Shins became big just in time

  • By Alan Sculley / Special to The Herald
  • Thursday, May 27, 2004 9:00pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

One could understand if it feels a bit surreal for James Mercer to see the lavish praise his band, the Shins, have been receiving over the past couple of years for their melodic, classic-sounding yet off-center style of pop.

The group, which formed in Albuquerque, N.M., and recently relocated to Portland, Ore., has been billed as one of rock’s best new bands by such high-profile publications as “Rolling Stone” and “Entertainment Weekly.”

For Mercer, though, it wasn’t that long ago that he was unsure if he even had a future in music. He and the other members of the Shins – keyboardist Marty Crandall, drummer Jesse Sandoval and bassist David Hernandez – had first played together in the early 1990s in a band called Flake. But neither Flake nor the Shins, which started out in 1996 as Mercer’s own songwriting vehicle, had made much headway.

By the time he began focusing his energies on writing the Shins’ 2001 debut CD, “Oh, Inverted World,” Mercer said he had decided the record would be his last shot at making a mark in music.

“I absolutely was in that position,” Mercer said in a phone interview just prior to the start of the Shins’ current tour. “I was turning 30 while I was recording that and had dropped out of college probably six years earlier and was just sort of working odd jobs and stuff and playing in bands … I was going to give it up basically. I was going to go back to school and get an office job or something, I guess, somewhere.”

Instead, “Oh, Inverted World” earned rave reviews and sold about 100,000 copies – an impressive number for a band on an indie label. By the time the group began work last year on the follow-up CD, “Chutes Too Narrow,” the Shins had become one of rock’s buzz bands.

Mercer said he was well aware that “Chutes Too Narrow” was going to be accompanied by high expectations. “There’s always pressure that you feel whenever you’re taking on a project,” Mercer said. “You know, especially in that situation where for the first time we knew we had these people waiting to hear the work. Whereas before, it felt like we were sort of recording and just throwing it out into the void, living in Albuquerque.”

“Chutes Too Narrow” emphatically reinforced there’s nothing accidental about the quality of the music the Chutes make. Upon its release last fall, the CD earned the same type of rapturous praise that greeted “Oh, Inverted World.”

Mercer admits he’s still adjusting to the critical acclaim and the hype that has come to surround the Shins. “I think it’s still hard (to fathom),” he said. “I still find myself surprised that, we recently played with Morrissey in New York and it was apparently because Morrissey listens to the Shins. Things like that, I’m constantly surprised that we are actually a part of the pop culture out there.”

It’s understandable Mercer would view the Shins’ rising status with a grain of salt, considering he and his bandmates spent nearly the entire 1990s in virtual anonymity.

Given Mercer’s leading role as a songwriter, the Shins have sometimes been characterized as a solo project operating under the guise of a band name. A New York Times feature, in particular, compared Mercer to Chan Marshall of Cat Power and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, two artists who essentially function as solo artists under a band name.

This perception doesn’t sit comfortably with Mercer, who said his bandmates have a big hand in shaping the final form of the songs.

“I don’t really think of the Shins like some sort of solo project,” he said. “I guess it’s just a situation where I’m going to write the songs and I’m going to have a band and we are going to produce the songs and arrange the parts and we are going to record it.

“It’s like with the Beatles. The majority of their songs were Lennon-McCartney, and yet we still look at the Beatles as the Beatles, not Lennon and McCartney and those two dudes.”

The Shins

Sasquatch Music Festival: With Thievery Corporation, The Roots, The Postal Service, Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney. 11 a.m. Saturday, Gorge; $39.50, $49.50, 206-628-0888.

The Shins

Sasquatch Music Festival: With Thievery Corporation, The Roots, The Postal Service, Built to Spill, Sleater-Kinney. 11 a.m. Saturday, Gorge; $39.50, $49.50, 206-628-0888.

Also this weekend at the Gorge

Styx/Peter Frampton/Kansas: 4 p.m. Sunday; $43.60-$88.20; 206-528-0888.

Also this weekend at the Gorge

Styx/Peter Frampton/Kansas: 4 p.m. Sunday; $43.60-$88.20; 206-528-0888.

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