Can’t contain her free spirit

REMEMBER when Courtney Love boasted in a righteous, record-contract-hating rage that she would bring down the music business with relentless, deep-pocketed litigation? Well, singer-songwriter Kristin Hersh has no money for lawyers, but she does have an approach that, while still a longshot, is more likely to work: give her music away.

“It’s kind of an unpopular argument, that musicians shouldn’t make money,” says the Altadena resident, laughing. “But really, they shouldn’t.” So, the former leader of pioneering college-rock band Throwing Muses is offering the latest EP by her trio, 50 Foot Wave -- pointedly titled “Free Music” -- as a free, high-quality audio download on her websites.

Produced by Mudrock (Godsmack, Powerman 5000) and featuring drummer Rob Ahlers and ex-Muses bassist Bernard Georges, the five-song collection ranges from ululating punk to Zeppelin-esque thunder. It’s a fitting follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2004 self-titled debut EP, which was sold in download form and as a CD. But now they’re experimenting, she says, to see whether sharing can help them better cultivate a following.

“Music, quite honestly, is my religion, and right now only our televangelists are making any impact,” Hersh says, arguing that, in today’s ever-consolidating media world, it takes cash to get noticed, even on college radio, where, in the early ‘80s, the Muses thrived in grass-roots glory.

It’s not that she enjoys being poor -- far from it. After all, she and her husband/manager, Billy O’Connell, have four boys to support. But they’re on a mission. “So we’ll be giving these songs away in the hope of freeing music,” she wrote recently on her Throwingmusic.com blog. “We are so much like superheroes, it’s almost scary.”

She’s quick to laugh at her own radical notions, coming across as both mischievous and slightly mad, but her vision is clear.

“It used to be that folk singers, blues players, would walk from town to town, from party to party, from bar to bar, from church to church, and music would happen,” she says. “Then somebody said, ‘I’m going to record you, so I can make money from music happening.’ And that right there is the problem.” She laughs. “And it’s a bigger problem than ever.”

O’Connell says media consolidation is affecting independent artists’ ability to reach new ears, even cutting into that most traditional of grass-roots outreach, touring. “The majors have brought money and influence and their reach into the equation,” he says, “so even at the club level, even at the college and community radio level, there are fewer ways of getting your music out there.”

Digital distribution costs are minor, he says, adding that they plan to stop charging for any Hersh-related downloads that exist in other formats, which means pretty much everything but the “Works in Progress” series of otherwise unreleased Hersh and Muses tunes.

IN the early ‘80s, Throwing Muses (which disbanded in 2003) attracted college radio listeners with its complex, warped blend of post-punk and folk, elliptical and sometimes disturbing lyrics, and quirky-sweet vocalizing by Hersh and co-founder Tanya Donelly. Hersh in November revisited that music at a London concert, playing a solo set of Muses tunes during the 25th anniversary celebration for seminal indie label 4AD.

“I wasn’t looking forward to it,” she confides. “Throwing Muses songs are difficult. The chords are almost all invented, the time signatures as well. Not to mention the trauma. It’s not light fare. I had almost convinced myself, not that I didn’t like Throwing Muses anymore, but that I didn’t get it.” Yet, upon relearning the tunes, she discovered they didn’t feel dated. Plus, “it was a real high to be in a place where everybody knew the songs,” she says of the show, “and the songs were part of their history as well as mine.”

She’ll repeat the experience tonight and Friday at Tangier, playing two sets each night, one of Muses songs, one of her solo work. (No 50 Foot Wave tunes, but the trio appears Feb. 16 at the Silverlake Lounge.)

Interchanging three musical hats may seem dizzying, but Hersh is comfortable with it. After all, she’s been performing since her teens. It’s therefore no surprise that oldest son Dylan, 19, sings and plays guitar in his own band, Happy Birthday L.A. His brother Ryder, 14, also plays guitar. (Her younger children are Wyatt, 9, and Bodhi, 3.) But it does mystify Hersh, because she purposely never taught them. “I didn’t want it to happen,” she says, chuckling. “It got into my house. I keep telling [Dylan], ‘You’re not rebelling, you know.’ ” She has offered to release his music, she adds, but he “won’t let me go anywhere near it.”

That’s OK. She has plenty to do, including work on another solo album. And, of course, conducting this grand free-music experiment.

“I’m not saying this is an easy or smart thing to do,” she says. “But when we play, we remember our drug. It’s our only chance to get a fix.” She laughs. “And when that’s taken away, we lose something, and the audience loses something. Maybe in the next few decades, [the music business] will seriously crumble, and we won’t have to suffer the effects of it anymore. But right now, these are dark days for everyone.”

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Natalie Nichols can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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Kristin Hersh

Where: The Fold at Tangier, 2138 Hillhurst Ave., L.A.

When: 8:30 tonight (sold out); 8 p.m. Friday

Price: $20

Info: (323) 666-8666 or www.foldsilverlake.com

Free download

Download the EP “Free Music” at www.50footwave.com/freemusic or throwingmusic.com/freemusic