Throwing Muses: C-o-D

Maybe, I haven't ever messed around with buying stuff ondiscos, but there's a bunch of vinyl stuff I'd like to find for an affordable price. I probably should try it out.

For the most part, I've had success on Discogs. But more recently, I've run into sellers that accept the order only to inform me a week (or more) later that they actually don't have the item. Refunds every time, but it just strikes me as odd that, of my last five orders on there (from completely different sellers), three have resulted in this scenario. Granted, it's not like I order that often; maybe once every four months or so. So, I don't know, maybe a fluke. Just seems weird.

Otherwise, yes: buy House Tornado! It's a wonderful album.

True, I still listen to it fairly regularly. My interest in the Muses fell off after that as they moved in a more conventional rock direction.

I have In A Doghouse which compiles a lot of the early stuff but I'm just seeing it for £25 on Amazon. Seems to be a bit cheaper on discogs.

In a Doghouse is very highly recommended; the first album and the coinciding EP with a ton of extras.

the two disc version with the early demos >>>>

Just scored In a Doghouse for 20 bux U.S.on ebay. I've given several of TM's lps a chance over the years but it's the earliest stuff that really resonates.

Glad i brought it up, it has some great stuff on it.

Wonder if the lps will see any further reissue?

& I have Kirsten's first book Paradoxical Undressing floating around the bedroom waiting to be read still.

Yeah steveo thanks much. I hadnt really thought about them in prolly 20some years (i'm 53!). But was inspired by yr post to spring for that compilation. That book sounds intriguing also. I'm not anti-donnely but kristin is the genius in that band, period. For me anyway

the book is amazing

Yes read it! Published as Rat Girl in the US. Kristin Hersh is as good a writer as she is a, uh, songwriter. Don't Suck, Don't Die is also great, about her friendship with Vic Chesnutt.

I really enjoyed Rat Girl, the descriptions of her synesthesia were really interesting

The mighty Chris O'Leary studies them in his new project:

https://64quartets.wordpress.com/2019/07/02/2-throwing-muses/

did i ever tell u guys about meeting Kristin????
she was hands down the most gracious poet i've ever had the chance to meet
i went up to her so timidly at the end of one of her shows
she was just incredibly kind.

(i'm sure i did tell u but it feels good to be able to brag about it again)

wow, that article is nice deep dive, cheers Ned

yep great article, thanks for posting.

great images too!

never heard those 1984 demos!

some of the only music so overwhelming that all forebrained attempts to reverse engineer how they arrived / performed the music fail. even now decades later, the technician always surrenders to how fucking amazing this music is

at least I could try to figure out the piano songs like 'walking in the dark', but I remember trying to figure out 'fish' on keyboards once. that was funny that I tried that

man, I love "Two Step."

xps Milton "In The Doghouse" is essential, yeah

really wish they'd reissue this:

https://www.discogs.com/Throwing-Muses-Throwing-Muses-EP/release/1435252

and I never knew "The Letter" dates from that period, so that's why it gives me chills

I knew "Doghouse" & the 7", but not the '84 demos linked in the article! amazing that Donelly had written 'Not Too Soon' that early

I have a long, long interview I did with Dave Narcizo back in 1994 and I don't quite know what to do with it - we published it in our little fanzine but it's completely obscure. He was the friendliest guy - blew out our allotted 20 minute interview to over an hour, once he realised I really knew the band's stuff - and at the show I travelled to in Melbourne, welcomed me like a friend when I crept up and said "I did that long phone interview." He invited my friend and I to the band room after the show, even gave us beers from the rider, I remember Bernard opening them on the edge of the table. I was too overwhelmed to talk to Kristin but she and Billy were friendly - pretty tired tho. Vivid memory from the show of K's electric blue eyes fixed on a point at infinity while she swayed around her Strat and its cowgirl decal.

dirt is on the floor is one of my favorite deep cuts, glad to see it mentioned

Me to Dave Narcizo in the mid-'80s, shortly before the Muses were to play at the Blue Pelican, a now-defunct club in Newport, RI: "Let me buy you a drink."
Dave: "I'm not legal yet."

Pretty sure I was at that spring 1985 show at the Living Room.

New album in May!

https://throwingmuses.bandcamp.com/album/sun-racket

excellent news! Hersh's recent solo stuff isn't clicking with me, I've been digging the Tanya Donnelly Swan Song Series though

New album is out! Who else is listening?

just picked it up from my office mailbox today!

Always thankful for new Muses. The usual curve so far: hard to get a handle on the songs at first, but struck by all the awesome sounds.

seems to have a kind of Red Heaven vibe

Starts off with a bang, "Dark Blue" has a great warped feeling. I should cherry-pick the best bits from their 3 albums this century.

The 2003 self-title is an untouchable classic front-to-back. It's awful to say but Kristin's blown-out voice is almost too uncomfortable for me to listen to now, which is so unfair because she's still writing great stuff.

The current voice does not bother me much; maybe even on the contrary, it is kinda correct that it is her in this era out of several. What was heartening to me at a cursory listen to this latest album was that it did not share that weird unlistenableness production- or mastering-wise that the 2018 solo album had that (awful to say) (in spite of still great writing) had me seriously doubting her ears.

hm, her voice just seems to have aged in the way I'd expect it to. Milk at McDonalds, for instance, she doesn't sound that ragged at all. Anyway, this is a great album and in fact, I'd be hard pressed to name one single thing she has released that isn't great. She's just about the most consistent artist I listen to.

I was surprised at how much I liked the new album after hearing at at one of Mr Tim Burgess's Twitter listening parties - to my jaded ears it sounded like it had the energy of an excting new band, not someone whose been on the go for a zillion years. I went and bought my own copy and I like it.

I like Michael Jones' post from nine years ago that the order you hear the albums in is important and makes a big difference. I was really captivated by the first album, and not as much by the rest.

thought Christgau's review of it was really incisive and funny, one of his most memorable, but it also really disappointed me (and made me doubt his future reviews) because I didn't see the album that way at all:

"When friends turn psychotic, I withdraw. I haven't found black leotards sexy since I broke up with Sheila in 1962. I'm rarely persuaded that verbal dissociation reflects any social problems but the poet's own. So while I'm happy to grant the originality and even craft of Kristen Hersh's quavery free-form folk-punk, I'd do the same for the art of H.P. Lovecraft, Anaïs Nin, or Diamanda Galas. Fans of whom will pay more mind to Hersh's buzz than I do"

I find that Xgau review to be mean spirited and sexist tbh

love that 1st LP though

every now and then i wonder if i should give xgau another chance and then i see one of his reviews quoted here and i'm reminded why i haven't

yup

This interview is terrific: https://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/throwing-muses-kristin-hersh-on-the-music-that-made-her/

TM = Ut for lightweights
― mark s, Monday, July 2, 2001 8:00 PM (nineteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

even xgau was not this wrong

Ha ha. 19 years later, Mark S's throwaway line still sticks in my head!

Happy to be a lightweight.

This is kind of following on from me talking about major labels on the Jawbreaker thread but I'm curious about Hersh in that interview being angry about signing to 4AD, but with Throwing Muses, her solo stuff and one 50 Foot Wave release, she wasn't finished with them until about a decade ago.

I’ve never heard her say a bad word about 4AD; wasn’t it signing to Warners (albeit encouraged by Ivo) in the US that was the disastrous thing?

correct

KH is not exactly unsung, but still a bit surprising to me how relatively less talked about she an TH is, compared to, say, the Deal sisters.