Mama

If there were ever two bands who were made to share a slab of wax, it's Guantanamo Baywatch and Shannon & The Clams. Suicide Squeeze Records' latest Portland-based signees, Guantanamo Baywatch, continue their tradition of filtering AM radio rock n' roll, surf, and rockabilly through a layer of punk sleaze into a ribald and hyper-sexualized ruckus with their country-fried two-step "Love Kin." On the flipside, Oakland's Shannon & The Clams invoke golden oldies like Del Shannon, '60s girl-groups like The Shirelles, and the bawdy revisionism of John Waters's '50s throwback films with the prom-theme "Mama". Together, Guantanamo Baywatch and Shannon & The Clams both summon different classic sounds of yesteryear, strip it of it's youthful innocence, substitute Phil Spectors' wall-of-sound production with DIY grit, and wind up re-contextualizing the early pop hit into a new brand of subversive, campy punk rock.