Acclaimed post-hardcore art rock pioneers SHUDDER TO THINK release the video for “Release the Ball,” the latest from the Who Sent You EP – released last month via Dischord Records. The highly anticipated project marks their first in almost three decades and can be streamed / purchased here. The video, directed by frontman Craig Wedren, reflects the track’s stark, intimate and emotional sentiment featuring live footage of the band, and can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Ld4g5vhuMdQ.
Of the track, the band notes: “Craig had a little looping guitar figure inspired by Arthur Russell. 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.”
The band previously released EP singles including the well-received title track and their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do,” which Stereogum called “an urgently splintered take” further stating, “they make it sound a whole lot like a Shudder To Think track.” To celebrate the EP’s release, Shudder To Think recently played three packed shows – their only this year – in Philadelphia, New York City and Los Angeles. The sets featured songs from the new EP alongside fan favorites. In addition to the EP release, Dischord Records has repressed the band’s 2025 “Thirst Walk” / “Playback” 7”.
In 2024, Shudder to Think celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1994 album Pony Express Record – their first album on Epic Records, following several releases on Dischord Records. In their recent 9.1-rated Sunday Review of the album, Pitchfork noted that it is “one of the strangest, most exhilarating products of the post-’Nevermind’ alternative rock boom …a unicorn, powerful and iridescent and lithe, in shiny black latex. A sexy horse, charging triumphantly into the unknown” and Stereogum called it “a masterwork of alternate dimension progressive pop.”
By the late-90’s, Shudder to Think 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 the Todd Haynes epic, Velvet Goldmine. Wedren and Larson have gone on to be prolific film and television composers with Wedren working on YELLOWJACKETS, Wet Hot American Summer, The School Of Rock, Laurel Canyon and more; and Larson working on Our Idiot Brother, The Skeleton Twins, Juliet, Naked and High Fidelity (TV series), among others.
The band’s current lineup features Pony Express Record-era bandmates Craig Wedren on lead vocals, Nathan Larson on guitar, and Adam Wade on drums alongside Clint Walsh on guitar and Jherek Bischoff on bass.
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