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Shannon Shaw - What's In My Bag?
Singer Shannon Shaw (Shannon & The Clams) goes shopping at Amoeba Music in Los Angeles. Her debut solo album 'Shannon ...
About Shannon Shaw
Shannon Shaw, the singer of Shannon & The Clams, participated in the "What's In My Bag?" series at Amoeba Music in Hollywood in 2019. During the segment, Shaw discussed her personal taste in music, film, and literature. She described her favorite books as Michelle McNamara's work on the Golden State killer and "In Cold Blood." Shaw also spoke about a box of tapes she found that she said changed her life, which included "Cruisin'" compilations and Thrasher skate rock comps, and noted that she listened to the tape box for two years. Shaw shared anecdotes about her shopping experience, including a previous encounter at Waterloo Records in Austin where she said a man followed her and purchased two records she had set aside. She also expressed admiration for a Caetano Veloso Tropicalia record, stating she never wants it to end, and described Scott Walker as a "very interesting character" with good use of orchestra.
Transcript (13 segments)
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Shannon Shaw0:00
Hi, I'm Shannon Shaw and I'm at Amoeba in Hollywood and you are watching What's In My Bag.
The first thing I found today was like two feet out of the door downstairs and it was this 'Watcher in the Woods' poster. It's a Disney-produced movie in the late 70s. I think they were trying to do more kind of scary or slightly more grown-up stuff. But this is a very crazy tale. I'm an illustrator and this is my favorite style of illustration. I love it. It's very me. And it's a good movie. It's like really messed up. Stop, you're drowning her! Let me go. Stop! Get out of my way.
This book is Michelle McNamara, rest in peace. She was writing about the Golden State killer who was actually found a few months after this book was released. And on top of it being so smart and you could just feel all the research that she did, it's so beautifully written. It's like one of the most beautifully written books. This and 'In Cold Blood' are probably my top two favorite books. So I'm trying to not finish the end. I'm finding other things to read so I don't... Do you ever just want something to not be over? He was about 20 feet away. A man in a brown ski mask and black knit mittens who was wearing no pants. He had a belt on with some kind of sword in it. 'I'm playing tricks with your mom and dad,' he said. 'Come watch me.'
This Caetano Veloso Tropicalia record. I never want it to be over, and I always want there to be... I just have this feeling that there's these songs that didn't get released with this that I want to hear, y'know. I'm just so obsessed with it. It's so good start to finish. And he has such a compelling, emotional story. I don't know how many people know about him but you should read about him. He's a very good character. I have a lot of compassion for him and this music is incredible.
And Scott Walker/The Walker Brothers. Another very interesting character. Such a great musician, such good use of orchestra with rock n' roll. I don't even know if you'd call it rock n' roll, probably not. Anyway, I love it. Everything he does is really good. I'm always surprised when I hear something new.
'Cruisin' 1960.' Ok, I love these records, there's a collection of them. And it's from WKBW in Buffalo, New York. It's a DJ but he's announcing in between all the songs. It feels like you're listening to the radio in 1960. But it just like, I don't know, I feel privy to a slice of life that I missed.
I found a box of tapes that changed my life. It was a case, with a little handle and you open it up and there's two sides of tapes. In it was a few of these 'Cruisin'' comps and this OMD tape. I mean, this is a CD but it was a tape originally and this was tape and a bunch of the Thrasher skate rock comps from the 80s. And I just somehow got all these tapes at the same time and became obsessed and I only listened to the tape box for like two years.
Bobby Darin. 'Dream Lover' is just a song that's just been like my soundtrack since I was a little kid. I've always loved it. I feel like, and tell me if I'm wrong, this could be like weird kid memory. In the second Pee Wee, 'Pee Wee's Big Top Adventure' isn't there a part where a lady's riding a horse and 'Dream Lover' is playing? Is that in Pee Wee? That's in some movie, I'm telling you.
Dick Stusso is one of my favorite artists right now. He's out of the Bay Area. He's someone that should be much larger. He borderlines country and folk, maybe like a pinch of Pavement. Y'know a quarter cup of Roger Miller. The rest is just very Dick Stusso. It's so good, they're really fun live. And the music video that's for the single off this, 'In Heaven' it's one of the best videos I've seen in years. And it's just him on a beach, at a couch. Y'know, he looks like he's lounging in a beautiful living room, but it's on the beach. And it's just simple, it doesn't say the name of the band, the name of the director. It's just, I don't know, very special.
Sunny & The Sunliners. I was really happy to find this. I wanted it on vinyl but I lost steam is the truth. But I found the CD and I would definitely listen to it in my car. This album I've always wanted to get, because I heard it once at a party and was having this moment where nothing at the party mattered. Only what I listened to mattered. And I was just having this experience that people were trying to talk to me and I was trying to interact with them but I wasn't listening to them at all. I just couldn't. There was nothing I could do about it. And I keep trying to get this on vinyl but things keep getting in my way. The last time I tried to get this, there was a very weird man following me around at Waterloo in Austin. Very creepy man following me around. I put two records aside. It was Sunny and the Sunliners and a Wilson Pickett record. He took them both and bought them for himself. And he knows they were mine.
That's what's in my bag.
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Interviewer7:25
Awesome, thank you so much.
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Shannon Shaw7:27
You're welcome.