12/2/2009

in

Spanish Amnesian is 15 years in the making for this ex Shudder To Think frontman bringing his homespun weirdness to the masses.

Robyn Chelsea-Seifert

Let's all wrap a big cozy wtf around Craig Wedren who has been m.i.a. from the new studio release shelves since the phenomenal "Lapland" in 2005. An honorable mention goes out to "Live From Home" in 2008, but thankfully Wedren surfaced this week, unharmed and bearing gifts.  
  
"Spanish Amnesian," his free digital download available for the month of December before heading to iTunes, has been in the works since "Pony Express" came out in 1994. Intended to be his first solo effort following up the masterful Pony record with band Shudder To Think, but things kept coming up as Wedren ruminates on his newly vamped website.  
  
"I kept running into frustrating snags along the way, and eventually decided that the fates were telling me to wait."  
  
When the artist calls it a favorite and labor of love, it's definitely worth a check out. Wedren offers up insight on a few tracks and overall sounds, noting collaboration between he and fellow Thinker Nathan Larson on "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.  
  
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," he continues.  
  
"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."  
  
"Spanish Amnesian" is available to stream for free until Jan 2nd. Visit craigwedren.com for more details.