[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAgPZLj_sXc[/youtube]
Shannon and the Clams are costumey. Shannon and the Clams are 50s-ey with shimmering surfy guitars. Shannon and the Clams are a good time, if “Corvette” is any indication.
Not that the song is one big party. It’s wracked with loneliness and regret, about something that felt like the real thing but turned out to be just another sham. But the sound and the performance make me feel like their shows are riveting, and they have plenty of upbeat songs to get everyone at your dance party doing the Monkey.
But let’s talk about this video. It pulls in 3 time periods, by my count – it starts out looking like what music videos would look like if they existed during silent film times (I know that doesn’t make much sense but stay with me), gets cartoonishly, garishly 50s when singer Shannon Shaw is tooling around in a Corvette with her fella, and then, when she’s “waiting for a Corvette that never comes,” she’s in a depressed, washed-out, post-bust small town – any town where the boom of the 50s has cratered and never been built back up. This is smart pop and sad pop and sometimes it’s weird pop, and you need it.
Shannon and the Clams are heading out on tour shortly in support of their latest album, Gone by the Dawn; they’ll swing through Boston on October 19th, at Great Scott. At least one of their tour dates is with John Waters. John Waters!
End of a love affair or of an era, Shannon and the Clams’ “Corvette” is a wistful gem: http://t.co/57ymjvyZXW
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