Shudder to Think - Hit Liquor 7'' (Dischord, 1992)

Shudder to Think
Hit Liquor 7''
Dischord
1992

Rating: 10 late elections out of 10

Two stellar selections from the fantastic Shudder to Think - "Hit Liquor" and "No Room 9, Kentucky."  The second is one of my very favorite songs the band ever released.  Sure, both tracks on their nearly flawless album "Pony Express Record," but I'm still glad to own them in this format as well.  On a side note, I met singer Craig Wedren at one of his post-StT solo shows and talked to him for a while - he couldn't have been any nicer.  Which makes me love him and this band even more. 

Various Artists - Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac (Hear Music, 2012)

Various Artists
Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac
Hear Music
2012

Rating: 6.5 sleeping dogs out of 10

I'm a notorious Fleetwood Mac detractor (mostly because of creepy ass Stevie Nicks and her weird white witch ways), and usually not overly excited when it comes to tributes and compilations, but the band line-up on this one gave me enough pause that I decided to listen through it.  The results are pretty decent actually, certainly much better than the low expectations I had set.  Being a compilation it's the typically uneven affair they almost always are, but the hits outnumber the misses here.  My vote for the best track is either Best Coast's rendition of "Rhiannon" or Lykke Li's "Silver Springs," both quite enjoyable.  Other great covers are Antony doing "Landslide," a song I didn't think it was possible for me to like; Lee Renaldo and J Mascis getting guitar-riffic on "Albatross"; the New Pornographers' pop take on "Think About Me"; MGMT's weird vocoder version of "Future Games"; and the always underrated Craig Wedren teamed with St. Vincent for "Sisters of the Moon."  All of the bands do a fine job of making the songs their own - for a couple of these I wouldn't even know they were covers if it didn't explicitly say so.  

If a naysayer like me can enjoy this, I gotta imagine any Fleetwood Mac fans who crossover as fans of some of these bands will be in for a real treat. 

Craig Wedren - Wand (Nerveland, 2011)

Craig Wedren

Wand

Nerveland

2011

Rating: 7 rectory pools out of 10

I'm a huge Shudder to Think fan, and a few years back I went to a Craig Wedren solo show and got the chance to meet him, and totally fanned out like a backwoods goofball, but he was super friendly and chatty and I guess I'm telling you all of this in one long run-on sentence because you probably shouldn't expect a very unbiased review here.  

So, on his sophomore record, Wedren continues down the path he set forth in "Lapland", an album of pop songs that are just a little too weird for the mainstream but sounds like top 40 compared to his work with Shudder to Think.  And there are moments that I'm not crazy about, the production might be a little overkill, but...that voice.  It's always that voice.  The man could, to borrow a cliche, sing the phone book and I'd listen intently and with rapt attention.  He sounds as fantastic as always, and the high points like "Make Me Hurt You" and "Ladyghost" far outweigh any negative criticism.