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50 Foot Wave50 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.1 The band sometimes abbreviates its name as L'~, using the Roman numeral for 50. 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 late summer and early fall 2003, longing for a return to playing electric guitar-oriented, hard rock songs before a live audience, she launched the 50 Foot Wave project. While the spring 2003 Throwing Muses reunion tour and self-titled album had portended a raw and powerful new direction for her work, 50 Foot Wave moved ahead into an even more frenetic, punk-influenced rock style with a more direct lyrical approach, pounding rhythms, and sometimes quirky song structures. The band was designed as a hard-hitting power trio, with a lineup including drummer Rob Ahlers and Throwing Muses bassist Bernard Georges. Hersh contributes energetic guitarwork and a frantic, 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 in 2004. 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, containing six songs, was co-released in March 2004 by the band's Throwing Music 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.2 Others have described some of the new songs as having "confrontational" lyrics.3 Hersh describes the music as being "just about release" -- "fun" music that has what the band calls a "blitzkrieg" rhythmic attack as opposed to the complexity and fragility expressed in her Throwing Muses project.4 The band drew undesired attention in early 2005 because of the December 2004 earthquake and tsunami that caused widespread destruction around the Indian Ocean. The group had been in the process of sending out promotional copies in advance of the release of a new album release at the time the earthquake struck Southeast Asia. The band name and album name had no connection with the tsunami disaster other than unfortunate timing.5 The band opened for punk legends X in San Francisco in January 2005.6 Although initially a California-based group, the band in early 2005 mentioned possible moves to other parts of the country, as Hersh is known for moving from one city to another for a change of scenery every so often.7 In March 2005, the group released its long-planned, full-length album, Golden Ocean, on its own Throwing Music label 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."8 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."9 The group has announced plans to tour across Europe and the United States throughout 2005 in support of the full-length album release, while Hersh simultaneously continues her solo concerts in alternating parts of the year. Hersh has also stated that having her thunderous 50 Foot Wave material as a "foil" allows her to get her noise-loving side out of her system, with the result that her solo material sounds less like material for a band and more an atmospheric work reflecting "fluid timing and spaciousness." Consequently, she has predicted the next solo acoustic album she releases could be very quiet in comparison to an evocative pop solo effort like Sky Motel, released during a stint in which she wasn't working in a band after Throwing Muses' 1996 Limbo album.10 Personnel - Kristin Hersh - vocals, guitar
- Bernard Georges - bass
- Rob Ahlers - drums
Discography - Live in Burbank (2004, Throwing Music, very limited: only ten copies were made)
- 50 Foot Wave (2004, Throwing Music/4AD)
- Live In Seattle (2004, Throwing Music, available only via official website)
- Golden Ocean (2005, Throwing Music/4AD)
Notes - Note 1: Nichols, Natalie (January 29, 2004). Mommy Is a Punk Rocker. Los Angeles City Beat, 8.
- Note 2: McGrath, Kathryn (May 27, 2004). Riding the Wave. Spin, 4.
- Note 3: Pareles, Jon (April 4, 2004). Playlist. The New York Times, sec. 2, p. 31.
- Note 4: Associated Press (January 17, 2005). Music Group 50 Foot Wave's Bad Timing. CNN.com Entertainment, 1–4, 6–7.
- Note 4: Parker, Chris (February 2, 2005). Ex-Throwing Muse Hersh and family have act, will travel. Creative Loafing Charlotte, 11.
- Note 6: Haas, Marcel (2005). Glory Weed site 2005 tour dates list.
- Note 7: Benson, John (January 21, 2005). Season of Change. The Plain Dealer, 2–3.
- Note 8: Peters, Sarah (March 2005). Music Reviews. Lost at Sea, 2, 4, 8.
- Note 9: Treacy, Christopher John (March 3, 2005). Music: CD Reviews: 50 Foot Wave The Orlando Weekly, 1–3.
- Note 10: Parker, 11, 17.
References - Baehr, Mike (2004). Indie Rock Photo Gallery (50 Foot Wave photos live in Seattle). Retrieved Dec. 22, 2004.
- Goldberg, Michael Alan (January 12, 2005). See More Hersh. SF Weekly. Retrieved Jan. 20, 2005.
- Haas, Marcel (2005). Glory Weed — All About 50 Foot Wave (discography section). 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.
Song samples External links
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