The Shins Biography

The Shins encloses founder James Mercer and members Yuuki Matthews, Mark Watrous, Casey Foubert, Jon Sortland, and Patti King. James Mercer’s first band was Flake Music. He left them and created The Shins, taking the Flake’s drummer Jesse Sandoval with him.

Early Years

Their first album When You Land Here, It’s Time to Return landed in 1992. After some more demo recordings, Neal Langford, also from Flake Music joined The Shins. Mercer soon found himself fighting with depression. Band’s friends sent their songs to record labels and in no time the band was signed to Sub Pop.

Their LP Oh, Inverted World (2001) was extremely well received. It sold over 100,000 copies in the first two years. The Shins issued the album Chutes Too Narrow in 2003. It received an overall rating of 88/100 from Metacritic and sold approximatively 500,000 copies.

Further Success 

One of their past singles, “New Slang” was featured in the movie Garden State (2004). After the success it garnished, the band evolved even more into this indie icon. The album that followed the new-found fame was titled Wincing the Night Away (2007). It exceeded everyone’s expectations by peaking at number two on the Billboard 200.

Fresh Start

Mercer left the group to collaborate with famous alternative rock band Modest Mouse and didn’t part such on good terms with fellow band members. When he returned to The Shins, he was the only original member left. The “new” band issued the album Port of Morrow in 2012.

Zach Braff of the movie Garden State directed a movie called Wish I Was Here. The Shins collaborated again with him and released the song “So Now What”. In 2017, they issued the album Heartworms. It spawned the singles “Dead Alive” and “Name For You”.

Photo Source: Discogs