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Craig Wedren Makes MAGNET A Mix Tape

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What hasn’t Craig Wedren done? His resume is a long list of musical endeavors: frontman of D.C.’s Shudder To Think, founder of disco/punk group Baby, composer for an extensive catalog of movies and TV shows, contributor to a variety of other bands and solo artist. He’s even victoriously battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And he shows no sign of slowing down, with a new Shudder To Think album out last fall (Live From Home on Team Love), plus his recently released sophomore solo album, The Spanish Amnesian (Nerveland), which was originally recorded in 1995. Here’s a mix tape Wedren made for MAGNET (“Craig Wedren Hellajawns For The 010,” he calls it), which includes several of his own projects. Can you blame him?

“Baby Don’t Smile” (download):

Wild Beasts “We Still Got The Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues”
If I were starting a band now, I would want this song to sort of be all of our songs. Mixed with Brahms and maybe a little Prince. Video

Deradoorian
Girl, yes. Check out the videos for “Weed Jam” and “High Road.”

Fever Ray
Live in 2009, they restored my faith in lasers and rock shows. Theater, religion, spectacle, spooky pop tingle and visual black-metal signifiers colliding with ritualized pelt-covered witch craft all set to their awesome songs, which slink hard live. Video

Glass Candy
2001/2002 CD-R demos. Spread the love. Ida No is one of my favorite singers. While I like the Italo version of Glass Candy, which has garnered them some long-overdue attention, for me, nothing compares to the first CD-R demo I got in 2002, which at the time struck me like Mötley Crüe’s debut fingering early PiL (or Killing Joke) with Maria Callas, Diamanda Gallas and Iggy Pop all vying for throat-torture primacy. Check out “Love Love Love”

Lennon Olam Wedren (Dancing To Kanye At 14 Months Old)
We were at a hotel in N.Y., and m’boy popped the clock radio and tuned in to Hot 97. Video.

Micachu And The Shapes
Just, like, a real cool record. Check out “Vulture.” Video

Prefab Sprout
Re-obsession. When I moved to D.C. in the 11th grade (1985), I listened to Steve McQueen (or Two Wheels Good or whatever you call it) on headphones over and over for a few months until I’d made a few friends, joined a band and had something else to do at night other than cry. Steve McQueen and Prefab’s first record, Swoon, have remained favorites ever since. After reading a Mojo interview last year with the reclusive and elusive Paddy McAloon (who essentially is Prefab Sprout at this point), I went on a spree and bought their entire catalogue, including all of the records I wrongly dismissed post-Steve McQueen. Their worst records are intriguingly good, and their best are truly classic, up there with Wilson, Gibb, Costello, Bacharch, you name it, in the idiosyncratic pop-genius department. My wife, however, 100 percent disagrees: can’t stand ‘em. Check out the videos for “Cue Fanfare,” “When Love Breaks Down,” “Looking For Atlantis” and “Pearly Gates” for the full, glorious spectrum.

Thomas Mapfumo “Dindingwe”
The whole Thomas Mapfumo And The Acid Band’s Hokoyo! record is real good. Something called “Chimurenga music.” African, groovy, but with unexpected time signatures and a constant 1/16-note high-hat locking everything down and keeping it all floaty at the same time. Check it out.

Life Without Buildings Live At The Annandale Hotel
Technically ‘08, I think (at least that’s when I got it), but I wanna keep spreading the word until everybody possesses a copy. The whole record is great. Check out “Juno” for a taste. Sue Tompkins’ spirit comes through every second of the recording: fragmental ebullience.

Vampire Weekend “Run,”  “I Think Ur A Contra”
Why the haters, folks? If half the bands making records and wowing the trend rags ‘n’ blogs these days made songs half this solid, the noise garbage that swamps our heads online and in-car would be golden, clean-burning fuel for our dreams and kisses. Check out the videos for “Run” and “I Think Ur A Contra.”

Berlin Philharmonic “Selig Sind, Die Da Leid Tragen”
From A German Requiem by Brahms. The director Alexander Payne turned me on to this when we were working on Hung together, although I think he meant a different piece of music. Nonetheless, minds were blown, and I think this here piece does in 10 minutes what I may spend the rest of my life striving to achieve.

Adriano Celentano “Raffaella Carrà”
Shudder brother Nato Nathan Larson sent me this sick link a few weeks ago. He got it from Tom Verlaine, so there. It’s all other/old-worldly perfection, from a Fellini-ish time and place where probably government-subsidized Italian variety-show budgets would cover the cocaine, the cosmic sex dancers and top-notch dream-funk sung in Italo-gibberish to beat the everlovin’ band. Esp. peep the Rocky Horror/Magenta-meets-Nico diva at 1:19. Wowzer. Wow, sir. Video

Nina Simone “Feelings”
Live in 1976. Another one courtesy of Nathan. There is nothing better than this that I know of. Thank you, Nina. And thank you, Nate! Video

Anton Batagov The Wheel Of The Law
This is from a few years back, but I want you to know about this Russian composer’s stunning, trance-inducing, eerie bell compositions. Check out “Dus-Kyi Khor-Lo.”

OK Go “WTF?”
Beautiful candy-smear of a video, this is. Pop. Awesome song, too. In fact, the whole record’s excellent. Seems like along with Vampire Weekend, OK Go are helping to wipe some of the boring out of the top 10. Gents, let’s. Also, the director, Tim Nackashi, and I are working together on a movie version of my upcoming record, WAND. Video

The Dead Science Featuring Craig Wedren “Make Mine Marvel (Craig Dub Plate)”
This is a remix I did for my brilliant (and woefully underappreciated) friends in the Dead Science. This band is friggin’ amazing, and the remix tape they made of their last record (Villainaire = original record; School Of Villainy = remix tape) is genius. Here’s a video I made for the holidays last year with “MMM” as the soundtrack. My wife thought it was too scary to give to the in-laws, so I changed the music for gift-giving purposes.

Pocket Featuring Craig Wedren “Someone To Run Away From”
Did this song with my friend Richard (a.k.a. Pocket), and I love it so.

Shudder To Think Live From Home
If you weren’t at the shows, get the record. If you were, then you know. So you hopefully already have it. Listen to “Lies About The Sky” live. From home.

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