Artist bio

Craig Wedren's flailing operatic tenor, Nathan Larson's big rock riffing, and the group's surreal, often incomprehensible songs all helped make Shudder To Think a love-it-or-hate-it proposition throughout the '90s. But for those willing to indulge the Washington, D.C.-originated band's many quirks, the sonic rewards were plentiful. One of the strangest acts ever signed to Dischord Records (and one of only two, with Jawbox, to later leave for a major label), Shudder To Think almost dared you to take its music seriously. On mind-blowing albums such as 1992's Get Your Goat and its stupendous centerpiece, "Pebbles," the band sounds like Queen one second and Fugazi the next. Both the hard rock and artiness quotients were off the chart by 1994's Pony Express Record, released by Epic at the zenith of the we’ll-sign-anything period in major-labeldom (Shudder had toured with and been championed by such acts as Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, and Foo Fighters). Unsurprisingly, the group was simply too weird to make much commercial headway, and its 1997 swan song, 50,000 B.C., traded all the distinctive traits for an inferior, overly polished sound. Still, it did little to tarnish Shudder To Think's legacy as one of the most original rock bands of its generation.

Albums by this artist

50,000 B.C. (1997)

Pony Express Record (Recommended) (1994)

Your Choice Live Series (1993)

Get Your Goat (Recommended) (1992)

Shudder To Think

Pony Express Record

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

NATN Recommended Shudder To Think Pony Express Record Epic, 1994 RiYL: Jawbox, Soundgarden, Dismemberment Plan, Mr. Bungle, Fugazi

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright once compared his craft to musical composition in terms of artistic approach. Would that the great man had stuck around long enough to hear Shudder To Think, whose many-sided musical compositions possess something akin to the obtuse beauty of Wright's creations.

On Shudder's major-label debut, Pony Express Record, the band takes its unique songwriting and instrumental capabilities to a new level. The songs on Pony Express are made of sharp angles and turns, curious time signatures, hard rock guitar riffs, and singer Craig Wedren's insatiable falsetto.

Shudder To Think is actually a different band on this album, which is the studio debut of guitarist Nathan Larson and drummer Adam Wade. The pair fit in well with Shudder's quirky art-rock leanings and Larson actually becomes an integral part of the band, helping write five of Pony Express' songs. Though the strange song arrangements and constructions were present on much of Shudder's past work, the new lineup takes this unique aesthetic a step further as Larson's guitar steps out in the mix, giving the music a much harder edge.

As if to catch up, Wedren somehow becomes even more flamboyant than before, thus stretching the music in many directions. He breaks into a full operatic croon two measures into the album, and begins dropping such evocative imagery as "the case of her bones are softer than loose meat" or "my mouth is a cold sore display case." Wedren's vocal style is as much Freddie Mercury as it is J. Robbins, yet it's securely out of the reach of either.

A strange band, for sure, and an even stranger album. It makes one wonder what Sony was supposed to do with Shudder To Think from a marketing perspective. As a major-label debut, it probably alienated some of Shudder's more indie-cred-obsessed fans, but there's no way in hell any of these songs were going to climb up the Billboard charts.

Still, something about Pony Express Record's unwillingness to be just another major-label cash cow gives it a glow of originality. The music itself is even more original than the idea, resulting in a highly underappreciated, forward-thinking record.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.