November 22, 2024

Skylight Webzine

Online since 2000

Kristin Hersh announces U.S. tour dates for ‘Possible Dust Clouds’ LP

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 Musesand 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, along with The Cure, Pixies, Deftones, Mogwai, The Joy Formidable, Twilight Sad, Chelsea Wolfe, Kaelan Mikla and Emma Ruth Rundle. Tickets will go on sale on Friday May 17 at 12pm noon Pacific time.

Kristin Hersh’s astounding career has seen her heralded 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. It’s a melodious breeze with a tail wind 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, mixed and mastered by Steve Rizzo, this album brings 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. Yeah, it’s an act of God,” 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”.

When asked about what music project she enjoys the most, Hersh says “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 at www.kristinhersh.com/appearances.

TRACK LIST
1.  LAX
2.  No Shade In Shadow
3.  Half Way Home
4.  Fox Point
5.  Lethe
6.  Loud Mouth
7.  Gin
8.  Tulum
9.  Breathe In
10. Lady Godiva

‘LIVE AND LOUD’ TOUR DATES
June 19  Northampton, MA – The Iron Horse
June 20  Somerville, MA – Once Ballroom  
June 21  Hamden, CT – S pace 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
Aug 31 Pasadena, CA – Pasadena Daydream Festival (as Throwing Muses)

Keep up with Kristin Hersh
Website

Keep up with Fred Abong
Website