Purgatory/Paradise

Purgatory/Paradise is a revolutionary fusion of music and text from seminal indie rock band Throwing Muses.

Kristin Hersh, Throwing Muses’s lead singer/songwriter, is one of the most well-respected musicians to emerge from the 1980s indie rock scene. Her work has influenced artists such as Cat Power, Alanis Morrissette, Lush, and Sleater-Kinney, as well as Riot Grrrls everywhere.

Ten years in the making, Hersh and Throwing Muses’s 32-track album Purgatory/Paradise is the centerpiece of this deluxe 64-page book which also contains more than two dozen photographs and artwork by Kristin Hersh and band member Dave Narcizo; lyrics for each song; stories and essays that accompany each track written by Hersh; and instructions for downloads of exclusive content, including demos and outtakes.

The first new Throwing Muses album in a decade.

This book contains:

• A CD of the 32-track Purgatory/Paradise album
• Full lyrics
• Short essay and stories by Kristin Hersh about each song
• Exclusive photographs and artwork

It also includes download instructions for these exclusives:

• A commentary track featuring Kristin Hersh & David Narcizo
• An instrumental version of the full album
• Prepackaged mp3 and lossless versions of every track with embedded metadata, artwork and lyrics

Praise for Kristin Hersh: “It’s almost impossible to imagine the visceral bleats of singers like Corin Tucker or Marissa Paternoster without Kristin Hersh.” - Pitchfork

“Hersh is a fearless rock innovator.” - New York Times

“One of America’s finest songwriters.” - Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-84

Praise for Rat Girl: “Hersh has pretty much been to hell and back and lived to tell the tale...extremely well written.” - Huffington Post

“Sensitive and emotionally raw... it’s also wildly funny.” - New York Times Book Review

Triumphant . . . fresh and expansive . . . What is clear is that this record, and book, which call into question what records and books and can and should do, how they can and should interact, still delivers in a basic, thrilling way. - Popmatters

Art, essays and outstanding new music collide on a surreal Throwing Muses epic . . . a soul-stirring collection [of] musical mini-masterpieces accompanied by lyrical prose vignettes exuding the same nimble friskiness and wry, subversive brilliance that characterized Hersh’s fantastic 2010 memoir. - Magnet, nine out of ten stars

Both brutal and magical . . . comes with a photo-and-essay book that’s part diary, part tour journal, and part exploration of the stories behind the songs. The book’s sometimes heartbreaking but written with unimaginable warmth and such goofball humor, a perfectly imperfect encapsulation of what makes Hersh’s work so fortifying even as it devastates. - Popdose

Both brutal and magical . . . written with unimaginable warmth and such goofball humor, a perfectly imperfect encapsulation of what makes Hersh’s work so fortifying even as it devastates. - Popdose

Nothing short of epic, Purgatory/Paradise is also the antithesis of a mainstream music release in 2013. It’s content is splashed across multiple formats (music, photographs, essays, audio commentary) with an anti-production value that renders an accurate (and impressive) display of the band’s chops . . . wrenching, alarming, disturbing, and occasionally seasoned with bits of dark humor . . . The overall aesthetic, . . . is one of flawed, raw beauty - destroyed, then sewn back together. And it works . . . reads like a bitched-up eulogy - for relationships that fell apart, for a band that couldn’t survive, for a friend that died, and for an industry that couldn’t sustain its own greedy impulses . . . a stunning psychological ride. Like the most powerful of drugs, it will initially make you feel queasy. But once that passes, there’s a tangible bliss to be had . . . it’s the stuff addictions are made of. - American Songwriter, four stars

Purgatory/Paradise was devised both as a record and as a book, with essays by Hersh and art by Narcizo. It’s both a gorgeous standalone object . . . and a sort of decoder for the album’s tracks . . . - Pitchfork

Nothing short of epic . . . wrenching, alarming, disturbing, and occasionally seasoned with bits of dark humor . . . . a stunning psychological ride. Like the most powerful of drugs. . . it’s the stuff addictions are made of. - American Songwriter, four stars

Awesome. - Flavorwire

“With its reined in plot line and ethereal prose style, Rat Girl reads more like a novel...a pleasure to read.” - Slate

“An original beauty.” - Mary Gaitskill, author of Veronica and Don't Cry

“A thoroughly engrossing work by an original voice-hopefully the first of many.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Ms. Hersh’s prose delves into the memories that occasioned the songs, mingling tour incidents, childhood trauma, philosophical musings and hardheaded life lessons - The New York Times

Purgatory/Paradise is a . . . gorgeous, interactive art book . . . Hersh’s lyrics and stories would make it a compelling read even without the music. - Boing Boing

Purgatory/Paradise was devised both as a record and as a book, with essays by Hersh and art by Narcizo. It’s both a gorgeous standalone object—particularly the writing, considering 2010’s Rat Girl proved Hersh one of the best music writers around—and a sort of decoder for the album’s tracks . . . unlike anything I’ve heard this year. - Pitchfork