the real ramona

The Throwing Muses provided a sharp and seductive snapshot of a band in transition with this danceably demented alternative rock. Bassist Leslie Langston left the band to live with her fiance in California and was replaced by Fred Abong, who only appeared on this album before leaving with Tanya Donelly to form Belly. Donelly had come to the sessions with seven songs, compared to the usual one or two on previous albums; which increased the tensions in the studio. Recorded at Eldorado Studios and Dust Bowl Studio in Los Angeles, 'The Real Ramona' was produced by Dennis Herring and engineered by John Beverly Jones, and the result is a cleaner, more commercial sound.

Drummer David Narcizo remembers the sessions: “When it was happening it was emotionally raw; but, there was closure before we even finished the record and everyone seemed in a good place. There were parts of the recording that brought their own tension and that’s what I remember. There was abrasiveness with the producer. Kristin may not agree with me, but I think he did a really great job and worked really hard. But, of all our records it had the most treated sound, which – as she has demonstrated over the years – Kristin has never been a fan of. She felt she lost control of the reins on that record.”

Kristin Hersh it was a time of turmoil: “I was busy with a child custody battle I was going through, I was halfway through a root canal that I couldn’t afford to finish and I was in unbearable skull pain. We were living in this horrible apartment block with the worst of Hollywood around us and it was so hard seeing beauty being made ugly that way. It was definitely not what it was supposed to be like. When the band broke up, it was because my sister T wanted to be more involved with the industry and I wanted nothing to do with it. We all loved each other, but Warner Brothers took away my faith in music.”

Donnelly says, "I was pretty confused. I didn't know which end was up; I was in total limbo." After touring with the Pixies on the 'House Tornado' tour, she bonded with Kim Deal and formed the Breeders; however, Sire Records would not let Donnelly be a full-time member in two bands, and so most of the songs on their first album 'Pod' were written by Deal. Feeling overshadowed in both bands, she left to form her own. She told the rest of the Muses she was leaving when recording for 'The Real Ramona' was complete; staying for another year of touring. The album peaked at number twenty-six in the UK.






http://4ad.com/artists/throwingmuses

http://www.kristinhersh.com/

https://tanyadonelly.bandcamp.com/

The explosive rhythms of 'Counting Backwards' start the album. It was the first single, reaching number eleven on the US Modern Rock chart.

"Counting backwards I count you in

I don't remember him

I don't remember

In time I rope you in again

I try and turn you back through him

I built a tower in my bones

I spill the mortar through my home

Don't let your heartbeat beat keep you safe

No telling what keeps me awake

One hundred fingerprints I hear

A hundred linger in my ear

Measure fortune killing time"

Throwing Muses - Counting Backwards by jesus_lizard

'Red Shoes'

"This dance

This war criminal is

This dance is brutal, it

It wants red

So I got red shoes

'Cause red becomes you

I become you"

'Golden Thing' soars.

"Well, you gotta see this

Golden thing

You golden thing

And when you get there better kiss me"

'Ellen West' is about a famous anorexic.

"That last one messed me up

Things look bad

Things look tragic

I keep looking in the mirror

Afraid that I won't be there

Courting Ellen West, dancing on her grave

Saving Ellen West

My house is full of demons

I swear to God

I need to go to bed

I need to go to sleep

I'm awake with a vengeance

Saving Ellen West 'cause she wanted it

This way

My mouth is full of demos

I swear to God I need to go to bed

I need to go to sleep

I need that hope chest

I need to breathe

I need you here

I need to disappear"

Donelly's driving 'Not Too Soon' was the second single. Her voicebox distortion blends with the guitar licks and the drum kicks echo the girl groups of the 50's.

"She colourblind tired eyes

Her hallway aching

She'll never move him - likes it that way

He's just a walker and he'll never stop walking away

It's not too soon he said, It's not too soon at all

You might as well be dead he said

If you're afraid to fall, I said -, I know her

She said - Why do you stare so hard

Wrapped up like a doll in bad dreams and broken arms

Make these old bones shiver

It's not too soon he said, It's not too soon at all

You might as well be dead he said

If you're afraid to fall, I said - I know her

The last time I saw you, You were standing in the dark

And with a freezing face, I watched you fall apart

It's not too soon he said, It's not too soon at all

You might as well be dead he said

If you're afraid to fall, I said,

done your time, been in your place

I couldn't look you in the face

and tell you that it turns me on

it makes my stomach turn

I know her"

'Honeychain' was the second Donelly number that made the final cut.

"My best friend knows this old guy who

Who keeps a picture in his shoe

He takes it out after a spell

Says, see

Shouldn't stare that way so long baby

Stare holes into the walls

My dress hangs here for you to wear out

I walked in beauty too, till I met you

Here hangs this chain

This thing this old girl keeps

We got it easy

So why do you stare that way so long

Stare holes into the walls

We're all honey

Dripping through the honey chain

And lay our lives down

Down and pretty

In the honey chain

Please don't stare that way so hard baby

Stare holes"

'Say Goodbye' started out as an acoutic fragment on their previous album, 'Hunkpapa'

"I brought this bottle here for you,

Can't you drink it?

I brought this body here for you,

Don't you want it?

Say goodbye,

Kick her legs, kick her down

I bought this pocketknife for you,

Don't you use it?

I bought this ball and chain for you,

Don't you wear it? "

'Two Step' was composed by the entire band.

"Two step

Behind the rest

One fingertip too long

A hole

A hole in the box they carry

Pours sugar in the road

Pours dimes in diamond jim

Two months to fill him in

A hole..."

full album: