50 Foot Wave
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50 Foot Wave (often stylized as 50FOOTWAVE) is an American
alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...
band, formed in 2003. The band is fronted by
Kristin Hersh Martha Kristin Hersh (born August 7, 1966) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter known for her solo work and with her rock bands Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave, 50FootWave. She has released eleven solo albums. Her guitar work and comp ...
, who writes the group's songs with collaborative efforts from the other group members in composing and arranging the music. The group's name is a reference to both an illustration and the term for the 50-foot sound wave of the lowest F tone audible to the human ear. The band sometimes abbreviates its name as ''L'~'', using the
Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...
for 50.


History

Kristin Hersh previously spent more than two decades playing with
Throwing Muses Throwing Muses are an American alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, that toured and recorded extensively until 1997, when its members began concentrating more on other projects. The group was original ...
, releasing several solo albums as well. Her solo tours in the late 1990s and early 2000s focused on acoustic guitar playing. In 2003, she launched the more
electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...
-oriented 50FOOTWAVE. The band was designed as a
power trio A power trio is a rock band format having a lineup of electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit, leaving out a dedicated vocalist or an additional rhythm guitar or keyboard instrument that are often used in other rock music bands that are quart ...
, with a lineup including drummer Rob Ahlers and Throwing Muses bassist
Bernard Georges Bernard Georges (born March 29, 1965) is best known for his bass guitar work in Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. Beginning in 1992, he played bass for Throwing Muses on their album releases and in their concert appearances, having previously wor ...
. Hersh contributes guitar, lyrics, and vocals to this project. The band's first live performance was recorded in
Burbank Burbank may refer to: Places Australia * Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane United States * Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County * Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place * Burbank, Illinois, ...
in October 2003 and released on a very limited basis as an official bootleg. Among other live appearances internationally in 2004, 50 Foot Wave performed a month-long residency of shows in January that year at the Silverlake Lounge, while the group was based in the Los Angeles area. The group's self-titled studio mini-album was co-released in March 2004 by the band's ThrowingMusic label and
4AD Records 4AD is a British record label owned by Beggars Group. It was founded in London under the name Axis Records by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD after the release of t ...
. Hersh has described 50FOOTWAVE's music as "having a lot of math in it," while also calling it less emotionally and musically "tangled" than some of her past Throwing Muses work. Others have described some of the new songs as having "confrontational" lyrics. In March 2005, the group released its long-planned, full-length album, ''Golden Ocean'', on ThrowingMusic, in partnership with 4AD. The group toured Europe and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
in 2005, while Hersh simultaneously continued her solo concerts in alternating parts of the year. In December 2005, the band released a new EP called ''Free Music!'' available via free
FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software ...
and
mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
downloads at their website and several download partner sites. The downloads reserved some rights though
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
licenses. In early March 2009, the band released all their previous albums along with a selection of live tracks, an Instrumental EP and the upcoming ''Power+Light'' album for download at their website. As before, the tracks were available in
FLAC FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software ...
and
mp3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany under the lead of Karlheinz Brandenburg. It was designed to greatly reduce the amount ...
format and the band reserved some rights though
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
licenses. In early 2010, the band announced that its new EP would be titled "With Love from the Men's Room". The 5-track disc was recorded in Highland Park, CA, and it was released in January, 2012. Once again, the band released the music with
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
licensing, and the liner notes encourage fans to "SHARE THIS MUSIC -- You are encouraged to repost, podcast, make videos, record covers, burn copies for friends, burn copies for enemies, USE it. Anything, everything is ok with us. What matters most to us is that people hear, connect with, and pass on this band's music".


Personnel

*
Kristin Hersh Martha Kristin Hersh (born August 7, 1966) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter known for her solo work and with her rock bands Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave, 50FootWave. She has released eleven solo albums. Her guitar work and comp ...
– vocals, guitar *
Bernard Georges Bernard Georges (born March 29, 1965) is best known for his bass guitar work in Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. Beginning in 1992, he played bass for Throwing Muses on their album releases and in their concert appearances, having previously wor ...
– bass *Rob Ahlers – drums


Discography

* '' 50FOOTWAVE'' (2004, ThrowingMusic/4AD) * '' Golden Ocean'' (2005, ThrowingMusic/4AD) * '' Free Music!'' (2005, ThrowingMusic) * '' Power + Light'' (2009, ThrowingMusic) * '' With Love From The Men's Room'' (2012, ThrowingMusic) * ''Bath White'' (2016, ThrowingMusic) * ''Black Pearl'' (2022,
Fire Records Fire Records was an American independent record label, set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson. Amongst others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Buster Brown and Arthur Crudup. At one point it was thought Fire had issued the l ...
)


Song samples


"Sally Is a Girl," ''from Golden Ocean album''
mp3 link via permission from toolshed.biz)
"Bone China," ''from Golden Ocean album''
mp3 link via permission from toolshed.biz)
ThrowingMusic label videos and MP3s
*
Yahoo Music Videos
three band videos)


References

* Baehr, Mike (2004)

''Indie Rock Photo Gallery''. Retrieved December 22, 2004. * Goldberg, Michael Alan (January 12, 2005)

''SF Weekly''. Retrieved December 22, 2015. * Haas, Marcel (2005)
"Discography."
''Glory Weed — All About 50 Foot Wave''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Haas, Marcel (2005)
"Tour Dates: 2005."
''Glory Weed — All About 50 Foot Wave''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Horning, Rob (April 14, 2004)
"50 Foot Wave."
''Pop Matters''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Lewis, Judith (March 12, 2004)
"Faster, Harder, Louder."
''LA Weekly''. Retrieved December 22, 2015. * McGrath, Kathryn (May 27, 2004)
"Riding the Wave."
''Spin''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Nichols, Natalie (January 29, 2004). ''Los Angeles City Beat''. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
"Official Press Release".
(December 2005). ''Throwingmusic.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2005. * Pareles, Jon (April 4, 2004). "Playlist." ''The New York Times'', sec. 2, p. 31. * Parker, Chris (February 2, 2005)

''Creative Loafing Charlotte''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Peters, Sarah (March 2005)
"Music Reviews."
''Lost at Sea''. Retrieved January 20, 2005. * Treacy, Christopher John (March 3, 2005)
"Music: CD Reviews: 50 Foot Wave."
''The Orlando Weekly''. Retrieved December 22, 2015.


External links


Official 50FOOTWAVE website — message board, news, free downloads, artist blog

4AD artist site

50FOOTWAVE collection
at the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
's live music archive
50 Foot Wave at Fire Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:50FOOTWAVE American alternative rock groups 4AD artists Musical groups established in 2003 Creative Commons-licensed authors Fire Records (UK) artists