From: u882517@bruny.cc.utas.edu.au (Blos!)
Newsgroups: alt.music.alternative
Subject: Re: Throwing Muses
Date: 1 Oct 92 00:53:30 GMT
Organization: University of Tasmania, Australia.

kzimmerman@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
>I'll third all of this. I too love the first two albums and eps (Throwing
>Muses, House Tornado--Chains Changed, Fat Skier) and I just want to say, if all
>you've heard of them is "Not Too Soon" then YOU ARE MISSING MUCH. Definitely
>hunt down and kill for all the above. They are magical.

Yes, indeed, they are.  _House Tornado_ is nearly the best record ever made.

>BTW, fans may be interested in knowing that I talked to 4AD this summer and
>they said that through the Reprise licensing deal _Throwing Muses_ is finally
>going to be released domestically with _Chains Changed_ tacked on, which is
>good since the latter is out of print and not available on CD anyway...

Nice to hear, but I already have a CD copy of _Chains Changed_, on a Japanese
CD called _12 Inch Anthology 87_ which is a CD of all the 4AD EPs released
in 1987, apart from Xymox's _Blind Hearts_.  Seek it out if you like 4AD...
it has the Wolfgang Press, A.R. Kane, Frazier Chorus, etc...

>And another thing... did anyone else purchase the import of _Red Heaven_ (Best
>album since _House Tornado_ I think... blows away the deplorable _Hunkpapa_)

No, no, NO!  _Hunkpapa_ is GREAT...think of "Mania" and "Angel" before you
condemn it.  _The Real Ramona_ was the biggest disappointment, and even that
was great in places.  I think of _Red Heaven_ as Kristin's solo album (sorry
David and Leslie) and I do love it...it's pretty searing and scary in places.

>with the extra CD of Kristen Hersh live? I ask because I find that the whole
>recording seems to have been pitched down flat and sounds rather strange... has
>anyone else noticed this? Or do I have a defective copy?

Unfortunately, I think it's just the difficulties Kristin has in controlling
such a distinctive and powerful voice...when I reviewed it, I said something
like "she has a voice that slides around notes, and when she recovers it 
sounds amazing, but when she doesn't it can be hard to listen to."

Not surprisingly, I still agree with myself.  I think it's a great live record
because it's rough, honest and sounds like she does.  By the way, her guitar
is out of tune (I think it's the D string flat) so that accounts for the
flat quality.  It gives the songs an edge, which I far prefer to bland
duplications of the studio versions.  I love "Rabbit's Dying" and "Delicate
Cutters", and the others I just think of as flawed brilliance, genius with
the layers stripped bare.  That has to be worth the cost of the disc.

I've never really thought of Throwing Muses records being *made* before...
I thought they were sort of grown or something...the songs are that good
that I just can't imagine anyone sitting down and thinking "Well, I think
I'll call this one 'Run Letter'."  It was a really strange experience listening
to this one woman sing songs that she'd made, when those just happen to be
some of the best I know.  (Sorry if this sounds like the gushing of an
uncritical fan, but Throwing Muses are the only band I know that I wouldn't
DARE criticize...including my other gods, My Bloody Valentine.)

(The transformations of "Counting Backwards" and "Cry Baby Cry" were amazingly
good, I thought.)

Glad someone else liked it...I'm getting a little tired of the "first album is
the only worthwhile one" snobbery, because I happen to think that talent like
Kristin's (and Tanya's for that matter) is good for more than just ten songs.

				Bye,

					Matthew (a guy who pissed off all
						his flatmates by playing the
						Muses and nothing else for
						a week once.)