There's Magic Here

I Heart Kristin Hersh. Very much. She should be a role model for little girls everywhere, I've decided.

On this Tuesday, March 23rd, her new band - 50 Foot Wave - releases it's first CD and plays a free instore performance at Amoeba Music in Hollywood to celebrate. Oh, I'll be there. I've been lucky enough to have the new CD for over a month now, and it rocks. Really, really rocks.

"Yes, it will still be Kristin singing and writing songs, but it will not be Throwing Muses. 50 Foot Wave is meant to be harder, faster, more intense and built from the ground up as an overwhelming live experience." This taken from the official mission statement, as it were, of this band. Anyone familiar with Hersh's musical history will know that she is more than capable of rocking, and these guys are so not kidding this time. This new act has inspired headlines like: "The Thunder of Punk Returns" or "Faster Louder Harder" or (my favorite) "Mommy Is A Punk Rocker." Why? Because this stuff is pretty much a wall of sound coming at you. A friend once said to me, "She really sometimes sings as if she's spitting blood." Well, this time around, I think she's doing it on purpose.

Kristin Hersh started the Throwing Muses with her stepsister, Tanya Donelly, when she was fourteen. She was 19 when their first record came out (she started college at 16) and she also gave birth to her first son. (She just had her fourth a year ago.) The Muses were always like slightly agitated folk pop punk, um, I guess... with some country thrown in. You could hear the influences of all kinds of music, but no one else sounded like them. The songs changed progressions suddenly, as if you were getting two songs in one, something that Hersh has attributed to their enthusiasm to make as much music as possible. The melodies were beautiful. And the one-two punch of Kristin & Tanya's voices were a bit siren-esque too, in a Lolita sort of way.

The words, though, usually Kristin's, were always what grabbed me. It was always slightly desperate, kind of crazy, and totally powerful. Then she put out solo records, and I was completely and forever hooked. These albums were more acoustic and sparse affairs, and lyrically shone like diamonds. To me.

"I keep my nails dug into my half of the rug; I'm sorry now" ("Shake")
"Stop - you ruined all my memories... I'm falling into you, my hair's in your face, eyes on your eyes, hands on my back - I can't leave" ("Close Your Eyes")
"You go whole hog when you like someone - I go apeshit when you forget me" ("Cathedral Heat")
"You separate the good guys from disaster, and it's even sadder..." ("William's Cut")

Her song, "The Letter" was one that affected her so much that she claimed that singing it would make her throw up. I believe her. It's one of the saddest, most lost, letters ever put to paper, and I connected to it in a BIG way when I was going through a really, really rough period several years ago. Then, this summer, she performed it. She said her husband talked her into it, and she tried it, and it didn't make her throw up. I sobbed at my table though - kinda embarrassing, but it couldn't be helped. My friend was a bit worried about me afterwards.

So 50 Foot Wave rose from the ashes of the Throwing Muses, who put out a "reunion" album a year ago and did a brief tour to support it last May. The energetic CD was recorded over a couple of weekends on the East Coast, where most members live with their families. While they all had a blast recording it, bassist Bernard Georges and Kristin decided that they didn't want to give it up. Kristin and her family, who already lead a gypsy like existence, wound up here in LA, recruiting drummer Rob Ahlers and convincing Bernard to head west so that they could record in this new formation. When I attended a open rehearsal last fall, they set up and told us all that it was "gonna be loud, so grab some earplugs." She wasn't kidding. A recent interview in the LA Weekly quotes her : "I don’t understand why everybody my age isn’t doing it. Everybody should play louder and faster the closer they get to 40.”

The new CD is still Kristin, and she's sounding more aggressive and kick ass than ever. Not in a riot grrrrl sort of way, although a friend commented that it sounded like old school LA punk. I'm not really into punk, and I thought it sounded more metally - but that's not right either. Like Helmet meets Liz Phair? Hmmm... you'll have to hear it. But the lyrics are all there: "I don't feel so sorry and I don't feel so bad" ("Long Painting"), "I didn't use you, but I wish I did" ("Clara Bow") "And you - don't you wanna do nothing? And hey - can you say 'something's missing?'" ("Bug")

Anyway, get the CD if you're intrigued. They are only gonna make so many of them, although the Hersh clan is very much okay with filesharing. They just want you to hear the music. They are not terribly into the music industry, they just happen to play music. And if you're in Hollywood on Tuesday, check 'em out. Bring your earplugs.