The Spanish Amnesian

Craig Wedren, singer from the 90's experimental rock band Shudder to Think, has posted some of his earliest solo work for free streaming on craigwedren.com until January 2nd:


I wrote and recorded The Spanish Amnesian roughly between 1993 and 1995, in various closets and bedrooms around D.C. and New York City.

For gear, I had a flat, square Radio Shack microphone, an Akai S950 sampler (mono), some children's instruments I'd inherited from my Grandma, a former 1st grade teacher; and a Tascam 7-track cassette recorder (the 8th track was busted), which now resides at Dischord House and is used -when last I checked- for recording Evens demos.

My original plan was to release The Spanish Amnesian as a solo album after Pony Express Record, but I kept running into frustrating snags along the way, and eventually decided that The Fates were telling me to wait.

It remains one of my favorite albums I've had the pleasure/pain ever to work on, and relates directly to some of the more ambient and experimental movie music I've made since, from 'High Art' in 1998, to 'The United States Of Tara', which I'm working on now.

Piecing the record back together led me to a lot of other home recordings, many forgotten or half-remembered. Listening to them left me with a bittersweet feeling: so many vaulted ideas, so much ambition, and a boy's voice, high-pitched in tone, and breathy.

I also realized that, while as an adult I always thought of The Spanish Amnesian as my first collection of homespun weirdness, I'd actually been recording this type of music regularly since High School, maybe even earlier, and that some of my favorite Shudder To Think ideas stemmed from these larger, more abstract audio scribbles. The Spanish Amnesian was, however, the first time I got my 'nads up to try and release any of it, and the first time I thought there might actually be an audience who would listen.

Also of note, the record features a sweetazz guitar improv between me and Nathan Larson ('Schtonk!'), which was recorded on cassette in Shudder To Think's cavernous rehearsal space -the basement warehouse of a D.C. hamburger chain then-owned by my dad.

At the time, I imagined that after Pony Express Record's inevitable worldwide chart domination, we would have our own imprint via Epic Records (Shudder's label), under which we'd release projects like this one, and upon which we'd build our art-empire.

I remember being in L.A. on the set of the 'X-French Tee-Shirt' video shoot, and our A&R guy, having kindly made copies of The Spanish Amnesian for me and other folks at the label, smirkingly exclaiming 'Rotunda's a hit!'

I laughed along -clearly no hits here- but for me The Spanish Amnesian was, and is, something way better, and more vital - just sound and music for it's own sake and on it's own terms, with no one and nothing else in mind.

One other thing that I love about this record: it's scary. I've always been attracted to unsettling, unique, disorienting art, and that was my goal, conscious and otherwise, for a lot of this material. That, and it had to be beautiful.

The Spanish Amnesian is headphones music in many ways, with whispery bits giving way to big sheets of noise; and it was definitely conceived and constructed as a complete album, so give it a close listen all the way through if you can.

I'm incredibly happy to finally be sharing and airing The Spanish Amnesian, and I hope you love it. Either way, let me know your thoughts.

Thanks so much.



Craig Wedren, 2009

Stream it HERE.