50FOOTWAVE is an American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band, formed in 2003. The band is fronted by

Kristin Hersh Kristin may refer to: * Kristin (name), a Scandinavian form of Christine * ''Kristin'' (TV series), a 2001 American sitcom * Kristin Peak, Antarctica * Kristin School, a school in New Zealand See also * Kristen (disambiguation) Kristen may re ...

, 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, eac ...

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 originall ...

, 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 amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

-oriented 50FOOTWAVE. The band was designed as a

power trio A power trio is a rock and roll band format having a lineup of electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit (drums and cymbals), leaving out a second rhythm guitar or keyboard instrument that are often used in other rock music bands that are quartet ...

, 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 work ...

. Hersh contributes guitar, lyrics, and vocals to this project. The band's first live performance was recorded in Burbank in October 2003 and released on a very limited basis as an official bootleg. Among other live appearances internationally in 2004, 50FOOTWAVE 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" (after the Hendrix album) by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1980 as an imprint of Beggars Banquet Records. The name was changed to 4AD af ...

. 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 (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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 p ...

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, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

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

and

format and the band reserved some rights though

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

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

– vocals, guitar *

– 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 la ...

)

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

"Power + Light"

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)
"Mommy Is a Punk Rocker."
''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 digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

'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