The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 — 5A

When most people think of the phrase “clams casino,” they 
think of the popular clam dish. In this case, clams casino is a 
clam on the half shell, covered in butter, garlic, peppers, bacon 
and breadcrumbs. It is an exceedingly popular appetizer in 
New England, and who can blame them? If you like clams and 
bacon and peppers and butter, I’m sure it’s the perfect dish, but 
in my mind, clams casino the appetizer is only the second most 
important Clams Casino.
The most important and most influential clams casino is, of 
course, the now-legendary cloud-rap producer. Clams Casino 
got his start crafting ethereal, sample-driven beats for the likes 
of Lil B, A$AP Rocky and Mac Miller in 2011. At the time, no 
other producer was making beats like Clams, and if they tried, 
they wouldn’t sound anywhere near as good as Clams. In 2016, 
he released his solo debut album 32 Levels featuring the usual 

suspect (Lil B, ASAP Rocky and Vince Staples) 
and some new collaborators like Kelela, Alt-J’s 
Joe Newman and Future Islands’s Samuel T. 
Herring. It was a spectacle. A damn good one 
at that, too.
With his most recent release, Moon Trip 
Radio, Clams Casino has decided to take a 
different approach. Rather than creating an 
album flooded with outside voices, he decided 
to keep things in-house and let the beats speak 
for themselves. Evidently, this decision was a 
good one because Moon Trip Radio is, no doubt, 
Clams Casino’s most cohesive and infectious 
work to date. 
Lead single and album opener “Rune” is 
a slow-burning track, but once it gets going, 
it is white-hot. It’s classic Clams in the best 
way possible. A down-pitched vocal sample 
dominates the track and is backed by stuttering 
drums and warm bell tones. It takes almost two 
minutes and 40 seconds to reach the drop, but 
when the time finally comes, there’s nothing 
better.
Not only is Moon Trip Radio Clams’s most 
cohesive work, but it’s also the warmest 
and most inviting. Clams brings listeners into his world and 
encourages them to stay awhile and explore the landscape. Songs 
like “Healing” and “Twilit” have so many layers for listeners to 
pick apart, from field recordings to resonating piano tones. In 
particular, though, “Fire Blue” begs to be explored. It’s almost 
cavernous in a way; it’s contained far below the surfaces of the 
earth, but it’s also monumental in size. Clams gives the droning 
main sample plenty of room to breath by utilizing minimalistic 
drum hits and synth blasts. The only problem is, once the song 
begins to show its true colors, it abruptly ends, sending listeners 
to the next soundscape.
The flaws (if they’re even there) of Moon Trip Radio never 
make themselves apparent. Sometimes though, it can be hard 

to maintain focus on songs like “Lyre” and “In a Mirror.” 
They’re a little too ambient, a little too aimless, especially when 
surrounded by chillers like “Twilit” and “Soliloquy.” To be 
certain, they’re good tracks, but they should’ve been scattered 
throughout the album rather than back-to-back on the album’s 
backend.
The beats on Moon Trip Radio are definitely chill, but no one 
should ever attempt to study while listening to them — there’s 
just too much to explore. Someone could listen to this album fifty 
times and continue to find new pieces or textures that they never 
noticed before. Moon Trip Radio presents a vast soundscape in 
which everyone is welcome to explore at their leisure, and that’s 
a good thing, because after one listen you’ll never want to leave.

‘Moon Trip Radio’ is Clams Casino at his most inviting

CLAMS CASINO PRODUCTIONS / INSTAGRAM

ALBUM REVIEW

JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer

Moon Trip Radio

Clams Casino

Clams Casino Productions

Pulling off fantasy in movies is hard enough. Adapting 
an entire trilogy to TV is harder. When the 2007 film “The 
Golden Compass” received harsh reviews, it seemed that may 
have been the end of attempting to adapt Phillip Pullman’s 
wildly popular fantasy series. “His Dark Materials” however, 
seeks to revisit the series and explore the world it creates.
Based off the popular trilogy of the same name, “His Dark 
Materials” follows a young girl named Lyra Belacqua (Dafne 
Keen, “Logan”) as she investigates the many secrets within 
her society, run by the oppressive Magisterium. Inspired by 
her uncle, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy, “It Chapter Two”), 
and his work in the northern territories, Lyra learns of a 
mysterious “Dust” that the Magisterium is hiding from the 
public and Asriel’s fellow scholars. 
In the midst of her life at Jordan College in Oxford, 
England, Lyra discovers that her childhood friend, Roger, and 
a boy from a neighboring community have been kidnapped, 
presumably by a group called “The Gobblers.” With the help of 
her animal familiar Pantalaimon (Kit Connor, “Rocketman”) 
and the gift of a golden compass, Lyra and a fellow explorer 
Marisa Coulter (Ruth Wilson, “Luther”) sets out to uncover 
the truth being concealed from the people.
While the visuals and world built in “His Dark Materials” 
are undoubtedly beautiful, nothing about the show so far 
sticks out as particularly incredible. In the backdrop of 
a magical, Lyra’s world is more akin to “Harry Potter” or 

“Lord of the Rings” than a fresh take on the fantasy genre. 
The show’s relationship with its source material seems to be 
its greatest weakness: Every piece of dialogue and exposition 

feels inaccessible to viewers not familiar with the book 
series, yet “His Dark Materials” feels far too generic to be 
unique.

Within the series premiere, very little about the main 
characters or their world is explained, which may be fine for 
a better-known series, but Pullman’s fantasy trilogy seems 
too niche to be understood by a wide audience automatically. 
“His Dark Materials” doesn’t seem interested in answering 
questions and would rather revel in its magical imagery 
and government conspiracy subplot than make its storyline 
clear. 
“His Dark Materials” has a lot of wonderful elements, 
but seems to struggle with how best to put them together 
for an undefined target audience. Not quite a kids’ show 
and definitely not “adult” by any HBO standards, the series 
doesn’t seem to know what its purpose is. The only thing 
propelling the story forward so far is a vague prophecy 
purposefully kept from the audience for suspense. In 
concealing the plot like this, “His Dark Materials” has 
lowered its own stakes in an attempt to raise them. With 
a significant reliance on these types of fantasy tropes, the 
show fails to bring a unique or nuanced take on its own genre. 
After 
an 
underwhelming 
first 
episode, 
“His 
Dark 
Materials” could redeem itself with a more self-aware first 
season that acknowledges the well-worn territory of fantasy 
while leaning into what separates Pullman’s original trilogy 
from the pack. Instead of simply mentioning “Dust” or the 
“Magisterium” or “Gobblers,” “His Dark Materials” could 
embrace its own mythology directly and focus on its most 
compelling details without overusing broader themes. With 
some modifications, this adaptation could work. Without 
revision, the show may fade into the same obscurity its film 
equivalent “The Golden Compass” did.

‘His Dark Materials’ debuts with a lackluster premiere

TV REVIEW

ANYA SOLLER
Daily Arts Writer

His Dark Materials

Series Premiere

HBO

Mondays @ 9 p.m.

Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders emerged from the 
stylings of Foo Fighters in the same way the latter did from 
Nirvana. In 2004, before Foo Fighters even started working on In 
Your Honor, drummer Hawkins pulled together a group of himself, 
Chris Chaney and Gannin Arnold for their debut self-titled album. 
The 2006 release bubbled under the radar but generated a steady 
interest with rock fans and Foo Fighters devotees. It placed rock’s 
favorite grungy surfer dude at the forefront with more leisure for 
humor in rock music than Foo Fighters could ever permit — albeit 
with a not too dissimilar sound. The Coattail Riders made their 
return in 2010 with Red Light Fever, reuniting the trio alongside 
a star spangled set of features including Brian May, Roger Taylor, 
Elliot Easton and, you guessed it, Dave Grohl. Not surprisingly, 

Queen influences tinged many tracks on the album. 
And perhaps it was Hawkins’s destined inferiority to Dave 
Grohl, or the waning traction for grunge rock, or the important 
business of keeping up as Foo Fighters’s drummer, but the follow-
up for Fever seemed out of scope. Nearly a decade passed without 
so much of a mention. However, at the very tail end of 2019, we 
finally reach a continuation with Get the Money.
If Red Hot Fever was star-spattered, Get the Money is the Ringo’s 
All-Stars of punk-rock. The album features contributions from 
Dave Grohl, Jon Davison, Nancy Wilson, LeAnn Rimes, Roger 
Taylor, Pat Smear and Mark King. Queen is yet again a touchstone 
for Hawkins’s work, squealing guitar tips marking up track “Don’t 
Look at Me That Way.” Classic rock influences touch nearly every 
track. “Middle Age” beckons back to the rock age ruled by David 
Bowie in the ’80s. A loving dedication to Hawkins’s daughter, 
the track carries itself on angle-grinder guitars and thrashing 
harmonies that feed into a synthy outro. It shouldn’t work given 
the lyrical content, and it’s arguably doesn’t by 
the end of the song.
Maybe the coattails he’s riding on are his 
own; synth-laden metal intro “Crossed the 
Line” burrows a snippet of Foo Fighters’s 
“Best to You.” Grohl makes three appearances 
across the album. Most notable is his feature 
on lead single “I Really Blew It,” not so much 
for his impressive, shrieking guitar but for 
his screaming “I really blew it” repeatedly 
throughout the intro. This is encapsulated 
perfectly in the track’s music video, with his 
disembodied head in a fireplace yelling. 
Title track “Get the Money,” much like the 
rest of the album, is a labyrinth of genres. A 
psych-inflicted folk intro settles into a reggae 
groove that reverts back before an absolute 
guitar freakout that carries the last quarter of 
the song. Similarly, “C U in Hell” begins with 
a classic rock edge that morphs into a psych 
rock element with spattered piano keys before 
locking into a classic Fighters-esquechorus. 
The lyrics, however, run trite. Hawkins croons 
cliches throughout the song and especially in 
the chorus: “Maybe these oaths were made/ To 
be broken/ Maybe these paths we take/ Have 

been chosen.” The same unfortunately rings true for the rest of 
the album. “Kiss the Ring” presents perhaps the most creative 
and crude rework, “You’re my queen/ And I’m your King/ I wanna 
give you everything/ All you gotta do is kiss the ring.” 
Despite its shortcomings, Get the Money does enough with its 
classic rock worship and synth to not reinvent but toy with the 
wheel a bit. In an age of music absolutely regulated by the push 
and pull of media, rock is in a vulnerable state; it makes sense for 
rock albums with classic artists like Taylor Hawkins to beckon 
back to the sound of rock from the past. This is not to say that rock 
is dead so much as it is to suggest that the shifts of the playing 
field permit more variety in the ways we consume and consider 
music — there’s no classic or grunge rock categories that prevail 
anymore. Rather, rock and its newest artists have made names for 
themselves by implementing newer elements. Hawkins, however, 
has no interest in this and there’s nothing wrong with that. 
Inspired by the oldies, the album feels a lot like it’s for fans of the 
classics too.

‘Get the Money’ plays with the nostalgia of classic rock

ALBUM REVIEW

DIANA YASSIN
Daily Arts Writer

Get the Money

Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail 
Riders

Geffen Records

GEFFEN RECORDS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

