Non-Modern Art Notes: Next year, the National Gallery of Art will mount a major George Bellows retrospective, reports The Washington Post. In other arts news, why is the Post sending its classical critic to review "Degas's Dancers at the Barre" at the Phillips Collection, and not, like, its art critic? I could see assigning it to the dance critic... (UPDATE: Ah! I get it: Art critic Philip Kennicott reviewed a classical concert, and classical critic Anne Midgette reviewed a museum exhibition. Fun?)

High Art: Craig Wedren, former of D.C. art-punk dudes Shudder to Think, has a new solo album, WAND, and Pitchfork digs it: "While 2005's Lapland was stately and muted in its execution,WAND is falling all over itself with ideas. Wedren's voice commands rising and receding string sections, intricate multi-part harmonies, and subtle electronic textures that bloom into full-on rock arrangements. The album's title is apt; though Wedren is joined by a formidable cast of supporting players, much of the record feels conjured out of thin air."

LIBERTÉ: Les Miserables turns 25 this year, and it has a new staging at the KenCen. In today's Post, Peter Marks calls this version "breathlessly staged" and "almost frantically re-engineered." "It’s not the best 'Les Miz' you’ll ever sit through, though it may be the loudest," Marks writes. "it’s as if the new directors brought in for this 25th anniversary production, Laurence Connor and James Powell, decided that the show should be SHOUTED FROM THE ROOFTOPS of Paris." I don't see how that is different from any other Les Miserables I've experienced.

We Got the Sun: Deleted Scenes' kaleidoscopic new video for "Baltika 9" is a trip and a half.

Today on Arts Desk: D.C. hardcore dudes Void discuss their new reissue.

It's been about a decade since we last heard new recordings from Shudder to Think, once a jewel of the District's post-hardcore scene. But the late oughts have been pretty good to its fans: The group reformed in 2008 for some festival dates and a short tour. This September saw the release of a (frankly, quite good) live album. Frontman Craig Wedren recently uploaded to YouTube some band-shot footage of the recording sessions for Pony Express Record, Shudder for Think's 1994 major-label debut.

And now there's The Spanish Amnesian, Wedren's unreleased album of experimental songs, which he committed to seven-track (the eighth track was broken) between 1993 to 1995, but ended up shelving. Wedren is streaming the whole thing on his Web site until Jan. 2 (hat tip: Pitchfork), and he'll begin selling it digitally sometime in 2010.

Of the album, Wedren writes:

My original plan was to release The Spanish Amnesian as a solo album after Pony Express Record,  but I kept running into frustrating snags along the way, and eventually decided that The Fates were telling me to wait.

It remains one of my favorite albums I've had the pleasure/pain ever to work on, and relates directly to some of the more ambient and experimental movie music I've made since, from 'High Art' in 1998, to 'The United States Of Tara', which I'm working on now.

Piecing the record back together led me to a lot of other home recordings, many forgotten or half-remembered.  Listening to them left me with a bittersweet feeling:  so many vaulted ideas, so much ambition, and a boy's voice, high-pitched in tone, and breathy.

My original plan was to release The Spanish Amnesian as a solo album after Pony Express Record,  but I kept running into frustrating snags along the way, and eventually decided that The Fates were telling me to wait.

It remains one of my favorite albums I've had the pleasure/pain ever to work on, and relates directly to some of the more ambient and experimental movie music I've made since, from 'High Art' in 1998, to 'The United States Of Tara', which I'm working on now.

Piecing the record back together led me to a lot of other home recordings, many forgotten or half-remembered. Listening to them left me with a bittersweet feeling:  so many vaulted ideas, so much ambition, and a boy's voice, high-pitched in tone, and breathy.

Expect little of Shudder to Think's taut, high-drama aggression: The Spanish Armenian's 16 tracks range from jagged guitar improvs and deconstructed, Jandek-like electric folk to walls of noise and atmosphere. My current fave: a ragged, brassy ditty called "Secretaries' Lament," which sounds like the misunderstood cousin of a Kurt Weill operetta and probably wouldn't feel out of place in a Charlie Kaufman film.

Image courtesy of Craig Wedren's MySpace page.

Tabi Bonney:

-Missy Elliot is/was great! How did I not list her in my top female rappers?She changed the whole game sonically & visually with Timbo & Hype

-I'm actually listening to my own music "dope" which I don't do after I release it to the world.This joint is tight & I'm not even biased LOL

These United States:

-day off! sittin Oceanside in San Diego, listenin to Everest and The Parson Red Heads, two killer bands we're rockin Los Angeles w tomorrow!

Wale:

-im happy .. but rewriting for the 848774943th time :)

-in the studio with pharrell...i wanna go live...but im not sure if this aircard can take ustream right now

Foul Swoops:

-grabbing all my can goods and headed for the hills. i am not gonna be a part of the race war taking place at the VMAs.

-who's more in the wrong: me for trying to sell an unopened copy of Murmur to Cd Seller or CD Seller for not wanting it?

Craig Wedren

-The Making Of Pony Express Record in all it's raw, mundane glory. http://bit.ly/34tGPe

Tabi Bonney:

–You know how I know I'm a professional rapper now? Cuz I just be randomly grabbing my nuts wherever I am: the dollar store, church, pool etc

–I think that the ppl who named "nutella" were either high or extreme comedians. Ain't no way I will ever try that.

–Don't look away girl just cuz I'm driving my fathers insulation van. LOL

Foul Swoops:

–finally looked at pitchfork's top 500 songs of the 2000's. not a single song from my top two albums this decade. what a bummer.

–too bad the black crowes ruined "hard to handle" because otis really kills on the original.

Craig Wedren

–Beauty book, Hotel De Dream: falling drops of vertebrae=gorgeous neck, cut-glass veil=only kidding yrslf, everyone else knows.

–HUNG ep 8 realgood, my score n cover of Queen's Play The Game been waiting to do that since Camp Modin 1982

Edie Sedgwick:

–Manson all riled up. Won't stop trying to tattoo a swastika on to my forehead. Gotta convince him to do the Rolling Stones lips instead...

–Oasis – the "Family Feud" of Beatles cover bands.

–"Funny People" – kind of the lime flavor in the Judd Apatow Life Saver roll.

Beauty Pill (Chad Clark):

–"Ill Communication" reissue is out. Has anyone ever really stuck their dick in mashed potatoes? Scared to do a YouTube search.

–On second thought, I think inserting genitals into mashed vegetables is more of a Vimeo thing. Next level. No commercial gain. Integrity.

Casper Bangs:

–Just had to pay $580 to prevent NYC from towing the van we borrowed from army of me and then the starter died.

–punks in a white van just rolled up in front of lauriol plaza and said to an old white man, can u tell us how to get to the hood

Craig Wedren (Shudder to Think):

–Guyoncologist=cancer doctor of the man-vaj

–Homealone hexes Cptn Eo after unsolicited reacharound causing everything post-Bad to be actually kind of bad.

Edie Sedgwick:

--Vince Vaughn making me smell his fingers to prove he got lucky last night.

–POV porn too realistic to be fun, but Don Herbert is looking pretty sexy on these old Nickelodeon Mr. Wizard VHS tapes...

–Had to shave my moustache after employer pointed out she has identical moustache. Bastards always finding a new way to keep you down.