Shudder To Think- Live From Home

A NEW live album? I didn't now that they had even gotten back together, wow. I'll need to research this more and see what the lineup is/was.

'Pony Express Record' is an unfairly ignored masterpiece. I hope that somebody picks that in the ALBUM OF THE MONTH thread, now that I think of it.

Pony Express Record was actually on my short list for the album club, but I was afraid it would be too obvious coming from me. I somehow missed the new album entirely, but it'll be snapped up ASAP. They do have an earlier live album, but it's pre-PER (although that lineup was mostly in place by then).

I saw them on the reunion tour and was satisfied, but not blown away like I'd partially expected to be (only partially, since you can't expect a band who hasn't played together in ten years to get it together completely for a short reunion tour).

For someone just getting started with these guys (I read the AVClub interview last week, only heard the stuff from the First Love, Last Rites soundtrack with Buckley and Doe thanks to summer_smile), whiere should I begin? Pony Express Record?

Definitely. It's one of those unusual cases in which the most out-there album is the best starting point, since nothing else sounds quite like it in their catalog or anywhere else. There's a slow leadup to it in their earlier work, but most bands would probably take another two or three albums to get from the sound of Get Your Goat to Pony Express Record.

And afterwards, they decided to take all of that strangeness and go pop on 50,000 B.C., which is also pretty darn exceptional in my book.

I need to dig out my old STT albums, if even just to listen to Rain Covered Cat. Such an awesome some.

Just giving Pony Express Record a quick listen before work starts, and holy shit, Hit Liquor.

Yeah, PER went from "not even on my radar" to "I love this album and this band is fucking awesome". Should I go with 50,000 B.C. next? If not, now what?

Just stick with PER, I'm afraid. Get Your Goat & the first 2 albums are certainly not bad to moderately good even, but like others said here: PER is such an awesome high note in their career, everything else kinda pales in comparison.

If I remember right (it has been ages since I heard it) 50,000BC was very much a downer.

I have to slightly disagree with the guy above me; while PER is still probably STT's best record, I think Get Your Goat is almost as good. Funeral at the Movies and the 7" split with Unrest are also worth listens. I'd only recommend 50,000 B.C. if you fall totally in love with the band and feel like you need to hear all their records.

I like Get Your Goat, but I vastly prefer 50,000 B.C - love it, in fact. No album with pop songs as good as "Survival," "Saddest Day of My Life," and "Man Who Rolls" deserves the "completists only" label.

GYG and 50,000 are both simpler than Pony Express Record, composition-wise, but one critical difference between the two is Nathan Larson, whose distinctive guitar playing and composition style had tons to do with the evolution on PER and hadn't joined the band until after GYG. The other is that, while GYG is simpler by virtue of being a lead-up to PER, 50,000 is a deliberate pulling back. It's their attempt at making a power-pop album using some of the bizarre tricks they perfected on PER.

Actually, the album closest in style to PER is Mind Science of the Mind, Larson's semi-solo album - it's kind of the midway point between PER and 50,000 with more of a blue-eyed soul bent (and no Wedren on vocals, of course). That might be harder to track down, though.

Knowing Jake's tastes a bit, I'm thinking he'd also really like their soundtrack for First Love, Last Rites, which is far more straightforward than 50,000. They snagged a ton of great guest vocalists (Robin Zander, John Doe, Jeff Buckley, Liz Phair, the folks from Low, etc.) and seem to be having fun with genre-hopping.