The last CASH track, “Static”, was light shining through a crack in the door. “Moan” flung the door wide open.
This jazz-miked drum kit, warm bass and overheated tubes guitar sound set the stage for a flood of songs in keeping with this recording technique. I don’t quite understand the process, but it seems as if songs needing a certain treatment wait in the wings until I’m well-versed in that treatment. Then they come crashing into the room, bumping into me and each other…taking up space and demanding attention.
“Moan” brought to life a fistful of Throwing Muses songs. I honestly didn’t think I would ever write another Throwing Muses song. For some reason, I assumed my guitars were only capable of bringing about convenient music. Of course, music is hardly ever convenient. It imagines you have nothing better to do than serve it. It not-so-gently suggests that you refrain from eating and sleeping and paying the rent until you’ve given it everything it asks for.
Which is fair, ’cause it only asks for physicality and sociability. It needs a body (no matter how long it takes, how much it costs and how many people it takes to get that barn up off the ground!) and then it needs to walk out into the world, wearing its new clothes, so that it can start living its new life. It pays us back in dividends by telling us what it learned out there in the ether, before we met it.
And by letting us play. The other Muses are ready to work. Which is maybe a past life re-visited, but it’s also a dream come true. Songs don’t know the word “past”, anyway. Songs are forever now.
Love,
Kristin
Find this song and all my recent work, in multiple formats – including lossless, free for download on my CASH Music pages. Information on how you can support the creation and distribution of this music by becoming a subscriber is here.
Posted in: Kristin Hersh, music, words on June 25, 2008