Back in 2024 Shudder To Think — currently Craig Wedren (vocals), Nathan Larson (guitar), Clint Walsh (guitar), Jherek Bischoff (bass) and Adam Wade (drums) — celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1994 effort, Pony Express Record, their Epic Records debut, which followed several releases on Dischord Records.
After the initial release of Pony Express Record, the band dove into the world of scoring films and creating music for soundtracks with the 1998 releases of Jesse Peretz’s First Love, Last Rites, Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine. Shudder to Think’s Wedren and Larson have gone to be prolific film and television with Wedren working on YELLOWJACKETS, Wet Hot American Summer, School of Rock, Laurel Canyon and more; and Larson working on Our Idiot Brother, The Skeleton Twins, Juliet, Naked, the High Fidelity TV series and a list of others.
Last year, the band made their first live performances in over a decade and released the “Thirst Walk”/”Playback” 7 inch, which drew on the band’s classic, beloved sound — melodic, unpredictable and unmistakably their own. The 7 inch vinyl sold out quickly and was repressed for the band’s most recent run of live dates. And if you’ve been frequenting this site, you’d recall that the band recently released the three-song Who Sent You EP, the first new effort from the band in almost 30 years. The EP includes the previously released, semi-autobiographical EP title track ““Who Sent You,” their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do” off 1984’s Some Great Reward and the EP’s third and final single “Release The Ball.”
“Release The Ball” is a stark, atmospheric tune built around a looping, metronomic-like guitar figure, bursts of caterwauling synths and a metronomic drum patterns beneath Craig Wedren’s yearning delivery.
“Craig had a little looping guitar figure inspired by Arthur Russell,” the band says. ” He threw the idea down so as not to forget it, sang a mostly-gibberish vocal, and sent it to the band as something that could be turned into something. But Adam was like ‘no, leave it! It’s cool.’ So we added some rhythm and texture to the demo, served with love.”
Directed by the band’s Craig Wedren, the accompanying black and white video reflects the song’s stark, intimate nature, featuring live footage of the band projected onto a glittering disco ball.