The Shipping News - Claws (2006)

After reading Yansmd's previous post about Big Black's performance at T&G's 25th Anniversary Festival, it reminded me of how great of a time it was.  I was at the festival and I have to say that it was three of the best days of my life.  With Big Black being the highlight for me, seeing as that I never did see them play when they were still together.  Those 4 songs alone were worth me traveling almost 2,000 miles to hear.  But there was also a ton of other great bands playing that weekend which brings me to Claws.  The Shipping News were the band that started off the festival and really got the show off to a great start.  The band features Jeff Mueller and Jason Noble of Rodan.  With these two being the core members of Rodan it really is almost as if Rodan never broke up in the first place.  After their great set they announced that they had a free single that they made specifically for the festival and were giving them away to whoever wanted one.  I'm not sure how many were made but they were all gone maybe a hour later.  My guess is the song was probably an outtake from the Flies The Fields session.  The song itself isn't anything particularly special which is probably why it never made the cut in the first place. It's still not bad though and every time I hear it it brings back memories of the festival.  I know that Touch And Go hate blogs posting their albums which is why they never seem to stay up very long and I understand that.  Although this song was never really in print in the first place and there was no money to be made off of it so I really can't see why they would have a problem with me posting this.  But you never know so I'd still grab it quick before it's gone.

Download