Key facts
- Origin
- Albuquerque, New Mexico , U.S.
- Genres
- Indie rock
- Years active
- 1996–present
- Labels
- Columbia Warner Bros. Sub Pop Transgressive Cargo Music
- Spinoff of
- Flake Music
- Members
- James Mercer , Yuuki Matthews, Mark Watrous , Jon Sortland , Patti King
- Past members
- Neal Langford, Jessica Dobson , Jesse Sandoval , Dave Hernandez , Eric D. Johnson , Ron Lewis, Martin Crandall, Joe Plummer , Richard Swift , Casey Foubert
- Website
- www .theshins .com
via Wikipedia infobox
~15 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Shins are an American indie rock band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1996. The band is the project of singer-songwriter James Mercer, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band's current line-up consists of Mercer, alongside Yuuki Matthews (bass, keyboards), Mark Watrous (guitar, keyboards, lap steel), Patti King (keyboards), and Jon Sortland (drums). They are based in Portland, Oregon.
The band was formed by Mercer as a side project to Flake Music, who were active from 1992 to 1999. Flake Music released two 7-inch singles and a full-length album, When You Land Here, It's Time to Return, on Omnibus Records and were touring with Modest Mouse when the Shins became signed to Sub Pop Records. The Shins' first two records, Oh, Inverted World (2001) and Chutes Too Narrow (2003), performed well commercially and received critical acclaim. The single "New Slang" brought the band to mainstream attention when it was featured in the 2004 film Garden State. Consequently, the band's third album, Wincing the Night Away (2007), was a major success for the group, peaking at number two on the Billboard 200 and earning a Grammy Award nomination.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Shins” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.