview where she said it turns out she was not bipolar, she has some kind of deep PTSD from childhood that manifests in different ways, mainly through music; and that she often has no recollection of writing songs, performing them live, or even knows what they mean.

"Gin" is great yeah; my favourite from the new LP.

btw did she play everything on this? I can't find any decent credits or liners online. Who sings backup on Halfway Home?
Mostly all done by Kristin but there are five other credited performers, three drummers and two bass players - one of which, Chris Brady, is also credited with backing vocals.

I should go buy this rather than listening off apple music.

the new album is incredibly good, glad Sky Motel was brought up because it's the clear predecessor here

("Gin" is from the Crooked sessions from when it was called Speedbath, FWIW; maybe one day we'll get "Around Dusk" released)

(actually, "Gin" was intended to be a Throwing Muses song? or at least it was back then https://www.kristinhersh.com/gin/)

Seeing her tomorrow for the first time. Can’t fucking wait.

highest recommendations for Rat Girl, just a great book

God I love her

same

I have her book about her relationship with Vic chestnutt but I couldn’t get very far. Anyone else read it?

I haven't, but I can second the Rat Girl recommendation, it's an amazing memoir. I need to read the more recent one.

Hips and Makers finally getting a very overdue vinyl reissue (along with Strings) for RSD this year.

Never got around to Rat Girl, but I will