Jammerzine Exclusive: An Interview + New Tour Information with Kristin Hersh

Talking with Kristin Hersh is always a pleasure. She is not only a consummate musician and singer/songwriter, but she is also simply such a pleasure to talk with. she has such knowledge about everything but also the humbleness as to have a keen penchant to listen. That is the mark of someone truly creative. And now I am pleased to announce that she is going on the road this summer with fellow music veterans Fred Abong (Throwing Muses) and Rob Ahlers (50FOOTWAVE) in what this interview describes more like a family reunion on the road in a series of parties with fans/friends with the amps cranked and the music loud.

In this interview, I get to hear about the details of the tour as well as the latest in the music of everything Kristin is up to as well as more insight from such a vivid intellect.

About the ‘Live and Loud’ Tour with Dates
Indie music heroine and celebrated 4AD Records veteran Kristin Hersh announces June tour dates in support of her new highly acclaimed album ‘Possible Dust Clouds’, out now digitally, on vinyl and CD via Fire Records. Playing as a hard-hitting electric trio, along with Fred Abong (Throwing Muses) and Rob Ahlers (50FOOTWAVE), these shows are loud, tight and intense, featuring material off this album and from across Hersh’s 30-year career.

Kristin Hersh is most recognized as frontperson for the influential art-punk band Throwing Muses and power trio 50FOOTWAVE. Throwing Muses gained traction in the early ‘80s, playing with bands like The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. Kristin’s solo career spun off in 1994 with the widely acclaimed ‘Hips and Makers’, featuring ‘Your Ghost’, a duet with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. Kristin has since released a steady stream of distinct solo albums with 2010’s ‘Crooked’ the first release in the inventive book/CD format she is now known for.

In addition to a series of frighteningly intense mini-albums via 50FOOTWAVE, Kristin’s writing career has also flourished with the highly acclaimed ‘Rat Girl’ (titled ‘Paradoxical Undressing’ in the UK) and the award-winning ‘Don’t Suck, Don’t Die’, a personal account of her long friendship with the late Vic Chesnutt.

Hersh is also pleased to announce that Throwing Muses will be performing at the Pasadena Daydream Festival on August 31, curated by Robert Smith, along with The Cure, Pixies, Deftones, Mogwai, The Joy Formidable, Twilight Sad, Chelsea Wolfe, Kaelan Mikla and Emma Ruth Rundle.

Kristin Hersh’s astounding career has crowned her queen of the alternative release. Her tenth studio album ‘Possible Dust Clouds’ is a highly personalized sociopathic gem delivered as a futuristic rewriting of how music works – a melodious breeze with a tailwind of venomous din.

A turbulent cracker with riot grrl swagger, this album is Hersh’s first new material since 2016, when she released her critically-acclaimed double album-book combo ‘Wyatt at the Coyote Palace’. In contrast to that LP, which saw Hersh record over several years, playing all the instruments on these songs over many years, this album involves numerous friends.

Enveloping the juxtaposition of the concept ‘dark sunshine’, she created this brooding solo, expanding her off-kilter sonic vision. Produced by Hersh herself, this album was mixed and mastered by Steve Rizzo with contributions by Fred Abong on bass, Chris Brady (Pond) on vocals and bass, and drums by Throwing Muses’ David Narcizo, Rob Ahlers and Kristin’s son, Wyatt True. The result is a squally and heady mix of discordant beauty.

“When I heard the record back after leaving the atmosphere of the studio, it was like stepping back from a painting. It just sounded like this chaotic party. You want the chaos, you want the violence, the sweetness lends itself to a fun explosion. And that’s what “Possible Dust Clouds” sounds like,” says Kristin Hersh.

Feedback and phasing gyrate from simply strummed normality. Imagine Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine cranking up a Dylan couplet. ‘Possible Dust Clouds’ is a glorious return to form for one of alternative rock’s true innovators.

Touring allows listeners the chance to experience what the BBC calls Hersh’s “dark and dizzy world”. For this tour, Fred Abong also opens the show with an acoustic solo set in support of his own recently-released ‘Pulsing’ EP. His music is alternately described as “ragged Replacements” and “Elliott Smith with balls”.

Hersh admits, “My new favorite incarnation is the super-group I’m playing in now, with Fred Abong from the Muses and Rob Ahlers from 50FOOTWAVE. We’re touring ‘Possible Dust Clouds’ because they both played on it, but I had no idea it would be this incredible. We’re all terrified that this tour will end someday. Which it will.”

‘Possible Dust Clouds’ is available now online everywhere and on vinyl via Fire Records, who also re-released her seminal album ‘Crooked’ on snazzy orange vinyl on Record Store Day 2019. Hersh kicks off her new tour on June 19 in Northampton, MA at The Iron Horse. Ticket info and sales links for all shows can be found HERE.

[table caption=”LIVE AND LOUD TOUR DATES (2019)” width=”100%” colwidth=”100|100|50|200|200″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Date,City,State,Venue,Notes
June 19,Northampton, MA,The Iron Horse,
June 20,Somerville, MA,Once Ballroom,
June 21,Hamden, CT,Space Ballroom,
June 22,New York, NY,Mercury Lounge,
June 23,Washington, DC,Union Stage,
June 24,Philadelphia, PA,Boot & Saddle,
June 26,Carrboro, NC,Cat’s Cradle,
June 27,Atlanta, GA,Terminal West,
June 28,Athens, GA,40 Watt Club,
June 30,Charlotte, NC,Neighborhood Theatre,
Aug 31,Pasadena, CA,Pasadena Daydream Festival,as Throwing Muses
[/table]

LINKS:
http://www.kristinhersh.com
http://www.facebook.com/strangeangels
http://50footwave.cashmusic.org
http://twitter.com/kristinhersh
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTdtvPp4IiPDDZqX-4No5Uw/playlists
http://soundcloud.com/kristinhersh-official
http://kristinhersh.bandcamp.com