Pitchfork

Kristin Hersh's back catalog stretches for miles, encompassing releases by her bands Throwing Muses and 50FootWave, as well as several solo records. But we're pretty sure that nothing in her discography was ever titled after a piece of spam email...until now.

Tomorrow, January 23, Yep Roc will release Learn to Sing like a Star in the U.S.; 4AD will put it out overseas on January 29. (An EP, In Shock, lands today, January 22 on 4AD. It features the album track "In Shock" as well as three non-album tunes.) According to Hersh, she also has new Throwing Muses and 50FootWave albums in the works, as well as an Appalachian folk project.

So, that title. Hersh explained it in a recent interview with Pitchfork, saying, "It's hard to pretend that there's anything artful about titling a CD. It's an artificial grouping of songs. Even titling a song is sometimes a little fakey if you ask me!

"But this just kept coming up; it just wouldn't shut up...this stupid 'American Idol' thing or whatever the hell it was. I couldn't ever bring myself to click on it, but as soon as it became meaningless-- you know, I'd heard the syllables so many times-- that's when it got pretty to me...I mean, like, stars--it sounds like something out of a Madeleine L'Engle book or something."

In the interview, Hersh also spilled a lot more information about the album, as well as talked about signing to Yep Roc, her upcoming tour, and what's going on with Throwing Muses and 50FootWave.

"Sonically, I always reflect the songs themselves," Hersh said of her writing process for Learn to Sing Like a Star. "I don't go into the studio with any stylistic ideas or opinions that aren't determined by the songs themselves, and this time, I was surprised that the songs needed to sound so big and clean and strident. Usually, I'm attracted to a more fluid timing, to fragility, to messiness--something that sounds small and broken...and this time, these songs would just not stand for that...

"The basics were so dreadfully large and anthemic that I felt like I had to balance that out in the overdubs, and without getting too fucked up and messing with how the songs themselves wanted to sound, I had to go for idiosyncratic, which I did by layering sounds."

This album is Hersh's first album for Yep Roc, a label she was happy to partner with. "I've been frustrated with my [former] U.S. label for sometime," Hersh said. "I'm used to that kind of frustration in the States, and I'm used to doing everything for myself for that reason. But this Yep Roc opportunity came along, and suddenly, I'm not doing it all by myself! Which is lovely.

"Somehow, when all the record companies are folding and having Black Tuesdays and Black Fridays, [Yep Roc] is still gung-ho about music-- even recorded music, of all things! And they know how to do their jobs, and they're very aware of changes in the industry, which I can't say about most labels right now."

Hersh is supporting her new album in the U.S. with a promotional trek that consists entirely of in-store performances. In March, she'll head to Europe for a "real" tour.

She said, "I used to see promotion as a necessary evil that would allow me to keep playing music, but now I just feel lucky that I can talk to people about music...and call that a job. That's just silly. It's not like I always get paid for it, but I'm allowed to say it's my job!"

As for the in-store performances, Hersh added, "I'm honored that [people] bother to, you know, leave work, find a parking spot, skip lunch, or whatever the hell they're doing--it's hard, and they do it anyway."

Learn to Sing like a Star tracklist:

01 In Shock
02 Nerve Endings
03 Day Glo
04 Christian Hearse
05 Ice
06 Under the Gun
07 Piano 1
08 Sugarbaby
09 Peggy Lee
10 Piano 2
11 Vertigo
12 Winter
13 Wild Vanilla
14 The Thin Man

In Shock EP tracklist:

01 In Shock
02 Window Pane
03 Blackstone
04 Poor Wayfaring Stranger

Dates:

01-22 Boston, MA - Newbury Comics (instore performance)
01-26 Philadelphia, PA - Borders (instore performance)
01-30 Atlanta, GA - Criminal Records (instore performance)
02-01 Nashville, TN - Grimey's (instore performance)
02-02 Louisville, KY - Ear-X-Tacy (instore performance)
02-04 Ann Arbor, MI - Borders (instore performance)
02-06 Chicago, IL - Borders State Street (instore performance)
02-08 Minneapolis, MN - Electric Fetus (instore performance)
02-09 Omaha, NE - Homer's (instore performance)
02-11 Denver, CO - Twist & Shout (instore performance)
02-16 Encinitas, CA - Lou's Records (instore performance)
02-18 San Francisco, CA - Amoeba (instore performance)
02-21 Portland, OR - Music Millennium (instore performance)
02-22 Seattle, WA - Easy Street (instore performance)
03-01 Bristol, England - Thekla
03-02 Leicester, England - Y Theatre
03-03 Nottingham, England - Rescue Rooms
03-04 Birmingham, England - Glee Club
03-06 Portsmouth, England - Wedgewood Rooms
03-07 London, England - KOKO
03-09 Sheffield, England - Leadmill
03-10 Manchester, England - Academy 3
03-11 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
03-12 Dublin, Ireland - Temple Bar Music Centre
03-14 Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Melkweg
03-15 Ghent, Belgium - Handelsbeurs
03-16 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
03-18 Madrid, Spain - Moby Dick
03-19 Barcelona, Spain - LA 2
03-21 Milan, Italy - Rainbow Club
03-22 Zurich, Switzerland - Moods
03-24 Stuttgart, Germany - Theaterhaus
03-25 Munich, Germany - Ampere
03-26 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
03-27 Hamburg, Germany - Knust
03-28 Copenhagen, Denmark - Pumpehuset
03-29 Aarhus, Denmark - Vox Hall
03-31 Stockholm, Sweden - TBA
04-01 Oslo, Norway - John Dee

[photo by Dina Douglass]