“I know her-UR-er-er!”
That’s pretty depressing. The first Throwing Muses record I owned (and maybe their best) appears to be out of print. Luckily, the MP3 version lives on.
In any case, The Real Ramona is the source of my unquestionably favorite TM song, “Not Too Soon.”
I clearly remember the first time I heard this song — one afternoon (late summer of 1991?) on V89.
I’m sitting there in my office-with-a-door-that-closes, typing away on my SE/30. “Not Too Soon” comes bounding out of the radio (“She…!”), and I’m unconsciously bobbing along.
Then, the little pre-chorus kicks in, and the jungle drums are pounding, and I start spontaneously bouncing up and down in my swivelly office chair.
Then. Then. She sings that dreamy part of the chorus that goes, “Ow wow-wow wow-wow ow ooo-wow ooo-wow ooo-wow…..”
And I totally got a boner. Right there. Sitting in the swivelly office chair in my office-with-a-door-that-closes. Thank God for the office-with-a-door-that-closes.
Yeah. Really good song. Good song, great boner. Great drums and guitar. Great great.
[Obligatory media links…]
Studio Version (1991)
Audio only.
Demo (1984)
This is awesome. Sounds like the Go-Gos covering the Feelies.
Live (1991)
live in Dusseldorf, Spring, ‘91.
Mostly Unrelated Anecdote
INT. OUR KITCHEN - LAST WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
MERLIN enters, carrying ELEANOR, and waving his iPhone around like a winning scratch-off ticket. MADELINE is doing kitchen things
- MERLIN
- Holy shit, you’ll never believe this.
- MADELINE
- Mm?
- MERLIN
- I just heard this song in the car, and I pulled out Shazam because, I’m like, “Is there conceivably a Breeders song I’ve never heard?”
- MADELINE
- Right.
- MERLIN
- And, so I run Shazam…
- MADELINE
- …and it was Metric.
- MERLIN
- WHAT?!? YES!! Totally! How’d you guess that?
- MADELINE
- Because the middle part of that Metric song sounds almost exactly like Tanya Donelly. And the rest of it sounds like three different Breeders songs.
- MERLIN
- YES!! Like, if The Breeders used auto-tune and had expensive shoes. Exactly. Yes. Weird.
[BEAT]
- MADELINE
- So, were you driving with the baby when you got all excited and held your iPhone up to the speaker?
[BEAT]
- MERLIN
- Um. No?
[BEAT]
- MERLIN
- Man, that sure smells good.
So I once saw Throwing Muses open for New Order. O’Connell Center, Gainesville, Florida. Throwing Muses blew the roof of the place, they rocked so hard. Bernard Sumner was blind drunk and forgot the words to some of his songs. Then New Order took a break from itself, which was probably a wise idea.
