Shudder to Think broke up in 1998, but has been sporadically reforming for almost three years now. On Sept. 2, the band will get back together once again for a show at Bowery Ballroom to celebrate the release of Live From Home, a 21-song compilation of live tracks from last year’s limited set of reunion dates.
Craig Wedren, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, recently ditched New York for the Worst Coast, but was kind enough to brief us on revisiting old projects, his new solo work and the possibility that the band might actually stay together this time.
Why did you move to LA?
I’ve been doing a lot of movie and TV soundtracks. Basically my wife was 7 months pregnant and I was working on the movie Role Models and we’d been talking about it for years and we had to get out of our New York apartment because it would have been too much of a schlep with a baby. I love it but it’s also L.A. Which I guess you can say about New York, too, although for very different reasons. Work here is great because it’s just a giant sun pit full of music and movie geeks, which is exactly what I am.
Sun pit, huh? It’s been rainy and hideous here for as long as anyone can remember.
Living in Los Angeles, I really miss those days where it feels almost…it just goes black in the middle of the day. It’s like a summer snow day—you can play hookie. Fuck the beach; let’s go to the movies.
What made you decide to play this show in New York?
We’ve been going back and forth a lot, playing shows and doing recordings. I did an Obama doc that was there. We were there for a couple months about a year ago when we did the Shudder to Think reunion tour, so we rehearsed there. New York is our HQ. When we did the tour, it was going so well and musically it felt so good that Team Love, which Conor Oberst runs and which puts out our solo stuff, wanted to put out an album. But live albums are so weird and reunion tours are so weird, but everything went really well. I’m coming back to rehearse at Bowery, which will be awesome. It will be a whole new thing—we’re doing everything we played on the tour ranging from the very first record to the very last record, including all the soundtracks. And then this contemporary classical ensemble will be joining us for a third or half of the set. If people are psyched about it, maybe there’s a future for Shudder to Think after all.
You’ve got 21 songs that people still want to hear and the wherewithal to play dates last year and the Sept. 15 show at Bowery Ballroom—why not just get back together?
Just because we’re all doing lots of other things in our lives which we love and which are going very well. Especially with a band like Shudder to Think, I’m not sure if it could be a part time band.
The Pixies are doing it.
But they’re just doing old songs. We did that last year and it was great. I would be super psyched to continue playing if we could move it into the next millennium a bit. I think I speak for everybody when I say that I don’t know how psyched any of us would be to do the Pixies thing. But we’ve never been at that level, it’s not like the money was so enticing. I could eat my words in six months and we’ll do a tour of old songs, but it sort of feels like were Shudder to Think to continue creatively, evolving based on the same kind of engine, this is the possible direction that we see things going. In a way, we’re taking people’s temperature. The so-called reunion tour last year really was like, let’s see how it feels. This is more like let’s celebrate the album.
The first Shudder to Think records were on Dischord and, at times, the band has featured ex members of Swiz and Jawbox. Are you at all still interested in hardcore?
Yeah, sure. Right up there with country, classical, bossa nova and break beat. It’s just another genre. Like any music label, there’s great stuff that transcends the scene. Because of the kind of kids we were, we were listen to lots of stuff—as much Def Leppard as Bad Brains or Madonna as Minor Threat. I don’t even know if new hardcore is being made…I guess the Fucked-Up record, but it’s really new. I feel like that record is really fresh.
I’m endlessly fascinated by the idea of revisiting material from years and years ago. What has it been like for you to pick up some of these songs that you might not have played forever.
Some of the stuff we’re playing is from over 20 years ago, from like 1986. I was reading a recent interview with David Sylvian and he was talking about how can’t relate in any way to music he wrote and sang for Japan and I’ve always been a Sylvian fan and a fan of Japan and it kind of blew my mind, because if I feel anything, it’s the exact opposite. Maybe it’s less about the songs and more about the performance, it feels very present to me. To Shudder to Think’s credit, we always wrote really solid pop songs. It’s always a pleasure, for someone who’s obsessed with craftsmanship, and as important as words are for me, it’s really great to go back and play those songs.
What’s up with WAND?
I’ve been working on this solo record for the past year or two that I’d like to turn into a movie. I would love to do this under the Shudder to Think moniker and certainly musically it could work as that. It’s all experimental and exciting again.
>Shudder to Think
Sept. 2, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Chrystie St. & Bowery), 212-533-2111; 7, $20
Craig Wedren, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, recently ditched New York for the Worst Coast, but was kind enough to brief us on revisiting old projects, his new solo work and the possibility that the band might actually stay together this time.
Why did you move to LA?
I’ve been doing a lot of movie and TV soundtracks. Basically my wife was 7 months pregnant and I was working on the movie Role Models and we’d been talking about it for years and we had to get out of our New York apartment because it would have been too much of a schlep with a baby. I love it but it’s also L.A. Which I guess you can say about New York, too, although for very different reasons. Work here is great because it’s just a giant sun pit full of music and movie geeks, which is exactly what I am.
Sun pit, huh? It’s been rainy and hideous here for as long as anyone can remember.
Living in Los Angeles, I really miss those days where it feels almost…it just goes black in the middle of the day. It’s like a summer snow day—you can play hookie. Fuck the beach; let’s go to the movies.
What made you decide to play this show in New York?
We’ve been going back and forth a lot, playing shows and doing recordings. I did an Obama doc that was there. We were there for a couple months about a year ago when we did the Shudder to Think reunion tour, so we rehearsed there. New York is our HQ. When we did the tour, it was going so well and musically it felt so good that Team Love, which Conor Oberst runs and which puts out our solo stuff, wanted to put out an album. But live albums are so weird and reunion tours are so weird, but everything went really well. I’m coming back to rehearse at Bowery, which will be awesome. It will be a whole new thing—we’re doing everything we played on the tour ranging from the very first record to the very last record, including all the soundtracks. And then this contemporary classical ensemble will be joining us for a third or half of the set. If people are psyched about it, maybe there’s a future for Shudder to Think after all.
You’ve got 21 songs that people still want to hear and the wherewithal to play dates last year and the Sept. 15 show at Bowery Ballroom—why not just get back together?
Just because we’re all doing lots of other things in our lives which we love and which are going very well. Especially with a band like Shudder to Think, I’m not sure if it could be a part time band.
The Pixies are doing it.
But they’re just doing old songs. We did that last year and it was great. I would be super psyched to continue playing if we could move it into the next millennium a bit. I think I speak for everybody when I say that I don’t know how psyched any of us would be to do the Pixies thing. But we’ve never been at that level, it’s not like the money was so enticing. I could eat my words in six months and we’ll do a tour of old songs, but it sort of feels like were Shudder to Think to continue creatively, evolving based on the same kind of engine, this is the possible direction that we see things going. In a way, we’re taking people’s temperature. The so-called reunion tour last year really was like, let’s see how it feels. This is more like let’s celebrate the album.
The first Shudder to Think records were on Dischord and, at times, the band has featured ex members of Swiz and Jawbox. Are you at all still interested in hardcore?
Yeah, sure. Right up there with country, classical, bossa nova and break beat. It’s just another genre. Like any music label, there’s great stuff that transcends the scene. Because of the kind of kids we were, we were listen to lots of stuff—as much Def Leppard as Bad Brains or Madonna as Minor Threat. I don’t even know if new hardcore is being made…I guess the Fucked-Up record, but it’s really new. I feel like that record is really fresh.
I’m endlessly fascinated by the idea of revisiting material from years and years ago. What has it been like for you to pick up some of these songs that you might not have played forever.
Some of the stuff we’re playing is from over 20 years ago, from like 1986. I was reading a recent interview with David Sylvian and he was talking about how can’t relate in any way to music he wrote and sang for Japan and I’ve always been a Sylvian fan and a fan of Japan and it kind of blew my mind, because if I feel anything, it’s the exact opposite. Maybe it’s less about the songs and more about the performance, it feels very present to me. To Shudder to Think’s credit, we always wrote really solid pop songs. It’s always a pleasure, for someone who’s obsessed with craftsmanship, and as important as words are for me, it’s really great to go back and play those songs.
What’s up with WAND?
I’ve been working on this solo record for the past year or two that I’d like to turn into a movie. I would love to do this under the Shudder to Think moniker and certainly musically it could work as that. It’s all experimental and exciting again.
>Shudder to Think
Sept. 2, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Chrystie St. & Bowery), 212-533-2111; 7, $20
