Shannon and the Clams / Dreams In The Rat House
Album: | Dreams In The Rat House | Collection: | General | |
Artist: | Shannon and the Clams | Added: | Jul 2013 | |
Label: | Hardly Art |
A-File Activity
Add Date: | 2013-07-14 | Pull Date: | 2013-09-15 |
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Week Ending: | Sep 15 | Sep 8 | Sep 1 | Aug 25 | Aug 18 | Aug 11 | Aug 4 | Jul 28 |
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Airplays: | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 5 |
Recent Airplay
1. | Dec 14, 2023: | down in the basement
I Know |
4. | May 18, 2023: | down in the basement
Hey Willy |
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2. | Oct 05, 2023: | down in the basement
Hey Willy |
5. | Nov 10, 2022: | down in the basement
Heads Or Tails |
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3. | Jun 29, 2023: | down in the basement
I Know |
6. | Sep 29, 2022: | Down in the Basement
Heads Or Tails |
Album Review
Wallace Brontoon
Reviewed 2013-07-15
Reviewed 2013-07-15
Local '50s/'60s/girl-group/surfy/garage weirdo combo. TERRIFIC. Husky-voiced Shannon leads here, with some input by Cody Blanchard; it has a similar vibe and overlapping personnel with Hunx and Punx. Shannon's voice is low and powerful and does anything the best girl-group singers and doo-woppers could do back in the day. '50s/'60s teeny ballroom sound, chattering percussion, spooky lo-fi vox, distorted into fuzzy garagey wonder. Consistently terrific album here, you won't do wrong picking by random.
RIYL: B-52's, Revillos/Rezillos, Hunx & Punx, Timber Timbre, also consider who've they'd collabo'd with: Grass Widow, The Intelligence, The Sandwitches, Thee Oh Sees. No FCCs detected.
1 (2:39) **** Plucky surfy guitar, sock hop bounce, muffled squeaky shouting background singers during chorus. "Heeeey! Heeeey!" Fun bridge at 0:45 left. Lots of "Hey Willy" in lyrics.
2 (2:12) **** Full-toned bass, bouncing verse into crescendoing drum-freakout start-and-stop lead-into chorus. Lotsa energy. Emotional screaming bridge with :38 left.
3 (2:15) **** Harsh sounding, driving, menacing yelping growl, crazy overbearing drums... sounds like scuzzy '60s police thriller, with unintelligible menacing by gravel-voiced monster.
4 (3:27) ** Thin-reedy guitar at '50s prom, swaying vox, sappy love song with weirdness in the air... sweet thin mistiness thru everything.
5 (3:45) ** Slower, dirgier, 50s R&Bs-ier sound, cluttered stumbling chorus where everybody yells and fails to harmonize together, charmingly, and saxophone bleats out sadly. Guitar-and-saxophone call-and-response.
6 (3:58) *** Thin VERY surfy guitar to start, mid-tempo upbeat chanting "I hate to wake up..." Goes into "ah-roo [GRUNT]!" animalistic pre-chorus, a bunch of brilliant little flourishes, marches, background yaa-yaa-yaas and yelps, then back to beginning...
7 (2:42) *** Drum intro, Ventures-esque guitar, "I DON'T WANNA DIE" over a bizarre burbling voice, over and over. "DIE DIE DIE!" Absurd simplicity, probably eight words total, and that burbling never stops. Awesome. Surf guitar solo, absurd and skeletal, in last minute. Slowly suffocates into insanity...
8 (3:18) ** Mid-tempo skeleton groove joined by "OH! OH!" accompaniment from time to time.
9 (4:11) *** Etheral chorus "do what i want" piping in throughout... gets into driving drums... It's a hobo on the rails song, with a Country/Western lo-fi garage feel! Was NOT expecting a railroad song. Fun, but a very different feel than the best stuff.
10 (4:21) ** Slow, spare prom sound, with crescendoing guitar stingers stopping and starting. VERY sparse, jerky structure. Doesn't kick into chorus until 2:00 in, gets full and stompy, drives through until end...
11 (2:56) **** Lighter upbeat '50s doo-woppy sound. Light-kicking guitar plucking "oohh oohh" background vox, drum drives through chorus. Beaut of a melody, just a sweet '50s crazy syrupy vaguely creepy sound. Hooky as hell bridge.
12 (4:38) ** "I know/I know" call and response, sweetish murky love song, drowning in military drums in jerky back-and-forth, continues through into end, slowly gaining groove...
RIYL: B-52's, Revillos/Rezillos, Hunx & Punx, Timber Timbre, also consider who've they'd collabo'd with: Grass Widow, The Intelligence, The Sandwitches, Thee Oh Sees. No FCCs detected.
1 (2:39) **** Plucky surfy guitar, sock hop bounce, muffled squeaky shouting background singers during chorus. "Heeeey! Heeeey!" Fun bridge at 0:45 left. Lots of "Hey Willy" in lyrics.
2 (2:12) **** Full-toned bass, bouncing verse into crescendoing drum-freakout start-and-stop lead-into chorus. Lotsa energy. Emotional screaming bridge with :38 left.
3 (2:15) **** Harsh sounding, driving, menacing yelping growl, crazy overbearing drums... sounds like scuzzy '60s police thriller, with unintelligible menacing by gravel-voiced monster.
4 (3:27) ** Thin-reedy guitar at '50s prom, swaying vox, sappy love song with weirdness in the air... sweet thin mistiness thru everything.
5 (3:45) ** Slower, dirgier, 50s R&Bs-ier sound, cluttered stumbling chorus where everybody yells and fails to harmonize together, charmingly, and saxophone bleats out sadly. Guitar-and-saxophone call-and-response.
6 (3:58) *** Thin VERY surfy guitar to start, mid-tempo upbeat chanting "I hate to wake up..." Goes into "ah-roo [GRUNT]!" animalistic pre-chorus, a bunch of brilliant little flourishes, marches, background yaa-yaa-yaas and yelps, then back to beginning...
7 (2:42) *** Drum intro, Ventures-esque guitar, "I DON'T WANNA DIE" over a bizarre burbling voice, over and over. "DIE DIE DIE!" Absurd simplicity, probably eight words total, and that burbling never stops. Awesome. Surf guitar solo, absurd and skeletal, in last minute. Slowly suffocates into insanity...
8 (3:18) ** Mid-tempo skeleton groove joined by "OH! OH!" accompaniment from time to time.
9 (4:11) *** Etheral chorus "do what i want" piping in throughout... gets into driving drums... It's a hobo on the rails song, with a Country/Western lo-fi garage feel! Was NOT expecting a railroad song. Fun, but a very different feel than the best stuff.
10 (4:21) ** Slow, spare prom sound, with crescendoing guitar stingers stopping and starting. VERY sparse, jerky structure. Doesn't kick into chorus until 2:00 in, gets full and stompy, drives through until end...
11 (2:56) **** Lighter upbeat '50s doo-woppy sound. Light-kicking guitar plucking "oohh oohh" background vox, drum drives through chorus. Beaut of a melody, just a sweet '50s crazy syrupy vaguely creepy sound. Hooky as hell bridge.
12 (4:38) ** "I know/I know" call and response, sweetish murky love song, drowning in military drums in jerky back-and-forth, continues through into end, slowly gaining groove...
Track Listing
1. | Hey Willy | 7. | Rat House | |||
2. | Rip Van Winkle | 8. | The Rabbit's Nose | |||
3. | Bed Rock | 9. | Heads Or Tails | |||
4. | Ozma | 10. | Unlearn | |||
5. | Into The River | 11. | Into A Dream | |||
6. | If I Could Count | 12. | I Know |