Shannon And The Clams represent the spirit of rock 'n' roll, the re-animated corpse of doo wop jivin' down by the candy store.
Blessed with outrageous energy levels and more hooks than a fisherman's bait box, the San Francisco bay area band are a cult property on the west coast.
New album 'Gone By The Dawn' nails the fetid, adolescent thrills of primal rock 'n' roll, yet this isn't some hollow exercise in nostalgia.
As hilariously absurdist as it is explicitly reverent, the record is one of the most unique slabs of guitar pop you'll hear in 2015.
Out now on Hardly Art, Clash invited Shannon And The Clams to pick out some of the way out gems which inspired their new album.
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Joe Meek
Meek is #1. He produced the most perfect weird mix of surreal scifi sounds blended with pop music, totally ahead of his time, totally experimental. He was a DIY self-taught engineer who figured out his own way of making things happen and it came out all weird and amazing because no one had taught him how to do it. Recording technology, at the time, was so experimental anyhow. He's definitely been an influence on how I've recorded things and I learned the same way, starting way back at age 12 experimenting with keyboards and tape recorders. I had no idea what I was doing but just kept trying things until something worked.
I think we have the same spirit in that way. His music is totally enchanting and bewitching and sound like nothing else. I first heard him when I lived with our very first drummer Ian Amberson back in 2008. His friend Michelle made us a mix with a lot of Joe Meek on it.
Bruce Haack
This true Canadian freak was an early enthusiast of synthesizer technology and made a slew of super weird spaced out records. He didn't have much of a sense for pop music, and you can feel that he wanted to be really hard and experimental and challenging, but his demeanor is so non-threatening and gentle that it comes off all twisted and cool. Electronic Record for Children is a good one. I think Ian showed me this guy too! Ian's full of fringe culture gems.
Bruce definitely inspires us to be as weird as we wanna be and to just try things, even if they don't work out. Part of me wishes Bruce Haack would've had a super sharp producer curating his work. Might've gotten some amazing pop music out of it.
Raymond Scott
Scott was, one of (if not) the FIRST synthesizer musicians on planet Earth. He was working with synths before anyone had even attached a piano keyboard to one. It was still just knobs and wires. His format was radio commercial jingles and soundtracks. He would spice up a jingle or a voice-over with weirdo synthesizer noises that the world had never heard before. He was kind of part-foley artist, part-musician. Before working with synthesizer, he did orchestral arrangements for quartets and jazz / big band combos. He has a few famous songs from that era, like Powerhouse. His spirit of experimentation is inspiring and his use of plucky, staccato synthesizer sounds is highly influential on my guitar playing style.
The synthesizer was actually my first instrument. We had one laying around my parents' house when I was a kid and I played it until it broke and all the buttons fell off one by one.
Roger Miller
It's baffling how a man could create such a successful career out of cartoony uncool silly acoustic guitar music. He has SO MANY good songs, it's hard to believe. He started out as a straight country singer then eventually departed into experimental goof stuff. It's funny and catchy and incorporates cartoon elements. He also did the voice of the Rooster in the 1970s Disney Robin Hood animated movie.
I think I first heard him through Shannon or her brother on a mix tape or something. He did a ridiculous Burger King commercial in the early 80s. It gives me hope that America could love him and support him and that a weirdo like this could be a respected functioning artist. His rhyme schemes and phrasing and playfulness is very inspirational, although I don't think it's apparent in our music.
Tiny Tim
Nobody sounds like Tiny Tim. His music is HIGHLY playful and silly but also sad in a weird way. It draws inspiration from vaudeville theatrics and bad jokes. He sings strictly in cartoon voices. His long hair must've looked INSANE at the time. His twisting and mutation and reinterpretation of styles from decades before his time is very similar in some ways to our band. We're both kind of like collage artists, piecing together things from the past and building a new composition with old parts.
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Catch Shannon And The Clams at the following shows:
November
11 London Oslo
12 Brighton Sticky Mike's Frog Bar
