Day After Day #228: So Says I

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

So Says I (2003)

Being anointed the Next Big Thing is never an easy thing to deal with. There's a lot of pressure and expectations that come with that label, and almost inevitably, the band either implodes or just sputters out.

In 2004, a young indie band called the Shins suddenly found itself in the spotlight when the movie Garden State, directed by Zach Braff of Scrubs fame, had a character (played by Natalie Portman) tell Braff's character that the Shins' "New Slang" will "change your life." While the movie wasn't a huge success, it was an indie hit and it gave the Shins a sales boost for their first two albums. Sadly, they would never be able to parlay into more than that.

The Shins was formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by singer-songwriter James Mercer, originally as a side project to his band Flake Music, which was around from 1992-1999. Flake Music was touring with Modest Mouse when the Shins were signed to Sub Pop. The Shins started as a duo with Mercer and drummer Jesse Sandoval, who also played in Flake Music.

Sub Pop released "New Slang" as part of its Single of the Month series in February 2001 and it got a lot of attention, leading to the label signing the Shins to a full contract. The band, which had added Neal Langford on bass and Marty Crandell on keyboards, released its debut album Oh, Inverted World in June 2001. The album also included lo-fi indie pop inspired by Elephant 6 bands; highlights included "Know Your Onion!" and "Caring is Creepy." It received critical acclaim and fan buzz and hit #168 on the Billboard 200.

Mercer was forward thinking when it came to business, licensing "New Slang" to a number of outlets, including a McDonald's commercial that ran during the 2002 Winter Olympics. He caught heat and was accused of being a sellout, but he used the money to relocate to Portland, Oregon, where he bought a house and built a basement studio. Langford was replaced by Dave Hernandez of the band Scared of Chaka.

The Shins followed up their debut with 2003's Chutes Too Narrow, which found Mercer and crew playing psychedelic folk and pop. Mercer's high-pitched voice was unique, carrying the songs to a new level. "Kissing the Lipless" and "Mine's Not a High Horse" got a lot of hype, but I liked "So Says I." The song was a little more rocking than their other singles, with Mercer's falsetto soaring over electric guitars as he sings about life under communist and capitalist economic systems.

"An address to the golden door/I was strumming on a stone again/Pulling teeth from the pimps of gore/When hatched a tragic opera in my mind/And it told of a new design in which every soul is duty bound/To uphold the statutes of boredom/Therein lies the fatal flaw of the red age/'Cause it was nothing like we'd ever dreamt/Our lust for life had gone away with the rent we hated/'Cause it made no money, nobody saved no one's life this time."

The computer-animated video for the song featured groups of penguins divided into Communist and capitalist roles.

"So we burned all our uniforms/And let nature take its course again/And the big ones just eat all the little ones/That sends us back to the drawing board/In our darkest hours/We have all asked for some/Angel to come/Sprinkle his dust all around/But all our crying voices they can't turn it around/And you've had some crazy conversations of your own."

"So Says I" got a boost when the band played it live in an episode of Gilmore Girls.

"We've got rules and maps and guns in our backs/But we still can't just behave ourselves/Even if to save our own lives/So says I/We are a brutal kind, whoa/'Cause this is nothing like we'd ever dreamt/Tell Sir Thomas More we've got another failed attempt/'Cause if it makes them money/They might just give you life this time."

Chutes Too Narrow performed better than its predecessor, hitting #86 on the Billboard 200 and #82 on the UK Albums chart. It also made a lot of critics' year-end best album lists. Then came Garden State. The movie was okay, but I thought it was self-important and trying to speak for a generation of lost 20somethings. I was 36 when it came out and we had just had our second kid, so I guess I wasn't the target audience. At any rate, the Shins name-check came off as trite to me. I certainly enjoyed their music, but I don't know if I'd call it life-changing.

The band waited three years before releasing their next album, Wincing the Night Away, in 2007, but it still debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, the highest chart position reached by a Sub Pop album to that point. The lead single "Phantom Limb" was good, but it's generally considered a lesser effort than the previous two albums. 

After the tour for the album, Mercer fired the other three band members, saying that the band had always been his project and the rest of the group were just hired hands. Since then, Mercer has worked with different musicians, releasing albums in 2012 and 2017. He also teamed up with Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton to form the band Broken Bells, releasing three albums. 

The Shins released a 20th anniversary reissue of Oh, Inverted World in 2021 and played the album in its entirety on tour the following year. While they may not have been the Next Big Thing or changed anyone's life, the Shins have proven to have a solid career...even if their first two albums are still their best.