Shannon & The Clams has announced the release of their widely anticipated sixth studio album, Year Of The Spider, 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.
Shannon & The Clams today share the first song from Year Of The Spider, “Midnight Wine” along with a video directed and hand-animated by the band’s own Cody Blanchard. Blanchard shares in today’s interview with Rolling Stone: “When I wrote this song, I was thinking of friends I’ve had that have died from drug addiction and that feeling of desperation that drives you to seek shelter from reality in drugs. I’ve watched so many artists and outsiders around me struggle and flounder in this way. They die when they can’t find community or peace. It’s heartbreaking.” Watch the animated video for “Midnight Wine” below…
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).
Year Of The Spider Track Listing
1. Do I Wanna Stay (04:28)
2. All Of My Cryin’ (02:29)
3. Midnight Wine (03:18)
4. I Need You Bad (03:03)
5. Year Of The Spider (02:30)
6. In The Hills, In The Pines (02:34)
7. Godstone (02:30)
8. Snakes Crawl (03:17)
9. Mary, Don’t Go (02:53)
10. Leaves Fall Again (02:39)
11. Flowers Will Return (03:21)
12. Crawl (02:19)
13. Vanishing (03:06)
Photo by Kristin Cofer
