Shannon & the Clams - Onion (Easy Eye Sound , 2018)
Mixing together the doo wop and early rock & roll of the ’50s, the dramatic girl group sounds of the ’60s, and some punky snarl imported from 1977, Oakland, California’s Shannon & the Clams came up with a sound that was charmingly retro but never stale. Formed in the late 2000s by vocalist/bassist Shannon Shaw, vocalist/guitarist Cody Blanchard, and drummer Ian Amberson while going to art school, they began playing shows around town and soon released a single on Weird Hug Records. They next hooked up with 1-2-3-4 Go! Records for their debut album, 2009’s I Wanna Go Home. Around this time Shaw was playing bass and singing in Hunx & His Punx too. After a 2010 full-length, Sleep Talk, for 1-2-3-4 Go! and a long string of singles, they moved over to Hardly Art for their third album.
Dreams in the Rat House was recorded over the course of a year in various locales like Nobunny’s practice space and a log cabin, and featured a tighter, tougher all-around sound. By the time of 2015’s Gone by the Dawn LP, Amberson had left the group and Nate Mahan (aka Mayhem) had taken over the drumming duties. Produced by Sonny Smith at Tiny Telephone Recording in San Francisco, the album was another step forward in sound and craft for the trio.
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