Danger Mouse and James Mercer of The Shins have kept their collaboration project Broken Bells under such tight wraps that we admit to a little puzzlement after hearing the full album leak this week, over two months before the album’s March 9 release date. We have to wonder about the state of contemporary music in the internet age: pre-leak, then a leak, then a post-leak, then a review of the leak, then the actual release, then the review of the release, plus several hit remixes to follow. At this rate Grizzly Bear will be on Delilah by next Tuesday. But we digress! Broken Bells sounds pretty good so far: toe-tapping, electronically-backed, fuzzy vocals evoking 2004′s biggest indie hit. Click through to weigh in on new track “The High Road.”
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It has been a big day for interesting musical pairings. Thom Yorke and Flea. Lil Wayne and Weezer. And now, this just in from Pitchfork:
“[James] Mercer has teamed up with producer extraordinaire/one half of Gnarls Barkley Danger Mouse to form a new band. The band’s name is still up in the air, but they’re going with Broken Bells for the time being. The debut from Broken Bells (or whichever name they decide to go with, I guess) is due early next year on Columbia.”
Admittedly less shocking news than the return of Flea, but still. Read More »
In all his bearded glory, The Shins frontman James Mercer comes out of indie obscurity and stars in a film that tackles the equally obscure question, “Why do the good times go by so fast while the difficult times always seem so sticky?” Writer/director Matt McCormick’s Some Days are Better Than Others attempts to find an answer through “awkward characters who maintain hope by inventing their own forms of communication and self-fulfillment.” Don’t worry, it’s not awkward in the Michael Cera-ian sense. Trailer and screenshots after the jump.
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