The Shins
Albuquerque, New Mexico is little known for its produce of enduring, great musical talent.
‘Til now, you imagine. The Shins were conceived in such a birthplace during 1997: an era where Radiohead’ PC’s (or Mac’s, if we’re being politically correct) were merely ‘OK’ and Blur shat on Kinks influences to reveal their actual love of sweet US discord and distortion.
In a parallel, American universe, James Mercer (vox/guitar), Martin Crandall (guitar), David Hernandez (bass; N.B. he was replaced for a brief spell by James Langford before returning to the fold), and Jesse Sandoval (drums) were creating melodic, infectious and rivetingly comforting sounds, many of which formed the eventual embers of a debut, cult release through Sub Pop Records in 2001 – ‘Oh, Inverted World’.
The reactions were elated, and heavy Stateside touring-itineraries paid off, with the band’s ascendance to minor indie-stardom seamless. Trouble was, getting to such status proved exhausting. So the foursome took a year off, playing computer-games and forgetting about the pressures of the recording-industry.
Yet, presumably, they got bored with being unrecognised in dingy rock-clubs for their parts in a rock ‘n’ roll band, and so they regrouped and wrote the consensus of a second, brighter, even more immediate, second album, ‘Chutes Too Narrow’ – recorded, humbly, in Mercer’s basement home-studio. Debut UK shows proper abound at the start of 2004, and finally the rest of the world is set to be invigorated with the dashing of whimsical charm and perilous frivolity that makes The Shins such an appetising conduit in a sea of the otherwise uninspired. Warm to them while you have the chance.
SUB POP: Apparently, Sub Pop is a famous label. Can\'t see how; they only discovered The Rapture, Hot Hot Heat. And, oh, erm, Nirvana. Go pay \'em the respeck they deserve.