oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 30, 2007 23:47:40 GMT -5
High praise. As someone who liked "Chutes Too Narrow" (and "Oh, Inverted World" even more), I'll settle for the new album 'merely' coming close. Ditto. I think I'm going to need to listen to the record first and read the reviews later. I enjoyed them on SNL...but the setting didn't seem right somehow. Like their sound and sensibility are too delicate for the setting or something. Boy, please! That performance was spot-on & the setting suited them fine. The Shins can handle any environment, as anyone who has watched them grow over the years would know.
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oscillations.
Diamond Member
Opinion = Fact
I was faced with a choice at a difficult age.
Joined: February 2005
Posts: 10,130
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Post by oscillations. on Jan 31, 2007 23:40:21 GMT -5
• For a band that never got higher than No. 86 with its last album, a No. 2 debut must feel extraordinary. The Shins'
"Wincing the Night Away" starts in the runner-up slot on The Billboard 200 with 118,000 units. It's not just the best ranking
for the band, but also the highest-charting album ever for Sub Pop Records. Previously, the venerable indie label got as high
as No. 79 with the Afghan Whigs' "Black Love" in 1996. Naturally, the Shins' album also debuts at No. 1 on Top Independent
Albums. It additionally checks in at No. 1 on Top Digital Albums, No. 1 on Internet Albums and No. 1 on Top Tastemakers. In
fact, 30% of the album's first-week sales came from digital retailers ... The act, which reached a broader audience thanks to
its inclusion on the "Garden State" soundtrack, is rising up the Alternative/Modern Rock radio chart with "Phantom Limb." The
single moves 21-18 in its eighth week on the list. On the Triple A chart, it climbs 15-13 ... The group played "Saturday
Night Live" Jan. 13 and "Late Show With David Letterman" Jan. 23. It also did an in-store performance at the Virgin Megastore
in Times Square in New York (Jan. 22) and played KCRW Los Angeles' influential "Morning Becomes Eclectic" program Jan. 26.
That night, the band zipped over to Amoeba Records for a performance as well.
SMASH!!![/SIZE]
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Feb 1, 2007 10:10:17 GMT -5
2 Shins - Wincing The Night Away 117,991 0 0 117,991 0 0 117,991
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Post by joker on Feb 1, 2007 14:12:36 GMT -5
I'm surprised that #79 was the highest peak Sub Pop ever got until now. Props to them and the Shins.
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Post by joker on Feb 8, 2007 20:34:31 GMT -5
2 SUBP 2 8 SHINS WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY 53,470 -55 117,991 172,439
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Post by jaxxalude on Feb 12, 2007 15:49:36 GMT -5
SPINThe Shins Dazzle the Night AwayFebruary 12, 2007 CHICAGO: The quirky Albuquerque quartet come to Chicago.Lights twinkled as the dreamy intro of "Sleeping Lessons" bewitched the crowd. Enter the Shins, a band that, despite impressive record sales as of late, walked humbly onto the Congress stage. They gushed their way through Wincing the Night Away's first four tracks, frontman James Mercer unleashing a punk snarl on the opener's line, "off with his head." Eric Johnson tapped his toes to his tambourine while Marty Crandall swayed at his keyboard. Embracing a rock edge on their finessed tunes, they swirled out mild distortion, which was outshone by the audience's earnest oohs, ahhs, and la la las. Mercer, overcome by his band's reception, looked across nearly 3,000 showgoers and chuckled. "This place is pretty damn big," he said. "Damn, I'm glad you're on our side." Before stepping back into the shadows, the singer spun around, held up his glass and cracked a wince-free smile. ANDREA HART
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Post by joker on Feb 13, 2007 15:45:16 GMT -5
Phantom Power - The Shinsby Mark Fielding on 13/02/2007The good will out, and indeed it will. Third albums, it is widely perceived, can be a serious headache for a band. The furious, relentless praise of the debut is replaced by the seminal salivating as the second (or sophomore if you are of the American disposition) record is unleashed. And then, as it so often happens with many, the damp squib of the third. So a few weeks after the release of ‘Wincing The Night Away,’ the third album from The Shins many burning questions are burning on our minds - How is it being received, will it change your life and can this Alberqueke oufit really do anything wrong? Lead singer James Mercer took some time out of a busy schedule to speak to Gigwise to divulge all. We hooked up with the genial singer as he and his band prepare to appear on the comedy institution that is Saturday night live, as well as an equally coveted appearance on Jay Leno. Although there certainly hasn’t been any unrest, there has been a certain amount of wrangling and rumour on the internet that The Shins have turned their back on the archetypal pop sound that made them so loved, but is ‘Wincing The Night Away’ a big departure? “I wouldn’t say it’s a big departure. I can understand when people say it sounds a bit different, there is certainly a lot more going on sonically, there is more of an electronic sound in parts and its more layered but I’m very pleased with how its being received, its going down well, people seem to be liking it.” Continued... Page 1Page 2
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Post by reception on Feb 15, 2007 15:13:31 GMT -5
A column on the Wall Street Journal's website examines the similarities between the Shins' gradual rise to fame and Nirvana's ascent to superstardom.
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oscillations.
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Post by oscillations. on Feb 21, 2007 20:42:57 GMT -5
4 SUBP 8 20 30 SHINS WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY 33,136 -13 37,950 243,525
much less of a decrease than HITS predicted!
:)
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Post by joker on Mar 1, 2007 17:11:38 GMT -5
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/4586049.htmlShins go from cult favorite to cultural touchstoneBy ANDREW DANSBY James Mercer got married last year, but he didn't make one of those glowing postnup records. That's apparent in the title of the Shins' third recording, Wincing the Night Away. The album — music and lyrics both — is full of late-hour creepiness and nautical uncertainty; it's a soundtrack for anxiety. Seafaring references bubble up regularly in the Shins' music. Mercer, 36, points out he was born in Hawaii, and he's not far from the ocean in his home of Portland, Ore. He also spent childhood years in England. "I've just always used boats and the ocean and so on as a metaphor for life and death," he says. "It's just a real adaptable set of images there." He's less interested in discussing the well-documented circumstances surrounding Wincing's creation: threats made by drug dealers in his neighborhood, fractured relationships with friends and the creative pressure of trying to make a highly anticipated record that challenges and satisfies a bigger audience than he might have expected at this stage in his career. So we stick to the sea and the night. "So much of it was done and written at night, the themes of evening twilight and darkness seemed to be especially prominent this time out," Mercer says. "You think about those things when you spend your waking hours trying to sleep. But you end up thinking about things other than sleep." That sort of bleary-eyed uneasiness wanders into the album's jittery first cut, Sleeping Lessons. Mercer says the song started as "a little twist on a blues run" inspired by Gary "U.S." Bonds. Bonds "had a few hits that were really cool. Recorded with just a microphone or two. You got the feeling you'd just walked into a juke joint." Mercer planned to usher the song from the bluesy, Bondsy riff to "this dreamy pop thing, electronic and New Agey." That didn't work, so he flipped the parts, starting dreamily and unfolding into nervous energy. "It ended up working better that way," Mercer says. "You're lulled to sleep by the lullaby sound. When you fall asleep, then it kicks in, you've started dreaming. The episodes that follow, the songs, are the dreams. All the way through A Comet Appears (the album's last cut), where it goes out on a dark note. It's an arc that takes you through the night." If that all sounds lofty, meticulous and labored, well, Wincing is a more ambitious, ornate and difficult undertaking than the Shins' two prior recordings — Oh, Inverted World (2001) and Chutes Too Narrow (2003). Thanks to a handful of savvy 21st-century promotional breaks — a McDonald's ad, name-checking on The O.C., a blunt endorsement in the film Garden State — the Shins no longer belong to a dedicated few. The success of the group's charming and spare Inverted World and its equally charming but peppier and poppier Chutes Too Narrow shattered the insider cachet that briefly defined the Shins. The band — Mercer, keyboardist/guitarist Marty Crandall, bassist Dave Hernandez, drummer Jesse Sandoval and guitarist Eric Johnson — rose from cult favorite to cultural touchstone. Try as he might to block out stuff like this, Mercer had a lot to think about while making a third Shins disc. He admits he overthought the recording, but rewardingly so. Mercer's labor is evident in the strange interludes like Pam Berry; the varied and layered instrumentation throughout; and the album's twisted, moody route from drowsiness through sleep into the end of the night. Wincing dispatched with much of the Shins' cuddly underdog charm. Mercer's florid lyrics, easy melodies and unfettered voice (like a nebbish, less dour Morrissey) still define it as a Shins album. But the attention to craft makes it an album to admire rather than hug. The way Mercer discusses some of these songs makes their creation sound therapeutic. He says Sleeping Lessons is "loosely based on a number of jobs I've had, where I worked with people who were miserable with what they were doing. It's about how miserable people can be or allow themselves to be voluntarily living a life of drudgery for no real reason. "That song is an attempt on my part to free myself from things that make me miserable." He says operating a ride at an amusement park was his worst job. "I certainly don't mind working in kitchens. It's hard work, but fun." Which sounds like a description of making a Shins record, or certainly this Shins record. There's always been a melancholy stripe throughout the Shins' music. Even the pretty New Slang — the unassuming song from the group's debut that sprang the Shins beyond buzz-band status — is restless, lonely and dappled with despair. But Mercer maintains a reliable knack for creating whistle-worthy melodies. And the band's affable way with publicity photos has a goofy charm. They're lovable sad sacks. If going darker on Wincing was a gamble, thus far the tone hasn't turned anybody off. The album debuted at No. 2 on the pop charts with first-week sales of nearly 120,000; it's topped a quarter-million sales so far. Mercer's voice takes on a different energy when he talks about the future. Wincing completes a three-album contract with Sub Pop, the independent label that got the group started. Mercer says the Shins could re-sign or even start its own label. The band is lining up tour dates in three-week blocks because he and his wife are expecting a child in May. Mercer is already thinking about the next Shins record, which in more predictable hands would be "the baby record." Still Mercer hints he'd like the next one to be sunnier. "I'd like to do a happier record. I want to have some fun. To not be so earnest. I have some really beautiful songs that I held back. They'll go on the next record. I have a whole different life, and I'm very happy now."
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Post by joker on Mar 5, 2007 16:50:44 GMT -5
The Shins Prep Single, Add More DatesThe Shins are adding tour dates left and right, in the U.S. and France, in Belgium and Germany and the Netherlands. And now, they will supplement their most recently added dates with the April 9 release of the "Australia" single on Transgressive Records. The CD single includes the B-sides "Sleeping Lessons (Andre Allen Anjos Remix)", "Saint Simon (Live on BBC2's Mark Radcliffe show)", and "Girl on a Wing (Live on KCRW's 'Morning Becomes Eclectic')". Unfortunately, it is only scheduled for release in the UK.
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oscillations.
Diamond Member
Opinion = Fact
I was faced with a choice at a difficult age.
Joined: February 2005
Posts: 10,130
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Post by oscillations. on Mar 6, 2007 18:22:42 GMT -5
The SNL rerun will give a mini-boost
PL is now Top 20 at Alt. - they should try to give it Pop adds.
Supposedly a +9% increase this week according to HITS
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Mar 7, 2007 18:13:54 GMT -5
3/17/07 chart:
6 SUBP 30 29 28 SHINS WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY 19,704 -18% 23,886 287,115
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Post by joker on Mar 12, 2007 13:56:32 GMT -5
Nearly 300k and still in the top 30 after six weeks?! Very cool, that's way beyond what my expectations were, even just a few months ago.
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Post by joker on Mar 12, 2007 14:01:41 GMT -5
Boston Globe InterviewBy Joan Anderman Staying up late with the ShinsInsomnia is an ingredient in their new recordHere's what can happen to mild-mannered Albuquerque indie bands: You write a winsome pop song called "New Slang" and soon, thanks to a crazy little thing called licensing, anyone who watches "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," MTV's "Newlyweds," a McDonald's commercial, or the movie "Garden State" knows your group. These days the Shins are a mild-mannered Portland, Ore., indie band with a bigger-than-usual fan base and a fantastic new album, "Wincing the Night Away." In anticipation of the Shins concert at the Orpheum Thursday, we called singer and songwriter James Mercer on a tour bus in Texas to talk about sleepless nights, rhythm and blues, and Plan B. Q- "Wincing the Night Away" is a painfully familiar image for the sleep-challenged. Are you an insomniac? A- Yeah. During the time I was charged with having to do this record there were stressful things going on, and it led to sleepless nights working on songs. That's what the album title refers to. Q- Do you have any good mind - control techniques for getting back to sleep? A- I don't. I've been taking Lunesta when I desperately need to sleep. I was taking it nightly and found that when I stopped there was this latent anxiety, so I've really cut down. Q- The sleepless nights sound like a drag, but you got a great album out of it. It's a bit of a departure for the Shins. A- There are certain aspects that are different. "Sea Legs" has this dance-y beat. There's something a little more modern-sounding about it. Of course, some of the songs are very much standard stuff like we did on [previous albums] "Chutes Too Narrow" and "Oh, Inverted World." Q- Did you have a game plan when you went into the studio? A- I had the intention of doing something new. I wanted to have the album driven by the bass, the drums, and the vocals, which is how I think R&B music is done. It's hard for me to get away from the guitar, though. Q- Have you recently developed an affection for R&B? A- Back in the '60s R&B was really poppy, and that's probably my favorite type of music. Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, those guys, that's what I'm referring to when I think of R&B. It's really moving stuff to me. Q- How sick are you of talking about "Garden State"? A It was a long time ago. But it was a big thing. It really helped us a lot. Q- Natalie Portman's character told Zach Braff's character that "New Slang" would change his life. Did that cinematic moment change your life? A- It certainly did change our lives. We made a dent in pop culture. Q- Afterwards did you feel the pressure of expectation? Was that attention a burden when you were making "Wincing the Night Away"? A- I didn't look at it that way. We ballooned into a presence in parts of society that really shouldn't even know about us, so in a way I felt like we could do some weird stuff on the new album and not have to worry about it. We don't want too many cheerleaders. And we didn't worry about taking our time. We were bloated and we were lazy. Q- Speaking of bloated, you and your wife are expecting a baby this spring. Are you going to take paternity leave? A- We'll stop touring for three months after the baby comes, and then when we commence again we'll take a few days off every couple of weeks. Q- How is domestic bliss going to factor into your songwriting, which is awfully melancholy and broken-hearted? A- Well, we'll see. I don't know. I'm a pretty cheerful guy, but it seems that I'm almost morose when I write. I'm kind of curious too. Q- You recorded much of "Wincing the Night Away" at home in Portland, Ore. Did you know when you bought the house that Elliott Smith had lived there? A- I had no idea. One day his ex-girlfriend, who was visiting friends in Portland, drove by the house and I was out in the garden and she introduced herself and told me the whole story. I wasn't sure what I should believe, but then she sent me pictures of him in the house and I talked to the neighbors about it. He recorded "Roman Candle" here. I think it's kind of special. Q- Everything seems to be going so well for you. What keeps you up at night these days? A- Besides figuring out how to play "Spilt Needles" and "Sea Legs" live? I guess dealing with the possibility that we might have reached a peak as a band. We may not sell as many copies of the next record. Eventually you have to deal with that, and it's possible that this is what's happening now. Either way, it's coming someday. Q- Do you have a Plan B? A- I'd love to do soundtracks. Maybe produce records. I probably won't go back to school and become a biologist.
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Post by joker on Mar 13, 2007 15:48:07 GMT -5
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Post by joker on Mar 14, 2007 13:52:38 GMT -5
They're on Conan O'Brien's show tonight.
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oscillations.
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Opinion = Fact
I was faced with a choice at a difficult age.
Joined: February 2005
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Post by oscillations. on Mar 14, 2007 14:40:54 GMT -5
Nice.
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Post by joker on Mar 14, 2007 17:51:49 GMT -5
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Post by busyboy on Mar 14, 2007 17:56:06 GMT -5
SHINS WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY 19,211 306,326 (as of March 24, 2007)
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Post by joker on Mar 14, 2007 18:04:42 GMT -5
Thanks! Any idea what chart position that is? Looks like the album barely lost any sales over the previous week, nice to see this has some staying power.
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Post by busyboy on Mar 14, 2007 18:06:12 GMT -5
^^^ No idea about the position, sales come from the indie chart posted in the BB200 thread.
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Post by joker on Mar 14, 2007 18:09:53 GMT -5
Ah, I see it now. Since the album's been out almost two months at this point, I'm more interested in the actual numbers anyway, so at least we got that.
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Post by joker on Mar 15, 2007 12:51:34 GMT -5
Looks like it's #30, for those keeping score at home.
Also, good job on Conan last night!
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Post by joker on Mar 16, 2007 14:00:31 GMT -5
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Post by joker on Mar 16, 2007 14:00:46 GMT -5
Shins, Academy Is, Dashboard Confessional, K-OS part of mtvU’s Campus Invasion TourThe Shins, Academy Is, Dashboard Confessional, K-Os and others have signed on to the upcoming 2007 Campus Invasion Tour. The event promises 6 hours of "non-stop action" with 2 stages and festival attractions and plans to hit three cities on April 22nd, April 27th and April 29th. Headlining the first day will be The Shins with special guests The Academy Is..., Shiny Toy Guns, The Rapture and Ronnie Day. The second will include Fabolous, Rick Ross, Rich Boy, DG Yolla and more. The final show will include Dashboard Confessional with special guests Gym Class Heroes, Augustana, K-os, Kidz In the Hall and Kenna. As part of mtvU's Sudan campaign to stop the genocide in Darfur, proceeds from the festival will benefit the Save Darfur Coalition. Tickets go on sale on March 17th, and you can buy them here.
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Post by joker on Mar 16, 2007 17:22:45 GMT -5
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Post by joker on Mar 17, 2007 13:29:32 GMT -5
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Post by joker on Mar 22, 2007 17:46:07 GMT -5
From 'getitright' in the BB200 thread (no numbers yet):
tw lw 2w wks 44 30 28 8 Wincing The Night Away, The Shins
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Post by busyboy on Mar 22, 2007 17:48:39 GMT -5
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