Look at these guys.  They’re not flashy, or sexy, or even cool.  But they are my favorite band.  The Shins.  Most people first heard them in Garden State, the now famous scene where Natalie Portman hands her headphones to Zach Braff and says “this song will change your life”.  She was right.  I had a similar moment when an old girlfriend of mine played me The Shins for the first time.  It instantly changed my outlook on music, and turned me into a major indie guy.  I remembered them from the movie vaguely, but I needed to have my own Shins moment, in my own zone, to really become a fan.  Peep the video for “Saint Simon”, the first Shins song I ever fell in love with…

Slowly but surely, I got into Chutes Too Narrow, their second album, which “Saint Simon” is on, and now I can say with complete confidence that “Saint Simon” is not even in my top three songs on that album!  Check out a couple of my favorites.  First, the video for “Pink Bullets”, which is weird but in a good way…then watch this acoustic live from someone’s basement version of “Gone for Good”, another banger from Chutes Too Narrow…

After fully absorbing Chutes Too Narrow, I began to dig deeper into their catalog.  “New Slang”, one of the two songs featured in Garden State (the song Portman plays for Braff), is off their first album, Oh, Inverted World.  Other than “New Slang”, it’s kind of a heavier album, more upbeat.  I prefer slower, “acousticky” sounding songs.  This one stood out though, “The Past and Pending”.  Peep the video, it’s dope…

There had to be more though, right?  Something?  A B-Side?  A single that was never released on the album?  Some weird version of something?  Aha!!!!  I found it.  My favorite Shins song, and it’s not even on any of their albums.  It was a single off the Wicker Park soundtrack, but this alternate version I found online is amazing…My favorite song from my favorite band, The Shins “When I Goosestep”, the acoustic version…pardon the weird fan made video, it’s actually kind of fun…

In January 2007, their third album came out, Wincing the Night Away (I had it in November 2006, don’t sleep I get indie rock albums early too).  It’s a sick album, though I still say Chutes Too Narrow is my favorite, it’s great.  Lyrically, it’s incredible.  The lead singer James Mercer writes very poetic lyrics, some of which I have a hard time figuring out, but I kind of like that.  It’s smart music.  Here’s two of my favorite cuts from the album.  First, “Red Rabbits”, and then the more upbeat “Split Needles”…

If I haven’t convinced you yet about The Shins, well then maybe they’re not for you.  Or maybe you like more uptempo happy songs, which they actually have a bunch of, well maybe not happy, but upbeat.  In fact, I saw them live in NYC last year and they played more of their upbeat stuff which was kind of disappointing, but I still had a blast at the show.  Thank you Shins, for opening me up to a world of indie rock and acoustic folk SUBPOP music (Band of Horses, Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, etc), and also for coincidentally inspiring me to write some of my best rap song lyrics.  Though hip hop is still my first love, I have made room for another genre to occupy my heart.