Kristin Hersh spent more than a decade previously playing with Throwing Muses, 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-oriented 50 Foot Wave.
The band was designed as a power trio, with a lineup including former Chalk FarM drummer Rob Ahlers and Throwing Muses bassist Bernard Georges. 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, 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.
Hersh has described 50 Foot Wave'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 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 and mp3 downloads at their website and several download partner sites. The downloads reserved some rights though Creative Commons licenses.
In December 2008, the band released their new EP Power + Light as a stream. 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 and mp3 format and the band reserved some rights though Creative Commons licenses.
Glory Weed
50 Foot Wave Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A thousand screamers find their voice and start to scream
We already blew the glory weed
Your well-done fury don't deserve to pull me down
That facile magic show can't burn away my ground
We already turned the game around
And I'm in a fog like a stupid dog
And who do you think should tell the story
Under the bed tonight?
And who did you think that shrinking violet
Would turn out to be?
Your mama lion mouth and mata mata soul
That scary face you're making at your holy Joe
You already brought the battle home
And who do you think should tell the story
Under the bed tonight?
And who did you think that shrinking violet
Would turn out to be?
Traveling souls like us, the wicked, the carnies
We all eat up this swill these fucked bedtime stories
You already brought me to my knees
And I'm cheap and here like a souvenir
The lyrics to 50 Foot Wave's song Glory Weed are cryptic and open to interpretation. The overall tone seems to be one of defiance to a person who has tried to bring the singer down but has failed. The opening lines suggest that the singer's departure has caused chaos, as though the person left behind has lost control. The repeated line, "we already blew the glory weed," could mean that the singer has already lost the thing that the other person was after, leaving them with nothing.
The next verse seems to be a direct response to the person who has been trying to bring the singer down. The line, "your well-done fury don't deserve to pull me down," implies that the person's anger is not justified, and that they have no right to try and bring the singer down. The singer asserts that they cannot be burned, and that they have already "turned the game around," again suggesting that the other person has failed to achieve their goals.
The chorus repeats the same questions twice, asking who will tell the story and who the "shrinking violet" will turn out to be. It could be interpreted that the singer is questioning whether the person who tried to bring them down will be able to control the narrative, or if the singer will be able to subvert their expectations and come out on top.
Overall, the lyrics to Glory Weed are highly metaphorical and subject to interpretation. The song appears to be about defying expectations and rising above those who would try to bring someone down.
Line by Line Meaning
A thousand voices start their screaming when you leave
Leaving causes a multitude of people to feel distressed and make noise expressing their emotions
We already blew the glory weed
The singer has already moved on from past mistakes and nostalgia
Your well-done fury don't deserve to pull me down
The person getting angry does not have the right to bring the singer down
That facile magic show can't burn away my ground
Trivial attempts to hurt the artist will not succeed in destroying their foundation
We already turned the game around
The situation has already been altered in the artist's favor
And I'm in a fog like a stupid dog
The singer is disoriented and unaware, like a foolish animal
And who do you think should tell the story
Under the bed tonight?
Who should be held accountable for what goes on behind closed doors?
And who did you think that shrinking violet
Would turn out to be?
Who would have predicted that the shy and timid person would become someone assertive?
Your mama lion mouth and mata mata soul
The person is fiercely protective with their words, but at the same time is elusive
That scary face you're making at your holy Joe
The expression the person makes toward their religious beliefs is intimidating
You already brought the battle home
The other person has already brought conflict to the singer's personal space
Traveling souls like us, the wicked, the carnies
Both the artist and the other person are outcasts, living on the fringes of society
We all eat up this swill these fucked bedtime stories
Both the singer and the other person have a tendency to believe false or twisted stories
You already brought me to my knees
The other person has already weakened the singer's resolve
And I'm cheap and here like a souvenir
The singer feels used and discarded like an object
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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