This morning, the band confirmed their 17-date headlining tour of the U.S. in cities including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Nashville, and Vegas.
Today, Shannon & The Clams share "Year Of The Spider," the second single from their 6th 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 18th at 10am local time here.
Shannon & The Clams widely anticipated sixth studio album, Year Of The Spider, will be released on August 20th 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 BeeGees - are major musical touchstones for Shaw and Blanchard.
Blanchard mixed 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 bulls 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
Fri-Sep-03 Seattle, WA The Neptune Theatre
Sat-Sep-04 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Thu-Sep-30 Tucson, AZ Club Congress Plaza
Fri-Oct-01 Los Angeles, CA Belasco Theater
Tue-Oct-19 Washington, DC Black Cat
Wed-Oct-20 New York, NY Webster Hall
Thu-Oct-21 Hamden, CT Space Ballroom
Fri-Oct-22 Boston, MA Royale
Sat-Oct-23 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
Sun-Oct-24 Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
Tue-Oct-26 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall
Wed-Oct-27 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall
Thu-Oct-28 Nashville, TN Basement East
Fri-Jan-07 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
Sat-Jan-08 Visalia, CA The Cellar Door
Sun-Jan-09 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern
Tue-Jan-11 Las Vegas, NV Backstage Bar
