The Shins

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Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States (1997 – present)

The Shins are an American band consisting of James Mercer (vocals, guitar), Dave Hernandez (guitar), Ron Lewis (bass), Eric Johnson (keyboards) and Joe Plummer (drums). The Shins formed in 1997, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States as a side project of Mercer (previously of Blue Roof Dinner) and bassist Jesse Sandoval, who were both members of the rock group Flake Music (formed as Flake 1992). Ron Lewis is also a member of Grand Archives and Joe Plummer is one of two drummers for Modest Mouse. The band was signed to Sub Pop following a successful tour in 2000 with Modest Mouse, and they now reside in Portland, Oregon.

Their 2001 debut album, Oh, Inverted World received near-universal critical acclaim, causing many critics to predict a mass wave of Beach Boys-inspired bands. That wave never truly came, but the Shins enjoyed a rapidly expanding fanbase, and even saw their music featured on a McDonalds advertisement. That may have been artistic suicide for them, had it not been that the song featured (“New Slang”), included the lines “New slang/when you notice the stripes/the dirt in your fries,” as well as “God speed all the bakers at dawn/may they all cut their thumbs/And bleed into their buns/’till they melt away.”

The band moved from New Mexico to the “indie rock capitol” of in 2002. Their much-anticipated followup, Chutes Too Narrow, was released in October of ‘03 in the U.S. and a half-year later across the pond to gushing reviews that matched if not exceeded their debut effort.
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The Shins on tour

1 Aug 2011 | from blog.myspace.com/theshins

The Shins are going on tour...A handful of intimate club shows have just been announced. Visit www.theshins.com for details.

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