Hit Liquor by Shudder To Think

Combining discordant guitars with oddball lyrics sung in a quasi-operatic falsetto does not, on paper, sound like a winning formula. Somehow, Shudder to Think make it work.

Hit Liquor is from Shudder To Think’s 1994 major label debut, Pony Express Record. Like Jawbox, the band left Dischord for a major label in the mid-90s alt rock boom. Unlike Jawbox, their potential for mainstream appeal is perhaps less immediately obvious. They have it all: discordance, weird song structures, odd time signatures, bizarre lyrics. That some major label executive heard this and said, “yeah, we can move some units with these boys” is testament to what a glorious decade it was.

All that said, of all their output Hit Liquor is easily among their more accessible tracks. There’s even a music video. Still, there’s hardly a “normal” chord in it and the whole thing feels tense and off-kilter.

Aside from a handful of one-off reunions, Shudder to Think are no longer active. Guitarists Craig Wedren and Nathan Larson went on to be successful composers for film and TV. Larson also had a stint in the studio band for Late Night Show with Seth Myers, and is a curator of experimental music events with the Lumen Project.

Lesson

We’re in E standard, but that’s about all that’s standard. The main verse riff centres around a Bmaj7 with a flat 5, punctuated with some double stops:

What passes for a chorus keeps leaning on that flat 5 or tritone idea, serving to build more tension rather as opposed to the release of a typical chorus:

We come close to finally releasing the tension with a bridge and improvised solo section. To get the rhythm for that pattern on the upper strings, try pressing the pick into the string just enough to push “through” to the next one — almost like sweep picking. You’ll find it settles into its own rhythm.

And ultimately the release is… pretty much the noise of open strings, leading into essentially a repeat of the verse.

Weird, but it works.