Skip to main content
Hey, you remember the Shins, right? The band that came to symbolize the Indie Rock Aughts and whose move from Albuquerque to Portland basically cemented us as the Sensitive Beardo Capital of the United States? Honestly, it's hard to forget them, considering "New Slang" is probably playing in a coffee shop somewhere in town as you read this, but…yeah, those guys.
When we last heard from them, it was 2012. Frontman James Mercer kicked everyone else out, signed to a major label and released the biggest, glossiest album of his career, Port of Morrow. In the four years since, he's busied himself with his Danger Mouse collaboration Broken Bells, reissued an album by his old band Flake Music and recorded a song for another Zach Braff movie under the Shins imprimatur.
It wasn't clear when Mercer would go back to the Shins full-time. But recently, the band—if it's even really a "band" at this point—has been teasing new music via Instagram. In February, the band posted a brief snippet of a drifting, psychedelic-sounding tune. And yesterday, they published yet another clip, this one more significant, of a Kinks-y number, accompanied by the caption "King Puffin."
No more details are available as of yet, but you've got to imagine a new album is coming sooner than later.
Check out both teasers below:
King Puffin #shinstagram A video posted by theshins (@theshins) on
Willamette Week