#the moon is in the wrong place

[fidjiefidjie]

Bon Soir 💟 🦗🎸🫘🆕️

Shannon & The Clams 🎶 Bean Fields

(The Moon Is In The Wrong Place)

[sinceileftyoublog]

Shannon and the Clams' Rock Mantras

Shannon and the Clams

BY JORDAN MAINZER

On "Real or Magic", a heartbreaking standout from Shannon and the Clams' latest album The Moon Is In The Wrong Place (Easy Eye Sound), lead singer Shannon Shaw asks, "Was it real?" and then confirms, "It was so real." She's referring to a night when Joe Haener, her late fiancée, appeared to her in a dream. The song, like a lot of the band's previous material, recalls 60's doo wop, guitarist Cody Blanchard's falsetto in harmony with Shaw's pained wail. But the way Shaw sings the words "So real" reminds me of the Jeff Buckley song of the same name. Notably, Buckley pronounces the phrase to sound like the word "surreal" as he describes the mind-bending ways in which sensory triggers can make the intangible, tangible. On The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, Shaw illustrates how mourning a loved one can feel surreal, and not just in making multiple references to Salvador Dali. Throughout the record, she feels Haener's presence, culling from songs from various eras, ideas of the cosmos, and, unexpectedly, sights of SpaceX shuttles, to describe how Haener is now Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Shannon and the Clams' Cody Blanchard & Shannon Shaw

The backstory of The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, in a twist of cruel irony, is a real-life tale of the teenage tragedy songs that so much early Shannon and the Clams material was at least adjacent to, if not reminiscent of. Weeks before Shaw was set to marry Haener in 2022, he died in a car crash. Shaw was, of course, heartbroken, but so was the entire band. From the moment Shaw and Haener reconnected after they had been in the same Bay Area punk scene for years, Haener would join the Clams on tour so he could be with Shaw. Blanchard, keyboardist Will Sprott, and drummer Nate Mahan considered him an honorary member of the band. In the wake of Haener's passing, when set to make a record, the band switched-up their creative process, jammed more, and shared ideas back and forth. The result is the most versatile Shannon and the Clams record yet, especially as it pertains to Shaw's voice, sweet and mournful beyond her trademark rasp. Blanchard, per usual, gets a few songs, this time to share his mourning; Sprott takes a rare lead on "UFO". And when it came time to title the album, they chose a prescient phrase that Haener said to Shaw before his death: "The moon is in the wrong place."

Shannon and the Clams' Nate Mahan, Blanchard, & Shaw

But as much as The Moon Is In The Wrong Place pays tribute to Haener, it's also an album about perspective and the radical act of learning to move on in the wake of tragedy. Sometimes, that's through humor: On the bouncy, peppy "Bean Fields", a song inspired by stargazing at Haener's family farm, Shaw sings, "My bra is full of crystals and tiny pics of you." But she chooses to live for Haener. "I'm living out of boxes / I packed them two by two / I gotta keep on chooglin' / That choice was taken from you," she sings, finding solace in rock and roll. "So Lucky" represents the mantra version of "Real or Magic", but this time, there's no doubt: "It was all real and you were you." Even Blanchard's layered "What You're Missing" contains dark admissions that "life goes on." That is, as much as he sings, "The people will mistake you for somebody who's doing alright," the song's real kicker comes later. "Well, the birds won't mind you, living beside you / Building a nest where they'll die." Death is a part of life, and sometimes, the "death and taxes" mental approach can help you not wallow.

Blanchard & Shaw

Another way Shannon and the Clams have moved on? Playing live. On Tuesday at Lincoln Hall, not only did the band not mention the context of The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, but they didn't mention the album at all until the encore, before they played an extra twinkly "Real or Magic". (Shaw called the record "the most special thing we've ever done.") On the surface, it makes sense: Moon's songs' aesthetic fits with the band's back catalog, and sliding in older songs serves to emphasize the variance in Shaw's vocals. She coos on the skipping, staccato "The Moon Is In The Wrong Place", then belts a gravelly rasp on "Sleep Talk" from the 2011 album of the same name. The songs Blanchard leads, too, work as a one-two punch no matter what album they were on, the harmonic and arpeggiated "The Hourglass" giving way to the whistling, soulful gallop of Onion cut "I Leave Again". And then there's a song like album opener "The Vow", heartbreaking considering Shaw was going to surprise Haener with it on their wedding day. But hearing it live, when the band segues from breezy nostalgia to Latin-inspired keyboard swells, at which point Shaw speaks, "I wanna hear those vows / I wanna hear how you're always gonna love me / And I wanna hear it now," is more hopeful than sad. 60's style love anthems remain timeless because love remains powerful. Shannon and the Clams' latest songs may have been born out of horrific circumstances, but who's to say they might not further create more devotion in the world?

[xitsensunmoon]

I love the au's where people use the tragedy & comedy masks but I think I have an unpopular opinion

I think Sun should be the tragedy and Moon should be the comedy.

Because literally

Sun in every game: oh my GOD what did I do to deserve this. I'm so miserable, I'm in pain, why am I even here

Meanwhile Moon: hehe hoohoo

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 341

Danny sighs as the sound of a falling shelf reaches him, quickly followed by twin snarls. He takes a breath, even if he hasn’t needed to breathe since he was fourteen, and counts to ten as he pauses in making dinner. 

“Ellie, Dan, what’ve I said about throwing each other into the shelves-” 

He stops as he comes to the living room doorway, both of the gremlins freezing mid-stuffing an unconscious vigilante out the window, feathers puffed up. Dear Ancients he does not want to deal with this today, but it’s not like life ever cared about what he wants in any situation. 

“Elnath, Jordan, you better not be about to toss that person out the window-” 

[tagidearte]

DCA Sketch dump from the last few days... Well, mostly Moon, but what's new?

[serpentface]

This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.

[moonlit-dreamers]

so... i got silly after reading this fic by @storytellingbadger (which i definitely havent reread like 3 times now >.>)

it was just too cute i couldnt resist

new ship to become obsessed with: sun x spaniard

i will never recover

REBLOGS APPRECIATED!!

screams and close ups under the cut

coloring in spaniard and how i imagine they look took... *checks watch* a few.. hours- was actually way more complicated than i thought itd be- i also tried to add the glass effect but i just couldnt make it work (i cant draw glass OR metal and yet here we r) so i just gave up and didnt add it.

but anyway

i will never be normal again. im so mentally unwell over this ship u dont understand-

im just. a huge sucker for semi/non sentient ais slowly learning and feeling emotions and falling in love with another person OTL i also love creator x creation WHICH i consider this to technically be since sun was the one who fixed the computer which then made spaniard.

but just. *points at them* look at these pathetic gay losers. i would die for them. i need them to kiss right fucking now. theyre dynamic is too fucking cute and im going to lose my FUCKING MIND

ALSO ALSO fucking OBSESSED with spaniard just- never actually physically touching someone before. and just finally getting to hold sun, finally getting to feel him, to hold and cradle with their own hands. actually getting to look at him up close. they helped build his body, they know every detail down to each bolt, and yet theyve never actually seen him so close. get to see their work, their beautiful sun, so closely in a way that they only couldve ever dreamed of before-

ahem. uhm. yeah.

[romancepartner]

been on such a shannon & the clams kick lately. i 1000% need this during a heist scene.

[transgenderfivepebbles]

the expectation for the meaning of existence

[manitat]

Shannon & The Clams - The Moon Is In The Wrong Place

[o0o0thorn0o0o]

Hey, um, so it’s been a while, but first, have a redraw. Old versions at the bottom of this post (+ a sketchier sketch of this, as I quite like it. I think it’s mainly ‘cause I still haven’t found a way to draw eye smile wrinkles that I’m satisfied with, ackk).

I think I could’ve done a touch better, but I’m also a touch out of practice, so I’m not gonna fuss. Am just gonna be pleased with my progress—especially compared to the very first version. My somewhat recent disillusionment with my art style (yes, I kinda had another bout)? *Poof*, disappeared into pleasing contentment 😌

But, uhhh, yeah. Not my longest disappearance, sure? But I also disappeared just before that, too ^^; A large part of it had to with there being 3 weddings during December/early January—I might make a post about it ‘cause of some gifts I drew. We’ll see.

After finishing those gifts, I didn’t have much if any time to draw, and then I felt lacking, and yada yada yada, I’ve repeated this tale more than once. But yeah, I have been drawing quite a bit since around halfway/late January, though it’s mostly OC stuff. And not fandom OC stuff—original work ones—but they aren’t nearly ready for showing just yet.

I just got a random spurt a week or two ago to draw other stuff again, so I’ve got quite a few sketches to post. Ramadan’s just around the corner, and I take my planned break for it, so I was considering posting until after it… but I didn’t want to wait too long to post my annual redraw. So, while I’ll still be taking a drawing break for Ramadan, I plan on posting my sketches every few days. They’ll most probably bleed into Ramadan—perhaps even a good chunk in; we shall see—and I do plan on drawing more sketches just before it starts anyhow. I should at least get a Yukiko birthday piece done beforehand.

But yeah, I missed Tumblr, eheh…

Anyway, the sketchier sketch + older versions:

[starheirxero]

Watched yesterday's ep and while I am glad that Earth isn't just going to be in insane amounts of pain forever, I am 1) hoping Earth's hesitation when she was reminded Lunar was kicked out Means Something, and 2) distracted by the fact that Moon now wants to find Lunar ???

Like. Please correct me if I'm stretching here. But does it not feel a lil stalker-y to tell someone they cannot come near you or your family or anywhere y'all usually stay,,, but then also. go out of ur way to find out where that person is??? Like it feels weirdly conflicting to me?!?!

We know this is already a Moon-type activity (Nexus did the same thing with the drones when they first ran off) but that just feels. invasive. yk???

[aquacomet]

Fanart of Sunna and Meno, the sun and moon gods from @pillowspace's Celestial Sundown AU! I like their designs a bunch so had a blast doodling this up during the DCA weekly magma!

Bonus sneaky Moon from a tea party collab below:

[lucreziaces]

they both have such full moon energy to me 🌕✨🌙