Shake Your Diamonds

"Shake Your Diamonds"
Single by The Rentals
Album	Q36
Released	June 23, 2020
Recorded	Alphaville Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Battle Born Studios, Las Vegas, NV
Length	4:17
Writer(s)	Matt Sharp
Producer(s)	The Rentals
Status	Officially released
The Rentals singles chronology
"Goodbye, Steve" (2020) "Shake Your Diamonds" (2020)
Q36 track listing
"Shake Your Diamonds" (1) "Nowhere Girl" (2)

"Shake Your Diamonds" is a song by the Rentals. It is the first track and sixteenth and final single from the band's fourth album, Q36, and was released on June 23, 2020, three days ahead of the album's formal release.

Overview

The limited-run merchandise item for "Shake Your Diamonds" was a t-shirt designed by Ivan Minsloff.

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Press release

[Original link]

September 22, 1969. The Moon landing and Woodstock are in our rear-view mirror and the tragedy at the Altamont Raceway is still a few miles ahead. “Sugar, Sugar” by a fictional pop group called The Archies reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart and in two days the Chicago 8 Trial is set to begin. “The Godfather” sits at the top of The New York Times best seller list, while Charles Manson sits down in jail. The following day “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” will open in theaters nationwide when the rumors that PAUL is DEAD officially begin. Vietnam is a total mess, Lyndon Baines Johnson is our president and at Lop Nor, China just performed its first nuclear test in over a year. Born under mushroom clouds, in 1969… New York, NY (June 23, 2020) - TODAY, The Rentals’ new single and TNT-charged, double-album opener “Shake Your Diamonds” has just been dropped alongside possibly the most eye-popping music video since Peter Gabriel threw down the seizure-inducing “Sledgehammer” at the zenith of MTV. The viscerally bombastic pop song is a call to arms in class-warfare during a science-fiction clusterf%*k called the last day on earth. Shake’s series of synthetic, sonic explosions never relents from the first downbeat through to the very last. Break down the palace gates and dance tonight! The group’s lyricist and lead vocalist Matt Sharp explains the song’s origins: “I was born into a napalm-soaked world of ultra-violence in the midst of a meaningless war where, between all sides, over one million three-hundred fifty thousand murders took place. That’s where ‘Shake Your Diamonds’ begins.” My soul is not at peace under the blood-red sky Thailand ’69. “I was born in Bangkok, during the Vietnam War,” Sharp continues. “My father worked there from ’66 to 1970. The U.S. Military outsourced the company he was employed by. Uncle Sam even flew over a red Ford Mustang just to sweeten the deal for him. His job, best I can tell, was to interview insurgent prisoners, Vietcong POWs and poverty-stricken villagers who lived in bamboo huts far outside the city center. He was there to gain a better understanding of what really motivated the enemy soldiers to keep on fighting. John Milius and Francis Coppola couldn’t have written it any better, but in my father’s case, it was actually true. During the late ‘70s and right on through the entire decade of the ‘80s I can remember feeling this utterly naive, but profound sense of envy that my father and mother got to live through such eventful and extraordinarily meaningful times, while all my friends and I got were ‘Family Ties’ and ‘The Cosby Show'. Not that I think my feelings are altogether unique. My guess is that every generation is doomed to feel that somehow they missed out.” I’ve dreamt of Armageddon, all my splendid life. It’s finally here and I don’t know what to do… June 23, 2020. Vietnam has reported only 335 coronavirus cases, but the whole rest of the world is a bloody mess and Donald John Trump is our president. White Fragility records its twelth week atop of the New York Times best seller list, "Trollz" by 6ix9ine hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and we are still at the early stages of facing a global pandemic where the grim toll has already reached over 440,000 deaths worldwide, but people are still willing to risk their lives for a table at The Cheesecake Factory. Before George Floyd, people actually considered Tiger King a universally shared experience, but since Mr. Floyd’s senseless murder, people from all over everywhere have shown us what it means to truly come together. Hopefully that sense of unity will bring far reaching and meaningful change to problematic systems in all corners of the earth. Meanwhile, North Korea’s last nuclear test was in September of 2017 and Paul McCartney is still alive. Will the next generation look at us and feel they missed out? In Memory: Richard Gene Sharp (May 22, 1941 – April 4, 2016)

Personnel

• Matt Sharp - vocals
• Nick Zinner - guitar
• Ronnie Vannucci - drums
• The Gentle Assassins Choir - vocals
• Keith Murray - vocal harmony
• Dave Fridmann - mixing
• Ryan Smith - mastering

Audio

The lyric music video features visuals by Clarence Lynn and was released alongside the song on June 23, 2020.

Z36

On January 7, 2020, Matt Sharp announced via social media[1] that he would be remixing a series of songs from Q36 and releasing them under the title Z36, beginning with "Invasion Night". "Shake Your Diamonds" was the sixth remix to be released, on July 1, 2020.

Lyrics

My soul is not at peace under the blood red sky
As Q36 rains vengeance down on us tonight

Wake up the King and Queen and tell them the news
The words of H.G. Wells are all coming true

Break down the palace gates and dance tonight! (Shake your diamonds)
Raise up your glass and toast the afterlife! (Shake your diamonds)

(Shake your diamonds; shake your diamonds)

Born under mushroom clouds in 1969
I’ve dreamt of Armageddon, all my splendid life

It’s finally here and I don’t know what to do
Should I confess my velvet crimes to the mercy of the moon?

Break down the palace gates and dance tonight! (Shake your diamonds)
Raise up your glass and toast the afterlife! (Shake your diamonds)

(Shake your diamonds; shake your diamonds)

I’m moving through acres of movers and shakers
But, I’m still a believer in my underachievers
 
Break down the palace gates and dance tonight! (Shake your diamonds)
Raise up your glass and toast the afterlife! (Shake your diamonds)
Now, put your arms around and hold me tight! (Shake your diamonds)
This is the last dance on this royal (Q36) night! (Shake your diamonds)

(Shake your diamonds; shake your diamonds)

Shake your diamonds, in the afterlife!

Q36 rains vengeance down on us tonight

See also

• The Rentals
• List of Matt Sharp songs