Throwing Muses: C-o-D

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.

and* TH

what is TH

tanya honnely?

throwing huses

Jesus, sorry. Giant brainfart. T Muses, not T Donelly.

back on the 2003 self-title this afternoon, what a blast, maybe my favourite Muses? surely not
time changes on "Solar Dip" are absolutely core to this band

Yes! The 2003 s/t is maybe my favourite album of theirs since Leslie left. The rest of the power trio era is too shiny but this is the right kind of heavy and sunburnt raw. It feels like a drawn-out fight on one long too-hot afternoon. I find it hard to tell the songs apart but I get little sticky bitchy lines from them in my head all the time: "Here's a big fat aspirin, maybe you'll choke - that's not funny." "I don't like you any more than you know, I still like you too much." "I think your nose is broken, but you mouth is working." She's such a great writer and I think that gets kind of lost in the interpretations (hers too) of so much of her work as instinctive.

It's a shame this album seems to have slipped out of view, I feel like I never see Hersh talking about this time or any of these songs. I wonder if they are a snapshot of a period in her previous marriage she wouldn't want to go back to.

on a related note, her recent cover of "Like A Hurricane" totally rules

perfect description, verhexen!

also I mis-hear the chorus of “Pandora’s Box” as “milk-fed shithead” which is an insult I treasure; the real lines “your milk-fed shaved head / you move like an insect” are fantastic too

was Tanya Donelly's "The Party" ever released anywhere except the the Muses debut 7"? doesn't seem like it...

nope, nor adapted into anything else that I know of

A boy was tangled in his bike forever
A girl was missing two fingers
Gerry Ann was confused
Mr. Huberty had a gun in his head
So I sit up late in the morning and ask myself again
How do they kill children?
And why do I want to die?

written at age 18 iirc, just amazing

incredible song. love that album so much

all time opening couplet

"I could be a smack freak
and hate society
I could hate God
and blame dad"

Just an astounding song. The emotional power blows you away. Such an incredible band.

A shout out to Leslie Langston’s bass play on the early albums as well. Such melodic lines.

I think she's a senior social worker in MA these days!
Yep: https://medical.mit.edu/find-a-provider/leslie-langston
Extraordinary player, fully half the appeal of the Muses' early records to me.

That’s awesome.

I watched some of those YouTube videos where the video maker plays along with records on his bass, and the guy tackled a couple of early Muses songs. Ofc it was fun to hear the bassline brought out front, but also: iirc he freely admitted it was a bit puzzling and hard, and LL came along in the comment field going something like "hi! the reason that bit doesn't quite work is because you need to use the thumb from the top of the fretboard at the same time you see". This was couple of years ago or something?

Ha, that’s excellent. Just a natural, free-floating coolness to these guys.

In the mid 90s I interviewed them for a no-circulation music zine - in Australia - and when they toured they invited me and a friend to the band room after, gave us drinks and cigarettes, Bernie showed me how to open a bottle using another bottle … it was a blast and they were such nice folks. K was a bit reserved after delivering a huge show but I probably would have passed out if I’d talked to her.

Fun fact: I played "Hate My Way" for my family on or about Xmas day, from my phone. In boring moments we've developed a game where one nominates "the best song ever", choosing something fresh each time. This might have been the first time there were demands that such a selection be turned off lol.

jesus christ I told my same little fan boy story twice in the same thread, wow cool guy

I love K. Hersh pretty much across the board. Saw her a couple years ago with Bob Mould and she remains a compelling presence.

For Muses particularly, of course yes to University ("Bright Yellow Gun" already mentioned upthread) but for many persons of my age and class and temperament, there is an iconic scene in Empire Records set to the song "Snakeface." It is a memorable one.