Describe The Shins? Oh, OK. Say you take Ozzy Osbourne and slap those crappy, psychedelic glasses off his wrinkled, old, pasty, white face. Then, you make him breed (not for pleasure, but for science) with Syd Barrett. The rock-god baby they produce will sing for this band. You would then need to kidnap the boys from the Police, pre-putrid Sting, throw them all together and send them into the future, say 2001 in Albuquerque, N.M.
There you go mister; you’ve got yourself the Shins. Their new album Oh, Inverted World (Sub Pop) has that grab-you-right-away sound. Most bands that can do this make you sick just a couple of listens later. Not the Shins, oh boy, they keep you warm and fed and tucked in at night. They make sweet, sweet love to you over your headphones, and guess what? They’ll call you back the next day. After the lovemaking, I mean listening, to this album you could swear (pretending you know nothing about where or whence they hail from) that you are listening to a Brit band from the early ’60s. They do it very well.
These talented boys from New Mexico are rumored to be moving up to Portland very soon. My sources tell me that a certain member of the band has some sort of lady friend (zing zing) who lives up here so it makes sense don’t ya know. But you didn’t hear this from me; I’m not one to gossip. So, if you’re in the mood for quality listening pleasure, go check them out. Hopefully I’ll see you all at the Shins’ next show. I will be the short, skinny boy in the corner, hunched over, saying, “Ohhh my pants are tight for this band.”