We also talked about the Grateful Dead. He professed his love for "Friend of the Devil," which makes me love him even more.

And also he's hottt. Unfortunately that didn't prevent his recent solo album from

absolutely reeking

That said, some of the individual SONGS are excellent--"So Into You" and "No Room 9 Kentucky" particularly are pretty killer. But as an album it sort of falls apart.

Anyone else heard the original version of "So Into You"? It makes you wonder how they could ever have had the idea to cover it in the way they did...

I like the sound of that

I never got around to listening to their soundtrack work (High Art and First Love, Last Rites)— would anyone recommend those?

Craig Wedren has a guest spot singing on the opening song on Cex's new album "tall dark and handcuffed"...

daron

BUT BUT BUT: the X-French Tee Shirt single's B-side (and do go for the promo CD version if you can find it) has a live-in-studio version of "Shake Your Halo Down" that is a good minute shorter than their original recording and SMOKES SMOKES SMOKES.

5 song promo EP for Epic (live-in-the-studio demonstration) was by far their best recording. Provisional no-designer-available cover is a painting of a german shepherd. As for Pony Express, "X-French" may be an alt-rock karaoke klassik, but the album's a dud.

David is right. The Baby album is AMAZING. So outrageously catchy it hurts. Someone needs to pick this up and distribute it NOW (and probably re-do the black-and-white xeroxy cover).

I can't get this goddamned thing out of my CD player.

great record

^^^ incredibly out of character?

When "Hit Liquor" would come on 120 Minutes I would fucking change it. But then later, like Yancey, I got it.

Holy shit, "X French Tee Shirt" is fucking amazing. Not sure about the rest of this yet.

Just got it?

yeah.

Always loved this album, probably always will, it might take a little while to settle in with, Hit Liquor is the next most accessible track imho.

Yeah at first I was annoyed that it sounded like they were creating chord progressions by pulling weird chords out of a hat and playing them in that order, but it grew on me.

"say what . . ."

Most of the tracks still seem that way to me. On my first listen "X French" was easily the standout track. What are your favorites? x-post

this is an awesome album and it's not really a "first listen" kind of album for most people, as you'll see if you scan above.

The true Shudder to Think classic is the magnificent pastiche exercise that is the First Love, Last Rites OST

I think Chakka is one of my favorites. I have to listen to the whole thing again.

fucking love this album. No room #9 Kentucky is still my favorite, and n/a is def otm re: not being a first listen album, its jarring and almost obnoxious at times, but it becomes a great version of obnoxiousness the more time you give it.

xxpost: ha i was going to mention that i was a little surprised at what a brutal beatdown First Love got upthread. its pretty solid with a couple of great spots. cant say i agree on it being the STT classic tho.

wanna ... watch?

Love Gang Of $

All over town they've got these, like, messenger girls
That ride around on inner tubes
Their asses are all scraped up..

You gotta hear the 'Mind Science' album...that should of been the next Shudder album

ok i might have to dig out that mind science thing because i listened to it once for like 5 minutes and went meh and put it back in the towering ignore piles

I've always thought about doing some kind of search & destroy type thread about STT side projects and offshoots, there's so many out there.

I have the album of live stuff from their shows last year in front of me. Were they on form/faithful to the heyday/anything else of note at said shows?

I saw them last year (at a different show from the one on the album) and I enjoyed it, "Red House" and lots of PER stuff played faithfully and loudly.

i listened to the live album on pfork, the band sounded hot but the songs didn't sound particularly different from the live versions

Oh man, I need to dig this CD out of whatever box in my closet it's in. Haven't heard it in years.

"No room #9 Kentucky is still my favorite"

The original 7" this was on was like maybe my favorite thing ever when I was 17.

i remember liking 50,000 BC also, i need to listen to that one again

50,000 BC never quite made it for me, although it isnt bad, its just sort of aimless

It was a typical out-of-gas major label record - once they left the living room they couldn't write. But "Call of the Playground" is fuckin' great.

I remember feeling let down when PER came out. Didn't match Get Your Goat to my ears. I haven't listened to either in about 10 years.

I don't quite get the "difficult listen" stuff up-thread -- was PER really that outré? I always remembered it as rather conventional, and certainly STT's most conventional album (at the time of its release)

"Difficult listen" = "outrageously theatrical voice"

"Difficult listen" = "outrageously theatrical voice"

Ah. Fair 'nuff

No its really not very conventional. Their chord progressions are consciously wacky, in a strange and yes the vocal work for one is pretty theatrical. But I guess it depends on the question: Relative to what?

Oops didn't finish my thought in the middle there... "in a strange 'lets consciously pick the wrong chords' way"

Just gave this a listen. Holds up sorta reasonably well. I'd find it very difficult to describe the music as in any way "unconventional" or inaccessible, though. Interesting rhythmic and chordal shifts, but far from anything jarring. But, as you say Evan, it depends on your point of reference -- where you came from when hearing this for the first time.

I'm listening to Pony Express Record right now. I'm digging it, but the bass is conspicuous by its absence.

(This is coming from someone who loves Funeral at the Movies, BTW.)

http://devonrecordclub.com/2015/03/04/shudder-to-think-pony-express-record-round-78-toms-selection/

Stupid question.

classic! i LOVE this album. i still have it on cassette, bought after hearing one of the tracks on a CMJ magazine sampler cd. some one else recently wrote an essay about it- http://www.avclub.com/article/shudder-to-think-made-the-most-head-fucking-non-hi-200742

But is PER better or not as good as GYG?

Great interview with drummer, talking about each track on PER

https://floodwatchmusic.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/interview-adam-wade-of-shudder-to-think/

Hit Liquor and X-French Tee Shirt are so amazing. HOW IN THE HELLLLLLL

I have to admit that I don't quite love the rest of the album as much. with a couple exceptions, it mostly seems like off-kilter rock mostly of meh quality. does anyone actually love the rest of the album?

I strongly like the whole album, if that counts. How many times have you listened through?

XP - PP, in my humble, it'll grow if you keep chipping away, then it'll turn out to be the best thing ever.

No Rm 9, Kentucky is the third best. What's the next place to start chipping away?

How many times have you listened through?

Maybe 5 times, but those 2 songs seem to rise obviously above the others.

XP - Next is the stretch from Gang of $ to X-French

I just read that Craig Wedren was listening to a lot of Def Leppard before they recorded this album. Weird.

Also-- I unexpectedly discovered something WILD the other day as I was watching "The Whitest Kids U Know." Craig does the theme song! That completely blows my mind. I'd heard that song a million times and never would have put it together, but now I can sort of hear his voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2ARDvCGbjo

Wedren has done A LOT of scoring for tv and films. he did the theme for The State and a bazillion shows and movies with The State people, a ton of studio movies and network shows. it's actually kind of aggravating to me that he has literally hours of music that isn't commercially available.

Get Your Goat > PER

I've said this waay up thread, but I don't get the excessive love for this album.

yeah i've never, ever been able to get into this album at all

I remember when "Hit Liquor" would come on 120 Minutes, I'd always bail in the first 2 minutes, it just seemed so willfully arty and dissonant, I found it pretentious. But the song only really gets good at the 2:00 mark!

The ingredients are so conventional but the recipe is not.

I always found "Kissi Penny" v hard to digest, like it a lot now

Personal fave is "Chakka"

Given this a few more spins. It's growing on me, so maybe making some progress, but "X French Tee Shirt" is still the only song that I could listen to on repeat for 10 hours-- and that might include any song by anyone

there are massive hooks embedded in this record beyond those two songs. "earthquakes come home"'s chorus for instance

anyway i love thinking about how much incubus were inspired by this record

Do you know that for sure? There are moments that remind me of Incubus but they don't last long. I always figured it was just coincidental due to again, the same ingredients.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui_9c1ztW4A

Ah, nice!

I know they were doing things in consciously unconventional ways, but I really wish they added another chord or another note to the unchanging chord during that climax of X-French Tee Shirt. I'm always hoping to hear it do one of those things every time, only because I think it would sound really good.

This is great:

https://oninlove.bandcamp.com/track/warz

As is this:

https://oninlove.bandcamp.com/album/on-in-love

do you think Craig Wedren would have been a better choice than Adam Lambert or Paul Rodgers in the new version of Queen?

LOL, the long warble at the end of "No Rm 9, Kentucky" sounds a little too much like Ol' Dirty Bastard for my comfort, though I guess to be fair, this came out before the first ODB solo album.

big window crash (i'm deaf)

SO wha'd ya have to doooo that foooooooooor...

http://www.thetrapset.net/091-adam-wade-shudder-to-think-jawbox/

Say what?

YOU

....

Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths
Hold back the road that goes So that the others may do That you let me in just to Pour me down their mouths

him

i predict by 3am the pill bottle top will have come undone

I think I only have Get Your Goat, though possibly Funeral At The Movies.
Get Your Goat was quite fun anyway.,

I know they were doing things in consciously unconventional ways, but I really wish they added another chord or another note to the unchanging chord during that climax of X-French Tee Shirt. I'm always hoping to hear it do one of those things every time, only because I think it would sound really good.

― Evan, Wednesday, 23 March 2016 18:43 (six years ago) link

I know this was worded really badly but I still agree with myself here, not sure if anyone else does (suppose likely nobody could even parse WTF I was talking about).

it's funny to watch their PER-era videos and remember that they were on dischord before that. what if they never left dischord and instead had to convince ian mackaye that they needed to make a music video where they all wear blousy white suits and play on a swimming pool high-dive while shirtless hunks pose and flex

i've never listened to their dischord-era stuff for some reason so it's really hard for me to imagine how they fit in

I know they were doing things in consciously unconventional ways, but I really wish they added another chord or another note to the unchanging chord during that climax of X-French Tee Shirt.

The thing that makes it work for me is the little semitone dip they do just before they start repeating the coda each time, it's just a little nudge to get them pounding on F major again.

Fair! But boy does it screw with my brain... and it would be so powerful too to have even a very brief resolve on some other chord anywhere during that section.

There’s other songs for that, though, oder?

Sorry, not following!

apparently we have a 31st-anniversary edition. weird

big window crash (i'm deaf)

― mookieproof, Saturday, February 17, 2018 12:02 AM (seven years ago)

It was an RSD double LP reissue earlier this year.

just getting into yellowjackets & loving craig w & anna waronker's creepy feem choon

just icymi, philip sherburne did a nice long review of this album for pitchfork at the weekend...

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/shudder-to-think-pony-express-record/

Reunion show tonight in DC

NYC tomorrow (sold out)

They've still got it.

Fun show!