50 Foot Wave - Biography
One of the original members and chief songwriters of the long-standing post-punk band Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh formed 50 Foot Wave as a plugged-in counterpart to her solo material. Along with fellow Muses’ bandmate Bernard Georges (bass) and frenetic drummer Rob Ahlers, the Los Angeles-based alt-rock power trio performed what Hersh called “ultra-Muses” material—faster, harder-hitting, louder with slashing guitars and dynamic, tumbling drums. It was also a complete 180º from her solo career, a brooding era she’d set off on when the Muses’ went on hiatus in 1996. Despite being a mother (of four children), Hersh vowed to release an EP every nine months under her “math rock” outfit and to perform at least 100 shows per calendar year. Since coming together in 2003, 50 Foot Wave has released one full-length album, three EPs and two live albums, while touring extensively throughout North America and Europe.
Taking their name from the 50 foot sound wave in music terminology for the lowest F tone detectable by the human ear—they also appear as L’~ —the prolific vocalist/guitarist Hersh made the distinction between the college rock pioneers, Throwing Muses, and her acoustic-based solo material right away with a raucous debut performance in Burbank. It was recorded and released as a very-limited bootleg, and purposely found itself in direct contrast to the shy, quiet ethereality of Hersh’s past, save for the attention to detail in the songwriting.
Eschewing the LP model to a more bare bones handful of songs (looking to keep with the essentials and do away with filler), 50 Foot Wave released a self-titled mini on its own independent Throwing Music label in conjunction with 4AD Records in 2004, pressing 5,000 copies. This came on the heels of a successful residency at the hip Silverlake Lounge, which made them a buzzworthy band in the area, and surprised newspapers like LA CityBeat at the time when she “blissfully hollered her way through a thunderous set at The Fold.”
In 2005, 50 Foot Wave surprised again by releasing not an EP as expected, but a full-length album called Golden Ocean (Throwing Music/4AD), which revisited three songs from the previous release, including “Clara Bow” and album’s opener, “Long Painting.” Golden Ocean was forceful enough to shock avid fans of her earlier projects, but also provided delivered 50 Foot Wave on the touring circuit where she feels at home. In support of the album, the band gigged all over the United States and Europe.
A year later, the group released the Free Music! EP (2006, Throwing Music/Reincarnate Records), a bombastic five-song collection that they made available for free on their official website. They duplicated the feat in 2009 with the EP, Power + Light (Cashmusic), a title Hersh and company selected from words written on the side of their tour van. While it is essentially a single 25-minute track that’s broken into seven “movements,” Power + Light was called and EP and offered as a free MP3, and also sold as a limited edition vinyl. One of the highlights was the second track, “Honeysuckle,” where Hersh sings, “I’d rather be fucking than fighting—anyway, they’re the same.” In 2012 the band released With Love From The Men's Room.
It is with such honesty and biting intensity—couple with the historic pretext of being quite the opposite—that 50 Foot Wave has carved out a niche.
