Throwing Muses: C-o-D

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (502 of them)

View Previous Page...

so house tornado. i like it but the production kills me.

― Surmounter, Thursday, 3 May 2007 16:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm working on my essay now; this thread has proven quite helpful.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

good i'm so excited alfred!!!

― Surmounter, Thursday, 3 May 2007 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link

That song's always been very strange to me, what is it about? Why did they used to refuse to perform it?

"vicky's box" is pretty clearly about a closeted gay man, no? "I feel boxed in, home is where the heart lies, etc"

also, the doghouse demo version of it rules.

― Edward III, Thursday, 3 May 2007 17:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah that is kind of what I thought.

― Trayce, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:53 (seventeen years ago) link

That's the trouble: her songs aren't very clear about anything. I mean, they portend more than they limn situations.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 3 May 2007 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link

very true

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:17 (seventeen years ago) link

that has KINDA bothered me before but everything else was just so untroubled that i've ignored it

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I have heard one (1) song by this band. Because of this thread I am getting more.

― Curt1s Stephens, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:24 (seventeen years ago) link

seriously

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link

wat song?

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Personal blissful TM fave of mine: "Flood", from University.

Fly, and you get high, right?
Fly, you'll get by, alright?
Oh god I'm high...

I fucking love that song. It is so joyous.

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:51 (seventeen years ago) link

(btw thats not an answer to yr Q, surmounter)

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:51 (seventeen years ago) link

But as to her lyrics... I love how weird and evocative and "could mean anything" they are. I'm sure I have read her say before that, esp in the early days, she just came out with things that felt/sounded good, things came from somewhere else within her. She was completely bipolar, so who knows where it came from. But I love her lyrics to death, they are such ungraspable poetry.

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:54 (seventeen years ago) link

; ) i haven't listened to University in SO long. at the time, i thought it was a bit overprocessed sounding but now i'm thinking i could absolutely sink into the Flooding of its soundscapes. the songwriting is different on University, or something.

i'm gonna reinvestigate this album very soon, as soon as i'm done with this latest hersh. have you guys been listening to this? i really feel like i'm listening to the muses, but more sophisticated. but i came online to post on the hersh thread and now i'm here, appropriately enough i guess ; )

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 00:57 (seventeen years ago) link

and it was so funny u know cuz i'm standing in front of her at this stage and i'm thinking, you're manic and and i'm manic, and that's crazy Mania action happening, man

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:01 (seventeen years ago) link

*yes there's something to her lyrics/vocals that saves them, a believability

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Trayce, "Flood" is my favorite University song; I listened to it three times this morning. Thanks for mentioning it.

I should say: I don't mind Hersh's approach to lyric writing ("Flood" is a great example of ambiguity that's powerfully sexual). By its very nature, though, it's uneven.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I read Flood as more about love redeeming, than anything - she sings "Ryde, you're my bright light" in one line, presumably to her son Ryder.

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link

But god now I need to listen to it so much and Ive no TM music on me at work :(

― Trayce, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I find her lyrics pretty straightforward in describing emotional states or drawing fingernail portraits of events but that only goes to show I'm insane I guess

― Edward III, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:39 (seventeen years ago) link

like "your dirty answer" - it's about getting ready to seduce somebody but then getting too drunk to pull it off. it's really a funny song.

I don't judge people
I just watch them till
it's time to look away

I want to look away now

― Edward III, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:50 (seventeen years ago) link

or that other great line:

it's not my fault
it's not my fault you don't love me
when I'm drunk

― Edward III, Friday, 4 May 2007 01:51 (seventeen years ago) link

"I'll start at his knees
And I'll end in his dreams"

('Start' - University)

Doesn't get much better than that.

― SeekAltRoute, Friday, 4 May 2007 02:23 (seventeen years ago) link

damn ur getting me all excited about University, but it's at the office...

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 03:38 (seventeen years ago) link

kristin hersh = unflinching good taste, good decisions

― Surmounter, Friday, 4 May 2007 03:47 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/on_first_listen/throwing-muses.htm

nice article Alfred!! i really liked your musings on the two sisters.

ALFRED, you should get the self-titled Throwing Muses from '95, i think it was - that's a Hersh/Donnelly reunion for ya right there! it sounds great too. u should also get Limbo at some point.

― Surmounter, Thursday, 10 May 2007 14:48 (seventeen years ago) link

okay so i definitely meant 2003, um, i don't know where 95 came from, like at all. in any event, good album.

― Surmounter, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:52 (seventeen years ago) link

thanks, surmounter, btw.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 11 May 2007 19:59 (seventeen years ago) link

― Surmounter, Friday, 11 May 2007 20:07 (seventeen years ago) link

I completely forgot about this pic. I took it at a TMs gig in Melbourne in '93. Kristin was mesmerising, staring off into a strange middle distance throughout the set like she was posessed.

http://www.memorygongs.com/throwingmuses_1993.jpg

― Trayce, Saturday, 12 May 2007 04:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Seeing that photo makes me regret missing her last stop in Austin even more.

― the ghost of cary grant, Saturday, 12 May 2007 05:22 (seventeen years ago) link

I watched while a friend of mine mentioned some guy she knew that she was attracted to while talking to some other friend of hers I didn't know and she said "he has green eyes". This flipped me out because I kept thinking of that song when I was at work last week.

― Bimble, Saturday, 12 May 2007 11:44 (seventeen years ago) link

I just bought a sleeveless Hunkpapa on CD for a quid from the clearly-going-out-of-business record shop up the road. The LP's 18 years old and probably needs a rest.

― Michael Jones, Saturday, 12 May 2007 12:19 (seventeen years ago) link

that is a beautiful picture.

― Surmounter, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah I am very proud of it :) That scan isnt great unfortunately but yeah. Got a whole lot of shots but that was the best.

― Trayce, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:13 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah

― Surmounter, Saturday, 12 May 2007 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Nice piece, Alf (and pic, Trayce!). I am a torn between wanting to scold you for not finding the "seminal" first album and EP, and praising you for not focusing on it. But whatever. Rediscovered the Muses this winter after years away - pleased how well they hold up.

― mitya, Sunday, 13 May 2007 05:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I am now listening to "Chains Changed" again, cause of this thread :)

― Trayce, Sunday, 13 May 2007 09:29 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh man these guys rock.

"I asked this bedroom what to say
It said 'stay'
I have to sleep
Tangled in my family's hair"

Awesome.

― Trayce, Sunday, 13 May 2007 10:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Chains Changed just seemed so insanely good when it came out, like jaw-droppingly, scary good. It seems in retrospect like that was probably their finest hour, but I admit I haven't heard it in a long, long time. I'm not really sure the Muses are something I feel comfortable pulling out now, they seem tied up with all this teenager angst for me, not a pleasant place to revisit.

― Bimble, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:34 (seventeen years ago) link

omg Not Too Soon, it just like evolved into a song of divinity. it was playing and it went from a normal place to a divine one, you know how that happens sometimes?

― Surmounter, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

i dunno Bimble, there are so many high points later in their career

― Surmounter, Sunday, 13 May 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

The debut Throwing Muses album was released 21 years ago this week in the UK on 4ad.

― djmartian, Monday, 27 August 2007 10:36 (sixteen years ago) link

Really? I feel so old....

The first TM song I ever heard was 'Rabbit's Dying' on 6UVS-FM (as it was called then) in Perth, Western Australia. Yes, it is/was a university station.

I recall buying the LP the very next day.

― SeekAltRoute, Monday, 27 August 2007 11:17 (sixteen years ago) link

The first thing I heard was a demo tape with an early, creepy version of "Stand Up" that got circulated around Rhode Island.

― Jazzbo, Monday, 27 August 2007 12:26 (sixteen years ago) link

I just digitized my early 4AD vinyl this weekend. Still classic.

― sleeve, Monday, 27 August 2007 15:25 (sixteen years ago) link

Classic. Without a doubt.

I prefer Tanya to Kristin, probably because in a throw-down i think she'd fight dirty; biting, scratching, knee's to the kootch - you know, whatever it takes. The partnership between Ms. Donelly and Ms. Deal, however, was a great match, and today i'll listen to that first Breeders album even before something as good as "Ramona".

― christoff, Monday, 27 August 2007 15:51 (sixteen years ago) link

The Real Ramona and University are probably my least favourite of the Muses albums I own, despite the insane amount of love they get here. I think they're a touch too shiny sounding, especially University. House Tornado is classic from start to finish, it has a sort of raw countryish sound to it. I should probably hear the debut before I make any judgements on a best album though.

Tanya Donelly's songs are bright spots on the albums, they turn up just when you want a bit of variety. But Throwing Muses really is Kristin's band - it's the force of her personality that carries them.

Dave Narcizo's drumming is faultless as well. It's criminal how little recognition they get, honestly.

― verhexen, Monday, 27 August 2007 22:11 (sixteen years ago) link

five months pass...

FACT: "Not Too Soon" sounds as absolutely perfect today as it did in 1991.

― Alex in NYC, Monday, 28 January 2008 19:10 (sixteen years ago) link

Skipping 402 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.