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The Shins
American indie rock band
The Shins are an American indie rock band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1996. The band is the project of singer-songwriter James Mercer, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes.
The band's current line-up consists of Mercer, alongside Yuuki Matthews, Mark Watrous, Patti King (keyboards), and Jon Sortland (drums). They are based in Portland, Oregon.
The Shins was formed in 1996 by James Mercer, a member of the band Flake Music in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Flake Music (formerly known simply as Flake) consisted of members guitarist/vocalist James Mercer, drummer Jesse Sandoval, keyboardist Martin Crandall, and bassist Neal Langford. The group began in 1992 and released a string of singles, the Spork EP, and an album, When You Land Here, It's Time to Return, which was well received. The band toured with Modest Mouse and Califone. Mercer formed the Shins for a change of pace and enlisted Sandoval on drums. When asked what it was that began his interest in music, Mercer said "... it got me out of my shell and gave me a social life." They began performing as a duo alongside Cibo Matto and...
Mercer described the Shins as a "pop project" from the beginning. The group were inspired by any and all music that they discovered. "Everything we listen to [...] makes its way in somehow, but we've been inspired by a bunch of bands who basically just keep reinventing the same thing", said Mercer. The group received comparisons to the "pop revivalists" at the Elephant 6 Recording Collective early in their career, such as The Apples in Stereo, whilst Mercer's vivid, often surrealist lyrics and infectious melodies drew comparisons to the songwriting style of Robert Pollard from Guided by Voices. Rolling Stone credited the band with bringing "the pop traditions of 1960s pop bands—groups like the Zombies, and the Beach Boys—to a new...
"Australia" is a song by American indie rock band the Shins, and is the second track on their third album, Wincing the Night Away. The song was released as the second single from that album in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2007.
Music video
The official music video was directed by Matt McCormick. Shot in Vancouver, Washington, it shows the band members arriving at a car dealership. While one of them poses as a customer to distract the salespeople, the others coordinate a theft of the many gas-filled balloons the dealership has affixed to their cars to advertise their merchandise. They are discovered but manage to escape with the balloons in their van while the decoy walks away undisturbed. The group picks up the decoy down the road, before driving the van to a field where they release the balloons and watch them rise into the sky.
Reception
"Australia" was well received by critics. Pitchfork wrote that "'Australia' is a peppy rocker in the spirit of Chutes' best, elevated by a newfound confidence and expressive range in Mercer's voice."
"It's Only Life" is a song performed by The Shins, issued as the second single from their album Port of Morrow. The song was written by the band's lead singer James Mercer.
Critical reception
The song has received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Brendan of MusicUnderFire praised Mercer's skills in writing the song and further stated that the song "smashes [the previous single] to pieces". Matt from A Heart is a Spade considered the song a "heart-on-sleeve" track and called its accompanying video "sentimental". Conversely, Michael Roffman of Consequence of Sound gave the song a negative review, stating that the song is "the sort of sappy fluff whose plasticity poisons a genre". The reviews differed in their assessments of the song's songwriting, tone, and overall style.
"New Slang" is a song by American rock band The Shins, released in February 2001 as the lead single from the group's debut studio album, Oh, Inverted World (2001). Written by guitarist and vocalist James Mercer, it concerns his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico and his experiences there in his late 20s.
The lyrics are fueled with "angst and confusion," as Mercer was finding himself constantly depressed and disconnected from his friends and scene. The song attracted attention from Sub Pop Records, who issued the song as a single in February 2001.
Background
The Shins were not truly a band when James Mercer composed the song, and the idea of making music his career seemed uncertain. The song's creation was partially a reaction to the music scene in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the band's hometown, which Mercer described as "macho, really heavy, and aggressive." He characterized it as a punk rock-esque move akin to giving the finger to the entire town. The song was born out of frustration regarding his personal life and future. "It's definitely a moment in my life, that sort of angst and confusion about what my future was going to be," he remarked. He described it as a "Saturn return" period of his life, in which he felt he could not relate to anyone in his hometown and his life there had become...
Critical reception
"New Slang" received positive critical reception. Stewart Mason of the Weekly Alibi in the band's hometown of Albuquerque called it "the most immediately appealing song on the album," praising it as "simply brilliant, [...] mostly acoustic ballad with the absolute finest melody the band has yet concocted and Mercer's typically oblique but evocative lyrics."
Music video
The song's music video was filmed in various locations in Albuquerque and Portland. Among the areas filmed included the Rio Grande, junkyards, and near Mercer's home. The clip was directed by Lance Bangs, an associate of Spike Jonze. It features the band re-enacting the cover art of other bands' albums, including Zen Arcade and New Day Rising by Hüsker Dü, Let It Be by The Replacements, Moon Pix by Cat Power, Double Nickels on the Dime by The Minutemen, Squirrel Bait's first EP, Sonic Youth's Sister and Slint's Spiderland. Shooting in just two cities created logistical problems for album covers originally photographed in cities such as Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Louisville. For the homage to Double Nickels on the Dime, the band had to...
"Phantom Limb" is a song by American indie rock band The Shins, and is the fourth track on their third album Wincing the Night Away. The song was also released as the first single from that album in the United States on November 14, 2006 as a digital download and a week later on CD.
On January 22, 2007, "Phantom Limb" was released as a single in the United Kingdom. This song was #75 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.
Music video
The accompanying music video, directed by Patrick Daughters, includes dramatizations of the stories of Joan of Arc, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and the Donner Party, all played by children and the band themselves.
"Simple Song" is a song by American indie rock band The Shins from their fourth studio album Port of Morrow. Written by the group's frontman James Mercer, the song was released as the first single from the album.
Background
In an interview with Q, the band's frontman, James Mercer, has stated that the song was "about my wife, our relationship and this whole new life we [had] ahead of us." Additionally, Mercer stated that the song was also, in part, about the departures of drummer Jesse Sandoval and keyboardist Martin Crandall from The Shins.
Music video
The surrealist music video, staged as Mercer's funeral, was directed by DANIELS, a directing duo best known as the team behind the video for the song "Turn Down for What", and the films Swiss Army Man and Everything Everywhere All at Once. His backing band at the time, Richard Swift, Joe Plummer, Yuuki Matthews and Jessica Dobson, appeared in double roles as Mercer's children and as the performers of the song, although none of them were featured on the actual recording.
In popular culture
In 2012, the song was used in an episode of Saturday Night Live (Season 37, Episode 17)
"So Says I" is a song by American indie rock band The Shins, the third track of their second album Chutes Too Narrow. It was released as a single on September 23, 2003 on Sub Pop Records.
Music video
The music video was directed and animated by Plates Animation Inc. It starts with a 'prehistoric' penguin extracting a tooth from a walrus (the tooth is symbolic throughout the video, as a metaphor to materialism). The penguins are divided into Communist and capitalist roles as the video progresses. The 'Red' penguins are in upheaval (similar to actual historic events). Ominously, the 'Red' penguin leaders are moving strategic assets in a war room, focusing their attention to the West.
