Throwing Muses: C-o-D

the doghouse demo that came with the US reissue of the first album is incredible. the first album was burdened with an 80s production job (wow reverb makes the drums sound so good argh) but the demo is clean as a whistle making stuff like "vicky's box" cut deeper, and as a bonus the unreleased songs from the demo are just as good - "sinkhole"!

OMG this is back up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1exb_Uk-i-M

so great ("Shimmer" live)

^^Genius awesomeness!

Been listening to Cry Baby Cry constantly over the past couple of days. I keep thinking it's my favourite of theirs until I remember all the other ones I love. There aren't many bands who were pretty much uniformly brilliant throughout their career but in so many different ways. Every song is like its own little universe.

Anyone seen the Paradoxical Undressing show? Thoughts?

Shimmer posted above is pure goosebumps.

Throwing Muses are playing in Australia in January 2009.

It's going to be GOOD year.

Tonight. Corner Hotel Hotel, Richmond.

It happens.

I'm going too! This'll be the 3rd time (I think?) ive seen them live, 4th if I count Kristin's solo gig round the time of her first solo album.

Curious as to what kind of set it will be, and I dont have the most recent album so I'm stuffed if they play all from that.

This review of the Wellington show on Monday night might give you an idea of what you're in for...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4817807a26666.html

Gonna be pretty happy if Shimmer, Start, Limbo and Pearl (!!) all get an airing again...

Thats half the set they did last time I saw them, dagnabbit! hahaha :)

In fact I remember when they did Pearl - a guy next to me was hollering all the lines in the quiet bit really loudly, and his gf snapped during a quiet part "thats it, I dont know you any more" and Kristin started laughing and almost lost her place.

If they did any songs from Fat Skier I'd be well pleased.

I'm a Limbo man.

That was a pretty damn fine gig! I was stoked that they did "Finished", I don't think I've heard them do that live before.

I'm exhausted now.

Set list as much as I can remember it of (this is totally not in order, I'm too hung over, and there were 3 songs i didnt recognise which I'll assume were from the 2003 album cos I dont have that). Shit they did a lot of songs. I guess thats easy when they're all fairly short.

Finished
Shimmer
Hazing
Start
Vicky's Box
Tar Kissers
Bea
Devil's Roof
Shark
Bright Yellow Gun
Say Goodbye
Pearl
Mania (awesome encore, I love how fucked up fast and crazy they do this live)

I'm sure there was more, my head's too foggy.

They didn't do The Teller or Fish which made me sadface, and the 4 times I've seen them I don't think I've ever heard them play a note from the Fat Skier ep which is odd, because I'm sure they used to do those songs back in the day. Interesting they always do Vicky's Box now when Kristin used to say she wouldnt play it live.

She wasnt as "posessed" looking as in the past. They just seemed laid back, grown up and fierce instead. Still got a fine scream on her though :)

Thanks for the report.

to see tar kissers live

i can't even imagine

or hazing

Yeah Hazing and Start are just *ecstatic* live, I couldnt help but sing along joyously, a lot of the crowd didnt seem to know older stuff and so I was probably being That Annoying Person heh.

I also got footage of "Finished" but Im not sure if I can put it on the yootubes because I filmed half the song in portrait and then realised that would come out sideways when watching back :(

omg start. i didn't know that's what it was called. this album got me through some crazy times.

wow and SHIMMER

so much university. shimmmmmmmmer

There were many bands then and today featuring lyricists on the verge. What made Throwing Muses stand out amongst their peers was their rhythm section. David Narcizo's cymbal eschewing, marching beats, and Leslie Langston's loping, perhaps afro-pop inspired contrapuntal basslines made Hersh's struggles entertaining. To be honest, I largely lost interest after House Tornado because Langston's role was being neutered, perhaps in an effort to woo the grungy alternative audience.

I don't know if you could exactly say Leslie's role was being neutered after House Tornado, although I'd say that was their best album - if you listen to Hunkpapa, a lot of the time the basslines are carrying the songs and keeping them from being ridiculously simple and anodyne. She'd left by The Real Ramona anyway.

Really excited that they played Devil's Roof and Finished, think that's made up my mind to go to the Breeders-curated ATP to see them.

I saw Kristin Hersh with Bob Mould at the Birchmere a couple years ago. I still love her.

Search Snakeface and Bright Yellow Gun, obv. Hips and Makers is classic; though I own and have listened to Sky Motel and Sunny Border Blue they don't really grab me in the same visceral way. But nevertheless Muses = classic.

not sure yet whether i can/want to go to the Breeders ATP yet (though Throwing Muses at ATP = long overdue and should be good) so hope there will be a London date too! I want to see this...

can somebody please tell me what this breeders ATP thing is immediately

snakeface is so good.

The Breeders are curating the All Tomorrows Parties festival in England (Minehead, I think) in May, confirmed acts so far: Throwing Muses, Breeders, Bon Iver, Kimya Dawson, Teenage Fanclub, Holy Fuck.

I've never really been sold on most of the stuff off University. I don't know why but it doesn't click, I'm surprised at how much love that album gets here.

it used to not click for me, and then one day it did. a lot.

it's the snare drums and textures. it's like an ocean. and her voice.

that festival sounds fucking amazing

Absolutely motherfucking classic.

How can you deny "Bright Yellow Gun," "Flood," "Honeychain," "Not too Soon," "Cry Baby Cry," etc. etc.

"Flood" is absolutely transcendent. The mournful lyrical repetition...and the gorgeous strings! Ugh, and that piano break/bridge.

OH, and SHARK

SUBLIME!!!

'i could kiss you for remembering my birthday, you should thank me for remembering your name'

'i could kiss you for remembering my address, you should thank me for offering my mattress'

I'm guessing one of the reasons Hersh's stuff is so haunting & memorable for me is the way she employs repetition with variation -- you hear it again and again in her stuff --

"Start with your eyes / when they eye me in twilight [...]
Pick me up / with the twine in your eyelight"

There's something literally twisted here, which is to say, literally involving.

So I've had a passing fondness for TM for many years and had always meant to investigate further, but never go around to in until recently, when I got my hands on The Real Ramona. I immediately fell head over heels for it & have since been searching their catalog backwards from that point to their s/t debut, and I love every minute of it (save, perhaps, for a few dud moments on Hunkpapa. I guess my next frontier will be the post-Donnelly material, which I am greatly looking forward to. I love making (re)discoveries like this!

Yeah, Hunkpapa had some dud moments as I recall. That album really felt like a step backwards for them when it came out. Although there's still some classic stuff on there ("Mania" especially), that's the album of theirs I tend to forget about.

The production on Hunkpapa is SO gross. "Dizzy" and the song about Kristen's life getting saved by rock and roll are the keepers.

where is my husband?

Yeah, that's exactly it, Alfred. It seemed like the big bad major record label was trying to make them something they could never be.

Track down the 10" or 12" edition of Dizzy for two absolutely stunning live b-sides, Mania and Downtown. The drumming and vocals on Mania are just frightening. A window into what Hunkpapa could have been with the right production.

Yeah, that's exactly it, Alfred. It seemed like the big bad major record label was trying to make them something they could never be.

― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Sunday, April 5, 2009 9:14 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not sure about this. the band had a lot of different sounds, so i'm not sure about the "they could never be" part

Wasn't Hunkpapa the period in which K was going through some seriously bad shit? Mental issues (more so'n usual), divorce or custody battle of some kind and/or her ex manager screwing her over. Something like that? It shows in the emotion on it - or lack of, she seems so ... dead. In some songs this works though. I love "Hook in her Head" because it sounds so end of the rope but I'll kill you if I have to.

"hook in her head" is on the real ramona. it was before that album that she lost custody of her eldest son - i think the father was an ex-manager - and her mental illness was used against her during the hearings. hence the track "dylan" i guess. i don't get that it or she sounds "dead" though?

"hunkpapa" had a lot of record company interference supposedly. it's the weakest sure, but it's still got loads of great songs that haven't already been mentioned like bea and take, as well as mania etc.

I don't think it was all label interference. I remember an interview where Hersh said she could feel some people getting too overwhelmed, and thought she'd try writing songs with only one hook going at a time instead of three to six. even with thin production it's got moments. then they took a half-step backwards towards jumbled for "Real Ramona" (+ better production) and nailed what they were going for.

proud owner of grapefruit edition of "Ramona" CD

yea i was gonna say that ramona seemed too cool/sensible a progression for it to be all label interference

what's the grapefruit edition?

silkscreen of perfectly halved grapefruit on CD surface. same music. in 91, full color CDs were still kinda wowsville.

nice. the only limited edition thing i have is that brilliant live at maxwell's cd which came with the first copies of red heaven.

anyone seen any of the reunion shows? i'm gonna see them at primavera :D :D :D

Oh gods yeah I just mixed up Hunkpapa and Real Ramona, gah.

I have the live at Maxwells CD too, didn't know that was a limited run thing.