Throwing Muses - In a Doghouse

Throwing muses was the first project for two of musics most accomplished female artists, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly. Hersh would guide the band through several line up changes from 1981 to now, form the indie punk band 50 foot wave, whilst also releasing several solo albumns. Donelly would go on to join The Breeders, form the indie band Belly, and then release a number of solo works. Throwing muses would pave the way for many female led rock/punk groups in the late eighties and nineties such as L7, sleater kinney, juliana hatfield trio and liz phair. This is their first 'official release' a 1985 self distributed cassette of early recordings ( later released as part of a compilation ) and it packs a serious punch. It is raw, it is rough,it is angry, it is in parts brilliant and in others scary. The most amazing thing about this album is the number of current artists that can be heard in the repetitive single chord strums, the basic reversed arpeggios; the yeah yeah yeah's, interpol, the white stripes, they all owe something to this melding of new wave post-punk meets the ramones, iggy pop and siouxsie sioux. It's a hard album to get through, some of it is just too raw for my liking, sort of like when kate bush goes crazy or when sonic youth start wanking over their guitars. "look how much noise my amp can make!". But this was early experimentation, and the end result is some classic tunes that formed some iconic bands.