Throwing Muses’ new album Moonlight Concessions came to life in a spontaneous burst of enthusiasm and is now available to collapse into a deviously titled Moonlight Confessions companion record. These alternate takes capture a primal unfiltered immediacy, drawing on the primal energy of bands like Fugazi or Shellac, the songs emerge as more fierce, chaotic, and untamed. A stripped-back but insistent sideswipe that foregoes the cello and pacing of ‘Concessions’, instead offering a visceral ambience filled with raw production and stark storytelling.

Kristin Hersh explains the approach on this partner record,

“Moonlight Confessions is how the record sounded before we slowed ourselves down and cleaned ourselves up. It is possibly more fun in alternate version land, as alternate universes rarely apologize for their ungroomed natures. Same with us: this band is only occasionally presentable, and while both records have teeth, confessions are probably spit through pointier teeth.”

A glorious return to the DIY ethics of their early days, littered with xenophobes with shotguns on the prowl, chancers taking bets, a fluttering albatross mistaken for a seagull, drunks feigning sobriety and a homeless person with a Spiderman mask raising a toast, both moonlight sonatas blossom unashamedly.