50 Foot Wave: Download Everything (2009) June 22, 2009

50 Foot Wave: 50 Foot Wave EP

Kristin Hersh first appeared on the music scene as the leader of Throwing Muses, one of the first two American bands to be signed to the British 4AD label some twenty years or more ago (the other was the Pixies). She also started a series of solo albums many years back. And more recently, she started another group, 50 Foot Wave.

And now she’s making a lot of 50 Foot Wave stuff available for free right here.

I got some of it when it first appeared and wasn’t sold on it. Throwing Muses had a distinctive sound, and some of Hersh’s solo stuff was amazingly beautiful, but this just sounded like a tossed off bang and thrash exercise. But hey, free stuff, including a lot I didn’t already have. So I’m listening to it again and having a very different reaction. (Playing it really loud helps.) Yes, it rocks a lot harder than a lot of Hersh’s early stuff, but it does so well, and Hersh’s unique voice is still very much in the mix. Makes me want to go back and listen to some of the later Muses and solo stuff I didn’t listen to as much as the earlier albums, to see what I may have missed there.

What you get in the free package:

• 50 Foot Wave EP (6 songs)
• Golden Ocean (8 songs)
• Free Music EP (5 songs)
• Power & Light EP (1 song, but it’s 25 minutes long)
• Instrumental EP (10 songs)
• Live Tracks (10 songs)
• Other Stuff (2 songs)

I’m going to go dig up my copies of In the Doghouse (reissue of the first album and a whole lot of other stuff) and Hips and Makers (Hersh’s first solo albums) RSN. And the other stuff before long, too.