At first, I was hesitant as to whether or not I wanted to review this cassette without the book that was released with it. Let me jump back in time about a year, as this was released as a CD or digital or whatever in November of last year. My plan was to get the CD/book combo for Christmas or my birthday and yet somehow that never materialized. Here we are a year later and I still don’t have the book, sure, but I also don’t have any regrets about not getting the CD because now I have the cassette, which is how I feel Throwing Muses should be heard.
I love Throwing Muses because they were such an essential part of my musical upbringing, as were their sort of spin off bands like The Breeders and Belly. And it’s funny because it took me some time after the fact to realize that all of these bands were related because back in the 1990’s I never really thought of bands as much about sharing members and just as their own little entities. So to put this all together in the early ’00’s as I did was just like wow… like when I started putting together the pieces of Mother Love Bone, you know?
Throwing Muses will remain one of my biggest influences as a fan of music. I tend to complain about the balance in music between male and female bands as there are all these dudes for me to compare music with when growing up but yet not as many noted women. Even somebody like Veruca Salt doesn’t seem as big as maybe 90% of the male fronted bands I could site as comparisons when looking back, but Throwing Muses is just one of those defining bands.
Words may not ever be able to accurately portray how much Throwing Muses means to me as a band and piece of my childhood but these new songs are just excellent and I’m glad that they found their way to cassette because that’s just always how I will prefer to listen to Throwing Muses. Kristin Hersh will forever remain one of my personal heroes and this music should not be missed on cassette. Expect a book review eventually as well.
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