a new wave of music

deery-lou.
from the first time i listened to throwing muses "hunkpapa" back in 1989 i was hooked. it was actually the song "dizzy" that made me a fan. over the years i purchased everything prior to "hunkpapa" as well as any new releases the band had. while attending college in athens i got to see the last tour with tonya donnelly and a very pregnant kristin. even at 8 months pregnant kh can rock like no one else i've seen. since then i tried to catch them live whenever i could. they were so amazing live. i managed to catch them in boston, florida, georgia, california, and maryland. every show better than the last. tm had quickly replaced "the smiths" as being my favorite band. and to this day they still hold the title. tm's song affected me in a way none others have. they made me feel alive, feel happy. which is strange to think because if one actually sits down and read the lyrics they aren't all cut and dry. perhaps that says something about myself. but to simply put it, kristin hersh is an amazing song writer. so when the band dissolved around 1996 i was quite sad. what was i going to do? thankfully kristin still had her solo stuff which is just as good as tm stuff. however, i missed the rock feel that tm consumed me with. in 2003 tm came out with their very last album and did a very mini tour. luckily they played in san francisco. of course i went. it was so good to see them live. i continued to check out kristin's solo gigs too. i must admitt she is the sole reason i was such a big tm fan. when i learned that kristin had formed a new band 50foot wave i was very excited. i got to see them play in sf and was blown away by the set. it sound hard and rough. like old tm stuff. i was thrilled. now once again i had the solo kristin [for my mellow side] and the rock kristin [to make me jump and shout] to complete my life. here's to hoping 50foot wave will be around for a while.

which brings me this post. i want to make people aware of 50foot wave and their music. it always surprised me how throwing muses, or even kristin hersh as a solo artist never quite made it big. the shows were always packed and there's a huge fan base. then i realized its mainly because they never sold out. kh, tm and now 50foot wave make music for music. thats so rare to find these days. 50foot wave has just released a new ep called "free music". the band has decided to try something new and basically give their ep away for free in hopes that people will share the music with others. for this and many other reasons is why i love kh and her music so much. i highly recommend any music fans to give this ep a listen. it's definitley worth it. below is the information from their site:




Official Press Release, 15 December 2005:

50FOOTWAVE is proud to announce "Free Music!" -- a 5 song Ep of new studio recordings to be given away via the band's website www.50footwave.com/freemusic or www.throwingmusic.com/freemusic as well as several partner sites including Archive.org and the sometimes controversial BitTorrent tracker DimeADozen.org.

The band will be offering FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) files as well as hi-resolution mp3 files. The band is also encouraging fans to seed BitTorrents and set up CD burning trees to ensure that people without time or technology may also receive the free music.

The tracks will include Creative Commons "Some Rights Reserved" licenses (for more info on Creative Commons, see www.creativecommons.org)

The band states its goal as simply to circumvent the 'money cycle' and get high quality (free) recordings into the hands of a maximum number of people for evaluation at their leisure.



The band's manager, Billy O'Connell, says, "The capacity for reaching new ears with unknown music has become so diminished that we felt we had to try a new approach. It has become prohibitively expensive to reach people via traditional marketing means (radio, press, retail promotion) - lately, CD distribution costs and even touring costs have gone through the roof.

"This project is simply attempting to tap the power of the network -- we're asking individuals for their enthusiasm rather than their money. It's an experiment we're eager to see play out."

The band's founder, Kristin Hersh, explains, "Money has so polluted the music world that my overwhelming urge right now is to divorce money from recorded music. Over the last 2 years we've been relying on standard 'industry' channels to help us educate listeners about 50 Foot Wave and we've met resistance every step of the way -- caused by little other than money -- and to an extent I've never seen before.

"So we're sending free recordings off into the world to do their work. If people enjoy these songs and are excited by them, we ask that they share them with others. The music business is about fame and huge profits -- egos and greed -- music itself, is not."

© 2005, ThrowingMusic

here's the main link to the site throwingmusic.com. kh even has a blog. love her.
spread the music.

be well...