Throwing Muses will reissue their long-out-of-print, off-streaming self-titled debut this December in honor of its 40th anniversary. The new edition of Throwing Muses is due December 11 on 4AD.

The quartet of Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, Leslie Langston and David Narcizo were still teenagers when they released Throwing Muses in 1986, the first full-length by the first American band ever signed to the label and a turning point in its history.

The album drew largely on the car accident that left a 16-year-old Hersh with a rod in her skull. In the aftermath, she says she began hallucinating songs. “I can't even remember what it was like to hear a song that didn't grab my face and shout at it,” she wrote in her 2010 memoir Rat Girl.

After signing Throwing Muses, 4AD shifted toward American alternative rock, a path that led to the Pixies in 1987. The band released seven albums and two EPs on the label, the most recent being 2025's Moonlight Concessions. Its members also spun off projects including 50FootWave and Lakuna.