50 Foot Wave
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Photo: Steve Gullick
50 Foot Wave is an American alternative rock band, formed in 2003. The band is fronted by Kristin Hersh, who writes the group's songs with collaborative efforts from the other group members in composing and arranging the music. The group's name is a reference to both an illustration and the term for the 50-foot sound wave of the lowest F tone audible to the human ear. The band sometimes abbreviates its name as L'~, using the Roman numeral for 50.
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[edit] History
Kristin Hersh spent more than a decade previously playing with Throwing Muses, releasing several solo albums as well. Her solo tours in the late 1990s and early 2000s focused on acoustic guitar playing. In 2003, she launched the more visceral, electric guitar-oriented 50 Foot Wave.
The band was designed as a power trio, with a lineup including drummer Rob Ahlers and Throwing Muses bassist Bernard Georges. Hersh contributes guitar and a manic lyrical and vocal style to this project. The band's first live performance was recorded in Burbank in October 2003 and released on a very limited basis as an official bootleg. Among other live appearances internationally in 2004, 50 Foot Wave performed a month-long residency of shows in January that year at the Silverlake Lounge, while the group was based in the Los Angeles area. The group's self-titled studio mini-album was co-released in March 2004 by the band's ThrowingMusic label and 4AD Records.
Hersh has described 50 Foot Wave's music as "having a lot of math in it," while also calling it less emotionally and musically "tangled" than some of her past Throwing Muses work. Others have described some of the new songs as having "confrontational" lyrics.
Photo: Mike Baehr
In March 2005, the group released its long-planned, full-length album, Golden Ocean, on ThrowingMusic, in partnership with 4AD. One writer described the new album's style as "metal" and "visceral trash rock," comparing the title track to a surreal painting, "brimming with irony."[citation needed] Another journalist, characterizing Hersh's new vocal sound as an "abrasive, parched, and husky growl," called the songs "emotionally and musically torrential" while describing a few of Hersh's longtime songwriting themes continued in the band as "thick metaphors about dysfunction, anger and confusion."[citation needed]
The group toured Europe and the United States in 2005, while Hersh simultaneously continued her solo concerts in alternating parts of the year.
In December 2005, the band released a new EP called Free Music! available via free FLAC and mp3 downloads at their website and several download partner sites, instead of released through retail distribution of physical compact discs. The downloads reserved some rights though Creative Commons licenses. In the press release on their website, Hersh explained the free download distribution concept as stemming from an urge "to divorce money from recorded music" after she had encountered resistance "caused by little other than money" in getting information out about the band through "standard 'industry' channels".
[edit] Personnel
- Kristin Hersh - vocals, guitar
- Bernard Georges - bass
- Rob Ahlers - drums
[edit] Discography
- Live in Burbank (2004, ThrowingMusic, only ten copies made)
- 50 Foot Wave (2004, ThrowingMusic/4AD)
- Live In Seattle (2004, ThrowingMusic, available only via band's website)
- Golden Ocean (2005, ThrowingMusic/4AD)
- Free Music! (2005, ThrowingMusic)
[edit] Song samples
- "Sally is a Girl," from Golden Ocean album (mp3 link via permission from toolshed.biz)
- "Bone China," from Golden Ocean album (mp3 link via permission from toolshed.biz)
- ThrowingMusic label videos and MP3s
- Yahoo Music Videos (three band videos)
- 4ad video download link
[edit] References
- Baehr, Mike (2004). "50 Foot Wave at Easy Street Records, Seattle WA, 2/27/04." Indie Rock Photo Gallery. Retrieved Dec. 22, 2004.
- Goldberg, Michael Alan (January 12, 2005). "See More Hersh." SF Weekly. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Haas, Marcel (2005). "Discography." Glory Weed — All About 50 Foot Wave. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Haas, Marcel (2005). "Tour Dates: 2005." Glory Weed — All About 50 Foot Wave. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Horning, Rob (April 14, 2004). "50 Foot Wave." Pop Matters. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Lewis, Judith (March 12, 2004). "Faster, Harder, Louder." LA Weekly. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- McGrath, Kathryn (May 27, 2004). "Riding the Wave." Spin. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Nichols, Natalie (January 29, 2004). "Mommy Is a Punk Rocker." Los Angeles City Beat. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- "Official Press Release". (December 2005). Throwingmusic.com. Retrieved Dec. 15, 2005.
- Pareles, Jon (April 4, 2004). "Playlist." The New York Times, sec. 2, p. 31.
- Parker, Chris (February 2, 2005). "Ex-Throwing Muse Hersh and family have act, will travel." Creative Loafing Charlotte. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Peters, Sarah (March 2005). "Music Reviews." Lost at Sea. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Treacy, Christopher John (March 3, 2005). "Music: CD Reviews: 50 Foot Wave." The Orlando Weekly. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
