SHANNON & THE CLAMS SHARE NEW SONG AND VIDEO FOR YEAR OF THE SPIDER
READ ABOUT SONG’S “ORIGINS” VIA CONSEQUENCE
SIXTH STUDIO ALBUM YEAR OF THE SPIDER
OUT ON AUGUST 20 VIA EASY EYE SOUND
CONFIRM 17-DATE HEADLINING TOUR
“Shannon Shaw and Cody Blanchard trick out warped Fifties-Sixties rock driven by space-age thrift-shop keyboards, shimmy-shake dance grooves and sexy moonlit vocals—Shaw’s woozy Amy Winehouse-isms are backlit by Blanchard’s shrieky falsetto.” – Rolling Stone
Toronto, ON – June 16, 2021 – Today, Shannon & The Clams share Year Of The Spider, the second single from their sixth studio album of the same name. The band shared the song’s influences with Consequence, which include The Muppets, disco floors, the Hindu goddess Durga, and Os Mutantes. Shannon Shaw said about the song, “Year of the Spider is essentially the summation of my 2019 and 2020. I was being stalked by a peeping Tom for months and months all while my dad was going through radiation treatment while the mountains around us were being ravaged by wildfires. It was an extremely intense time in my life and just could not dampen the desperate desire to feel safe. I became really obsessive and was seeking comfort wherever I could find it.” Read the full interview and watch the Loren Risker directed music video for the song here.
This morning, the band also confirm their 17-date headlining tour of the U.S. in cities including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Nashville, and Las Vegas (full dates below). Tickets for these dates will go on sale on Friday, June 18 at 10 a.m. local time here.
Shannon & The Clams widely anticipated sixth studio album, Year Of The Spider, will be released on August 20 via Easy Eye Sound. For the album, the band, fronted by bass player Shannon Shaw and guitarist Cody Blanchard on lead vocals, with Will Sprott on keyboards and Nate Mahan on drums, returned to Dan Auerbach’s Nashville Easy Eye Sound Studio to craft a mature, reflective and ebullient album built for the current times, on which they have perfected their signature blend of garage psych, doo-wop, classic R&B, and surf rock. Year Of The Spider is available to pre-order on all formats here.
Year Of The Spider, rages against death, darkness, and disease with the power of a thousand angry Ronettes. “It felt like the end of an era,” Shaw said about a writing period that began with the tragic death of The Clams’ former drummer, Mick. In 2016, The Clams’ DIY community suffered the devastating Ghost Ship warehouse fire. In 2018, the California wildfires came unnervingly close to her parents’ homes. In 2019, a lurking intruder drove Shaw to move out of her beloved Oakland apartment she’d lived in for 14 years. And then, right as her band was getting invited on big tours with bands like Greta Van Fleet and The Black Keys, her father was diagnosed with cancer (he has since, thankfully recovered). The resulting album is a reflection and intimate portrait of overcoming seemingly overwhelming odds, and not only surviving but thriving in the process.
The opening track, Do I Wanna Stay, is a slow tango between Shaw and an alluring piano line (Will Sprott). When Shaw rasps, “I dream at night,” she sounds like Brenda Lee whittled into a shiv. All Of My Cryin’, Godstone, and Year Of The Spider, pulse with elegance and punk ferocity. On a Clams record, you always get both. That duality comes from the decade-long creative partnership between Shaw and The Clams’ guitarist, Cody Blanchard. In I Need You Bad, their voices lock into a bewitching minor chord. “It’s like a zipper when we sing together,” Shaw said, “I think we have a blood harmony, though we’re not related.” Bands that do have blood harmonies — the Everly Brothers, the Bee Gees — are major musical touchstones for Shaw and Blanchard.
Blanchard mixed Year Of The Spider at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound Studio the week tornadoes devastated parts of Nashville right before the COVID-19 shutdowns in early 2020. He also wrote and sings lead on roughly half the songs on Spider. His songs, like Flowers Will Return and In The Hills, In The Pines have swelling pop arrangements and a mysteriously sparse falsetto, reminiscent of bands like The Hollies and The Zombies.
Ultimately, Year Of The Spider, despite being written the summer before the world came to a stop, is a prescient album and a reflection on love, loss, and community, and how what we fear can ultimately serve to protect us. “I am terrified of spiders, but my mom always told me that they are drawn to me,” says Shannon Shaw. The turbulent period following the release of the band’s previous album, Onion, allowed Shannon to consider arachnids in a different light. “The symbolism of the spider made a full turn in an interesting way,” she said. “I was getting protection from the thing I feared the most.” Plus, she said, “Spiders destroy the bullshit bugs. Like mosquitoes. Who needs ‘em?”
Shannon & The Clams is Shannon Shaw on bass and vocals, Cody Blanchard on guitar and vocals, Nate Mahan on drums, and Will Sprott on keyboards. The band has developed notoriety for lively and genuine stage performances, including on recent tours opening for The Black Keys and Greta Van Fleet, and a zealous following that craves their particular authenticity and innovation on classic sounds.
Shannon & The Clams 2021 Tour Dates
September 3 - Seattle, WA - The Neptune Theatre
September 4 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
September 30 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress Plaza
October 1 - Los Angeles, CA - Belasco Theater
October 19 - Washington, DC - Black Cat
October 20 - New York, NY - Webster Hall
October 21 - Hamden, CT - Space Ballroom
October 22 - Boston, MA - Royale
October 23 - Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
October 24 - Cleveland, OH - Grog Shop
October 26 - Chicago, IL - Thalia Hall
October 27 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
October 28 - Nashville, TN - Basement East
January 7 - San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore
January 8 - Visalia, CA - The Cellar Door
January 9 - Solana Beach, CA - Belly Up Tavern
January 11 - Las Vegas, NV - Backstage Bar
Year Of The Spider Track Listing
1. Do I Wanna Stay
2. All Of My Cryin’
3. Midnight Wine
4. I Need You Bad
5. Year Of The Spider
6. In The Hills, In The Pines
7. Godstone
8. Snakes Crawl
9. Mary, Don’t Go
10. Leaves Fall Again
11. Flowers Will Return
12. Crawl
13. Vanishing
