Kristin Hersh Shares New Song “Soma Gone Slapstick”: Listen

Last month, Kristin Hersh announced the latest in her series of dual album/book releases, Wyatt at the Coyote Palace. Now, the former Throwing Muses singer has shared a song from the record, via the Quietus. Listen to “Soma Gone Slapstick” below. The double CD and hardcover book is out October 28 in the UK/Australia and November 11 in the U.S. via Omnibus Press.

The Quietus quotes Hersh on the song:

I hate getting drum takes. I mean, I hate when I get them right, because then I have to go back to playing finger-slicing guitar or the big old mean piano, all the notes in a long, bossy row. Even bass – which is pretty fun, to be honest – means being trapped on the leash of a cord connected to an amp. And vocals! Ugh. So disconcerting to hear the sound of your clothes inside your own head. Once the mic picked up a cricket in the studio. Really creepy, like the insect was burrowing into my brain. And singing is so dumb. An instrument you can’t tune, that doesn’t play right if you have a cold or hurt feelings. Drumming is better: goofy and falling and precise and muscular. Like a body telling a good joke. Well, it is when you do it right.

Which I refused to do. I made this drum part last all night, through a blizzard, so that I wouldn’t have to walk home in the dark. Kept making (faking) mistakes so that I could keep all four limbs flying, do pretty math while pretty snow blew sideways past the window behind me. I heard Soma move through seasons: fall on the rebound, a manic spring, a cruel winter, and through places: California, Chicago, New Orleans, a protest march in Koreatown. When I finished, it was dawn, my engineer and I had coffee and I walked home through fat flakes falling down instead of sideways. Goofy + falling + precise + muscular = soma with a healthy dose of slapstick.

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