Shudder To Think

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.

Album reviews

50,000 B.C.
Epic (1997)
You can either love or loathe Shudder To Think.

Pony Express Record (Recommended)
Epic (1994)
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.

Your Choice Live Series
Your Choice (1993)
Shudder To Think's installment in the Your Choice Live Series was released by the German label Your Choice in 1993, thus making it something of a rarity to find in the states.

Get Your Goat (Recommended)
Dischord (1992)
A joy to contemplate and revel in.