Kristin Hersh Week • A guide to Speedbath

immune to broken: a guide to kristin hersh’s speedbath

Constructed piecemeal over the course of a year, Kristin Hersh’s new album Speedbath is a highly varied, fascinating collection of songs that, thanks to her CASH Music venture, has provided her fans with unprecedented insight into her creative process. The full album – or, rather, a version of it – has been available to download for free since December and Wears The Trousers has spent a possibly unhealthy amount of time cosying up to it, coaxing it to reveal ever more secrets. We’re insatiable like that.

Here we take a look at each of the dozen songs in the order in which they appeared between November 2007 and December 2008. As it has been handily pointed out by one of Kristin’s fans, there are over 479 million ways in which these 12 songs could be ordered, taking over 50,000 years to play all combinations, so you can forgive Kristin for taking her time in deciding on a final tracklist. Oh, and she’s re-recorded them all anyway. With the final album going to the presses at the end of this month, and a commercial release pencilled in for June, quite what form the final Speedbath will take remains a delicious mystery. We can hardly wait.

[Flower photos by L Fletcher]

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Slippershell (5:05)

Easing in with acoustic guitar and vocals, the calm before the storm lasts a mere 50 seconds. Clanging bells sound their warning, eventually giving way to thumping, bouncing, grooving, percussive drums as ‘Slippershell’ morphs into savagery, all barbed-wire guitar and Kristin’s rasping voice. “You’re a slippershell and you can go to hell” – a brilliant start.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

Torque (3:18)

Recorded during a 50 Foot Wave studio session, ‘Torque’ has a landscape feel to it with repetitive guitar, distant tom toms and Victor Lawrence’s dark, melancholy cello. Kristin describes Mudrock’s production as “anthemic without pretence,” which you just can’t disagree with. Fittingly for a song written after the band’s tour bus broke down leaving them stranded in Idaho for days on end, ‘Torque’ sounds expectant. It’s like the soundtrack to a long, gruelling trek across an open landscape, exposed and battered, head down into the wind. Yet the clichéd, reaching the crest of the hill moment you wait for, thankfully never comes. It just leaves you wondering.

Written by Kristin Hersh. Performed by Kristin Hersh, Mudrock and Victor Lawrence.  
Produced and mixed by Mudrock. Recorded by Mudrock and Ai Fujisaki at The Hobby Shop, Highland Park, CA.

 

Around Dusk (5:02)

‘Around Dusk’ is a gentle, delicate song: beautifully atmospheric, haunting and sad, with Kristin’s vocals less gravel-like than on other Speedbath tracks. Way back in the mix, soft melodic backing vocals layer sweetly over and under the lead voice, like a protective blanket. ”Throw your arms around me / wrapping the night in ugly harmony,” Kristin concludes, a knowing lyrical counterpoint to the music. 

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Morning Birds (6:02)

‘Morning Birds’ was written after a night lying awake in the tour bus listening to all the creatures outside in the parking lot. And just as Kristin became restless and agitated, so begins the song. “I couldn’t sleep anyway,” comes her yelping introduction over harsh, relentless electric guitar and pounding drums. Kristin describes the song as a cacophony, evoking childhood memories of the dawn chorus in Georgia. As this memory takes over, the song winds down to a calm, the instruments being stripped out one by one until only sweet guitar and gentle vocals remain.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Speedbath (4:50)

Named after a comic created by her young son Wyatt, Kristin says the song is as wacky as he is. Describing the song as a mixture of ‘yay!’ and ‘fuck you!’, she says it’s exhilarating to play. And it’s equally as exhilarating to listen to. Guitar parts and drum patterns collide and, in classic Hersh fashion, pace changes are liberally thrown in for good measure. Best lyric: “in a well-lit Mexican restaurant / I order badly, so we make out / tequila in our hands / we will never breathe again.”

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Krait (5:34)

‘Krait’ balloons out of its simple intro to achieve a big, big sound. Rich piano, heavy strings and powerful, passionate vocals are expertly installed, Kristin elongating her words into cries over acoustic strumming that doesn’t pause for breath. And it’s just as huge lyrically: Biblical, Garden of Eden, humanist, “crawling milk-fed squawking cream-filled hominids” (!). The last minute takes the song into a disorientating sonic blur, peaking before it fades away.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Static (4:21)

Opening with a dark, heavy bassline, ‘Static’ quickly builds as electric guitar takes up the same line. Kristin says the song sounds as though it was recorded live with plenty of space in the mix, and, of course, she’s right. Like a Muses song of old it shifts tempo twice, drums kicking in halfway before the vocals split left and right; Kristin calls in one ear and answers in the other as four chords effortlessly climb up the fretboard, over and over again.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Moan (4:58)

Starting slowly, ‘Moan’ evokes late night; stalking; inebriation; brooding. Kristin’s mournful cry of “In the deep cold you can’t be brave / in the deep cold you can’t be safe”. After two minutes, lighter, prettier acoustic guitar joins the mix, but the pensive mood remains. A wonderful electric guitar solo reminiscent of Neil Young in his prime presents a somewhat new sound for Kristin, and coupled with a line of poignant brilliance – “Let’s drink to each other / and drink each other half to death” – this is future-vintage stuff.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Elizabeth June (3:04)

Written for Kristin’s friend Betty Hutton, the actress who died in 2007 and brought so vividly to life in Kristin’s forthcoming book. Recorded with Ethan Allen, who produced the first two 50FootWave records, Throwing Muses’ Limbo and Kristin’s solo Sky Motel, ‘Elizabeth June’ is a relatively simple song, just vocal and guitar; the bass notes achieved by dropping one of the acoustics an octave. Kristin states that somewhere a B flat crept into the song, yet there is no such note in any of the chords she plays, and she feels that’s Betty singing along. Touchingly, Kristin sings directly to her subject (“You were right / it’s okay to be scared”), and it all adds up to a beautiful song, very melancholy and truly dreamlike at times, its hypnotic guitars reminiscent of the likes of Vini Reilly.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Ethan Allen at Royal Triton, Los Angeles, CA.

 

Mississippi Kite (4:49)

‘Mississippi Kite’ is a sad song with a happy feel. Kristin adds real vibrancy with some warbling Hammond organ as the rhythm section, like the lyrics, rolls on relentlessly, almost like a rap. Kristin describes her words as “hot and bothered…but also woozy,” and they’re certainly the type to snag the ear. “You told me enough times you can’t give me enough rope / to hang myself one time, but I can always hope / you come down on me so hard that I choke and go,” she growls as intermittently crashing cymbals add a sense of perverse humour.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Fortune (4:17)

When ‘Fortune’ was posted on the CASH Music site last September, Kristin stated it was her favourite Speedbath song to date. Unusually for Kristin, it’s a traditional verse-chorus-verse song and has lovely guitar and melody across both, with moments of early Muses or Liz Phair in the lead bass. The song’s final minute plays up its spaced-out feel with a reverb-soaked instrumental, or, as Kristin puts it, “Fortune says it’s piece and then wanders out of the room, lost in a zone.” A real grower.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

 

Rubidoux (3:41)

Despite being posted in December and featuring something of a sleigh jog at the back throughout, ‘Rubidoux’ is about as far from a Christmas song as you will ever get. With a bottom line constructed out of very simple looped guitar, bells and vocals, it’s Kristin’s lead guitar that really adds colour to the song (she describes it as “dark and blue and sweet”. Again, there are shades of Neil Young here. Whether it turns out to be Speedbath’s coda, ‘Rubidoux’ has that final-track feel to it; just as you are getting into the loop, the song ends. Abruptly.

Written, performed and produced by Kristin Hersh.
Recorded and mixed by Steve Rizzo at Stable Sound Studio, Portsmouth, RI.

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Download the whole album for free at CASH Music. Donations can be made at your discretion. CASH also offers ‘Strange Angel’ subscriptions to those who wish to financially support Kristin ($30/quarter) and get lots of exclusive goodies and a free copy of the final Speedbath (as well as, we hear, any future 50 Foot Wave or Throwing Muses releases). Find out more about that here.

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Sacha Whitmarsh

Tagged kristin hersh, speedbath