“Sad as the circumstances are surrounding it, the resulting album looks to be the most ambitious one they’ve ever made, leaving the garage for widescreen high-fi production.”
– Brooklyn Vegan
“Shannon and The Clams are the prime example of a retro rock-inspired band that still feels fresh and singular.”
– Paste Magazine
Preparing for the release of their upcoming album, The Moon Is In the Wrong Place, Shannon & The Clams have unveiled an entrancing new ballad ‘Real Or Magic; via Easy Eye Sound.
Penned after singer-bassist, Shannon Shaw, had a vision of her late fiancé bathed in sunlight, ‘Real Or Magic’ is a grainy, doo-wop meets psych-rock contemplation of reality following his death. The accompanying music video sees Shannon as a holographic prom queen accompanied by the band adorned in corsages, and even her dog Spanky-Joe makes a special cameo.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO ‘REAL OR MAGIC’
WATCH THE MUSIC VIDEO HERE
CLICK HERE TO PRE-SAVE THE MOON IS IN THE WRONG PLACE
The album debuts on May 10th on longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys’, acclaimed label Easy Eye Sound. The Moon Is In The Wrong Place opens with ‘The Vow’, a horn-laced number that Shaw wrote with the intention of surprising Joe Haener on their wedding day. The track is a brief glimpse of possibility and hope for what might’ve been, one that is quickly torn to shreds. It’s followed by ‘The Hourglass’, a product of the band’s jam sessions. Intense and unsettling, its hypnotic, lurching groove and cascading organ runs have a touch of off-kilter Krautrock in them; it also offers a look at the volcano of emotion churning inside Shaw’s body.
There are many moments of staggering beauty on The Moon Is In The Wrong Place. In ‘Oh So Close, Yet So Far’, Shaw feels him in the breeze, the stars, and the trees, understanding that now she shares him with everyone. ‘So Lucky’ grew out of a mantra Shaw was repeating in the weeks after Haener’s death, and the lush arrangement shimmers with sadness and gratitude in equal measure as she recounts her favorite little details.
Cody Blanchard also steps up to the mic for lead vocal duties on several tracks that address his experience with loss and grief, including the strutting, fuzzed-out ‘Big Wheel’ and the Northern soul-styled lament ‘What You’re Missing’. Will Sprott makes an appearance as lead singer, describing an otherworldly encounter in the trippy tune ‘UFO’.
Ultimately, Shaw finds something like acceptance. In the album-closing ‘Life Is Unfair’, she spells it out: “Life is unfair, yet beautiful. I see it now.” Existence is both bitter and sweet, sunshine and rain, dark and light, life and death. It’s a little bit of everything. Sometimes the moon is in the wrong place. Knowing that has made her, and The Clams, stronger.
Shannon & The Clams will be touring throughout 2024 to support The Moon Is In The Wrong Place. Tickets can be purchased on the band’s website HERE.
