Craig Wedren Struck by Amnesian

"Headphones music in many ways": Shudder to Think savant revisits long-lost solo album from mid/early ‘90s.

By Blurt Staff

One of Craig Wedren's favorite albums, ‘The Spanish Amnesian' - a fully-realized collection of songs directly relating to his more ambient and experimental movie and television music (‘High Art,' ‘Laurel Canyon,' ‘United States of Tara') - was originally planned as a solo release following Shudder To Think's ‘Pony Express Record.'  The album, previously stored on cassette (!), is currently available through iTunes.  

"This was my first collection of homespun weirdness...sound and music for its own sake and on its own terms, with no one and nothing else in mind," says Craig, who recorded the album from 1993-1995 in various closets and bedrooms throughout D.C and New York City with nothing more than a Radio Shack microphone, Akai sampler, toy instruments and, "a Tascam 7-track cassette recorder (the 8th track was busted), now used at the Dischord House." The guitar duet with Nathan Larson ("Schtonk!") was recorded in the basement warehouse of a D.C. hamburger chain then owned by his 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," adds Wedren.

Craig describes the album as "headphones music in many ways, with whispery bits giving way to big sheets of noise.   Give it a close listen all the way through if you can.  I'm incredibly happy to finally be sharing and airing this record, and I hope you love it."