Story by: Adam Daniels

Photography by: Dorothy Hong

Rock n’ roll may not exactly have the same sex and drugs credo it used to, but they still haven’t changed the sign at the door. And though Fruit Bats’ Eric Johnson may not be the prototype for the image of lead singer hard-on, he still knows how to wear the uniform. Just as Johnson and I meet up to presumably grab a beer or two, he bumps into his old friend and tour manager Dave and Dave’s two-year old son Ronan. Together they traded in the tavern for a sunny Brooklyn afternoon at the Williamsburg Waterfront Park, home to the rock daze that is the new Pool Party concert series. So there we sat in the grass overlooking the East River, interrupted a few times by Ronan’s general indifference to our interview setup, and it dawns on me: while it can be assumed most every long-haired lead singer has just as many moments like these, playing defender to a be-overalled youngster’s soccer moves, it seems rare we actually get to see them. Johnson’s tucked in everyday button-down and glasses mixed with his warmth make it just as easy to think you’re talking to a nice dude from Portland in the park than the guy headlining the biggest venue in town that night. He just happens to be both.

Johnson has probably enjoyed more headlines in the last couple years than his musical project Fruit Bats have combined since their 2001 debut Echolocation. This is a logical result of joining one of the only three indie-rock bands my Mom has heard of: The Shins. But Johnson treats playing guitar for that famous band like one might treat bussing tables or tutoring 10th grade algebra. “I’ve always just sort of treated it like my day job,” Johnson says. “It pays the bills.” That isn’t to say he doesn’t enjoy the experience (he describes it as a “great ride he would have been foolish to pass up’) or value their music; he means day job in the literal sense. Playing music with Mercer and the boys has allowed him to make music as a full-time gig for the first time. “Until then I’d run my own KRAFT catering company,” he says. “It was a good thing for me because I was my own boss and could tour whenever I wanted to.” And while he supposes his newer gig will do just fine, this does represent the biggest contrast between the two. His catering service, like these Fruit Bats, was just that: entirely his own. He’s become much more than just a simple fill-in guitarist for The Shins, but he writes none of the music and likewise makes none of the big decisions, key differences that probably make balancing two such musical projects much simpler. For nearly a decade he’s been almost the entire body of one musical project. Now, he’s a full-fledged member of another—he just doesn’t get all their Albuquerque jokes.

The other thing that makes Johnson’s new band mates particularly notable is the fact that when most writers have needed a frame of reference for the Fruit Bats sound, The Shins have been their default name-drop. This is not entirely accurate, perhaps more a crude categorizing of what’s become a way to describe the hooks coming from Sub Pop’s mid-aughties roster. But Johnson certainly grasps the inherent absurdity of joining the monumentally famous band his slightly less heard of musical labour of love is most frequently likened to. “I definitely thought about it,” Johnson says. “The thing with that is, I never really got the whole Shins comparison. I mean I understand the need for classification sometimes. And I just sort of think there was a point in time where it started to become ‘If you look like this, then you’re this band.’ But if you were just a dude that looked like a plain ole’ dude playing guitar-driven simple rock then you were The Shins, because they were one of those bands that was big enough to get those assertions but they were also the one that was least defined by sort of visual cues and easily placed distinctions. So for a while, everyone was The Shins. It didn’t matter if you were also a little bit Joy Division or a little bit whatever too. You were The Shins.” And to be fair,  Johnson did allow a little room for comparison. “It’s funny though,” he muses. “I’ve been friends with James (Mercer) for years and hadn’t really picked up on it. But then Dave (their tour manager) will often hear my voice on the phone and assume it’s James and vice-versa. So I guess we do have pretty similar speaking voices.”

But Johnson should be pleased to know that his Bats’ latest musical effort, The Ruminant Band, is the least Shins-like of the Bats entire catalog to date. In fact, one would be hard-pressed to tie Ruminant Band down to a single musical likeness. There are the sort of poppy melodies that drew those Shins comparisons on the impossibly singable “Being On Our Own.” A bit of the sort of alt-country tendencies that have always been dwelt at the surface of Johnson’s music seep through much stronger on tracks like “Primitive Man.” Their live show can create solos and bridges of near-jam band proportions, but on record here one can find something a bit more timeless, more lived-in. This goes further than just an influence, to the point where you could place some of these tracks decades back without a shred of context. Though long before you ever notice any of these sonic qualities of the record, you can’t help but notice how much fun the folks making it are having. While some of that vibe must stem from the fact that Johnson seems to be one of those musicians that heartily accepts the mind view that it’s a unique privilege to make a living creating music, the rest might stem from the fact that the Fruit Bats are actually a band for the first time.

In the past, the Bats had just been a title for Johnson’s art, featuring a rotating cast of musicians to support his ideas and musical whims. And despite him already being in a “real band” that headlines international music festivals, it’s easily noticeable that Johnson is quite smitten with this whole idea that his band is a real band, admitting a similar giddiness to that high school kid that formed a band and calls every single one of his friends to tell them, long before making it safely through a single practice.

“I have to admit I always wanted to be in a band, it just never really worked out like that,” Johnson says. “But it feels really great. Everyone brings their ideas forward and we all work out the songs together.” The change in members and contributions to this more cohesive group felt like such a relevant change to Johnson, he said he came very close to changing the name of the whole project from Fruit Bats to The Ruminant Band. These changes comes through loud and clear, with Johnson even noting a spontaneous “Woo” being left on the record after a brief moment of shift and improvisation in a track. There is a real feeding off of one another during the live show as well, eye contact and smiles coloring the spaces between breaks and the back-and-forth vocals. It was a friendly crowd in Brooklyn that night, which could cause mostly any musician to feed off such an energy. But at the very least it looked like the beginnings of a band that could enjoy sharing a stage together for a good while, and Johnson’s smile made it clear he felt the same way.

I walk over to a bench away from the grass and the recess Johnson is granted with his young friend. The skyscrapers of Manhattan can’t help but look a little surreal in the distance, more like a postcard than anything tangible. For a moment, Johnson and Ronan are framed in this postcard as well. They switch from soccer to basketball, and he doesn’t pick him up on his shoulders and help him dunk or sink a 20-foot hook shot. In fact, he nearly misses the backboard as a whole on his first shot. “I was never much for basketball,” he says. And though Johnson may not have much of a jump shot, it didn’t seem to matter much to the kid. This all made it quickly evident Johnson is one of those rare musical personalities that makes just as much genuine sense entertaining a kid’s Pele impression as he does playing center stage at Bowery Ballroom, something you can only say about so many folks that happen to play in bands that will change your life.

There are a lot of reasons this should be bizarre news, but the more bizarre part is that maybe this is perfectly natural. The two had a particularly worthwhile collaboration on Mouse’s Dark Night of the Soul track “Insane Lullaby”, and apparently got along just famously (which we hear is the best way to get along). The duo already have a release planned for early 2010, and claim to have another projects in the works already to follow. Also, they might or might not be called Broken Bells. That is all for now. (Via: P4K)

When Kurt Cobain signed with Sub Pop over a decade and a half ago and together they released the definitive rock album of the 90s, he was probably thinking locally. The money probably helped a bit, but ultimately dude was thinking “I really just want to be at a label that’s going to enter into a joint-venture with the largest shoe corporation in the world!” Alright, so maybe this wasn’t the direction Kurt or co-founder Bruce Pavitt saw the label going, but all kidding aside these things look kind of sweet. And hey, skateboarders listen to early Shins albums too. After all, what good does it do to be half-owned by Warner Brothers if you can’t get a skate shoe or two out of the deal. Sure, the two SP logos are a bit excessive. Sure, generic statement about indie rock being officially over and nothing being sacred anymore. We live in hard times. Cash is cash, folks.

(Via: Hypebeast via Daily Swarm)

Interviewed by the Portland Mercury on his being let go from the Shins, former drummer Jesse Sandoval chalks up his dismissal to his own shortcomings, explaining that he has a “slower learning curve than polished musicians.” Sandoval went on to explain that “in the studio, I didn’t have the luxury to take lots of time to execute drum parts, and you can’t really piecemeal drums. So my weaknesses showed and I know that frustrated [lead singer James Mercer].”

Sandoval explains his being fired as a result of Mercer’s desire to “do something else,” and expresses his confusion and frustrations over the bizarre turn of events that culminated in a final phone call terminating his participation in the band. Discussing his continued confusion over the matter, Sandoval claims: “I’m usually the first one to defend James or at least try to help them understood how this came to be. But, yet, behind closed doors, I’m upset to the point where I’m livid, or I’m okay with it, or happy about it. That’s why I feel like I’m a walking contradiction at many times.”

Despite the turmoil, Sandoval seems to be doing well- he’s currently running a successful New Mexican food truck, Nuevo Mexico, in Portland. The latest iteration of the Shins is currently at work on a new album, to be released via Mercer’s Aural Apothecary record label early next year.

A little over a month ago, indie rock veterans The Shins announced the contract between their label, Sub Pop, and themselves had expired and the band was taking a “writing hiatus.” Now, Shins’ frontman James Mercer has revealed that the band has had some major line-up changes, as well as some news of a new Shins album coming out on Mercer’s own label.

In an interview with Pitchfork, Mercer gave up the details about the new switches within the band. Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse will now be replacing Jesse Sandoval as the drummer for the Shins, and Ron Lewis of Fruit Bats, will be joining the band on bass, while keyboardist Marty Crandall has also left the Shins behind.

The new line-up was revealed at Western Washington University this past Saturday night, when the crowd saw the band sans Crandall and Sandoval. Mercer told Pitchfork that he, Crandall and Sandoval had all been playing together since the mid-90s, originally with Flake Music, and it was time to shuffle the line-up around a bit.

“I started to have production ideas that I wanted to do that basically required some other people,” he said. “It’s mainly about that. It’s an aesthetic decision. It’s kind of hard to talk about stuff like that, isn’t it? Because I don’t want to bum anybody out. I’m on good terms with those guys, I hope to maintain that.”

Now, Mercer and his new band mates are touring together as well as recording the new Shins album, which has an estimated release date for early next year. The album will be released on Mercer’s own label, Aural Apothecary, instead of the band’s forever-long label partner, Sub Pop.

Alongside the new switch up within the Shins, Mercer has been focusing his energy on other various projects as well, including a co-starring role with Carrie Brownstein in Some Days Are Better Than Others, collaborating with Modest Mouse on a soundtrack for the film 180 Degrees South, and appearing on the forthcoming Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse album.

Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse announced almost three years ago that they would be working together on a new collaborative project, but as of yesterday, when a poster for the project was delivered to our offices, it looks like the duo of “Dangerhorse” are engaging a wide spectrum of talent to help out on the new record.

Dark Night of the Soul is set to come out this summer, and though no further information on the album has been offered, the list of special guests — released only via the poster — makes the new project look like it could be one of the most eclectic collaborations we’ve seen in a long while.

Featuring Black Francis, Julian Casablancas, The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, David Lynch, and James Mercer, among a bunch of others, Dark Night of the Soul is bound to offer us an immense amount of ear-candy come the summer. And lets face it, who needs supergroups like Chickenfoot when you’ve got the likes of Dangerhorse giving you all of this and more on one awesome album?

Full list of guests on Dark Night of the Soul
Black Francis (Frank Black)

Julian Casablancas (The Strokes)

Vic Chestnutt

The Flaming Lips

David Lynch

Jason Lytle (Grandaddy)
James Mercer (The Shins)

Nina Persson (The Cardigans/A Camp)

Iggy Pop
Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals/Neon Neon)
Suzanne Vega

Since we just told you about The Shins parting ways with their long time record label Sub Pop… possibly forever, we deemed it only necessary to bring you back to the fresh young days of The Shins’ success when Oh, Inverted World was just a newly released record from a few New Mexico-born Indie-rock hopefuls, and “New Slang” was just some song Natalie Portman made Zach Braff listen to in that movie Garden State.

James Mercer started the Shins as a side-project while he was working with Flake Music. Flake dissembled, and Mercer began putting greater focus on The Shins, taking influences from the likes of The Smiths and The Cure and integrating their stylings into his song writing. The end product of Mercer’s skilled songwriting chops mixed with the talent of the rest of the band’s members led to the creation of The Shins’ trademark sound, which eventually got the band signed on to Sub Pop records in 2001. 

The Shins released their first album, Oh, Inverted World, off of Sub Pop in 2001. The album was critically acclaimed upon release, but took some time to catch up to the success of what it is now known for. It wasn’t until three years later, in 2004, that The Shins began gaining exposure when the now-cult-classic film Garden State used their music on the soundtrack. The film marketed The Shins to a wider audience, causing the band to gain prominence; inevitably giving The Shins the momentum they needed to be considered the indie rock veterans we see them them now. 

We’re not sure why the Shins would want to separate themselves from Sub Pop, but what we do know is that the pair have put out some signature records in the past eight years, and we’ll be curious to see if the band will be able to produce another classic like “New Slang” on this writing hiatus of theirs. For now, the video will just have to do.

The Shins – “New Slang”

They’ve been with Sub Pop Records for almost a decade now, but it looks like after months of speculation the Shins are actually parting ways with the label that helped bring them their momentous success on the indie circuit.Does this mean a major label signing for the veteran indie-rockers is imminent? 

According to Pitchfork, the contract between Sub Pop and the Shins has expired, and the band is now on a “writing hiatus,” but the ties between the label and band are not completely severed, so the two could just be taking a temporary breather from each other right now. A similar occurrence happened last June, when the Shins decided to make new arrangements for the distribution of their record. The band continued to stay with Sub Pop, because they had done a “remarkable job with the band,” according to the band’s manager Ian Montone.

The Shins could very well move on to join the ranks of bigger, more esteemed labels if they wish to distribute their music to a larger, mass audience, or even release it themselves since they are so established. As of now, the band is continuing to work on new material, and are also planning out their tour for this upcoming May.

A slew of awesome artists are lending their talents to charity, making a compilation album called Causes 2, to try and help benefit charity organizations aiding in the effort to stop the mass genocide occurring in Darfur. Among the artists participating in the project are, My Morning Jacket, LCD Soundsystem, RJD2, and Gnarls Barkley.

The loaded album is due out on May 5 on Waxploitation, and 100% of the proceeds will go towards three different humanitarian organizations — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam America — that are volunteering their efforts to help end the mass killings in the Sudan region.

Causes 1 was the start of these compilation albums aimed at projecting the word about Darfur, while giving it’s proceeds to the aforementioned organizations. Causes 1 also enlisted a great mixture of artists for its tracks, including The Shins, Bright Eyes, Animal Collective and Spoon, so even if you don’t know much about what’s going on, buying the album is an attempt at throwing some sort of support to those who need it.

You can view a video for Causes 2 here, and you can pre-order the album worldwide here.

Ever since the collective frenzy we all worked ourselves into worrying what was going to happen to the world when the clock struck midnight on January 1, 2000, New Years have become cause for worry and constant concern. Now as that fateful date approaches again, we find ourselves asking — what horrors does 2009 hold? Luckily, former Sleater-Kinney guitarist and writer/blogger Carrie Brownstein has the answers for us via an extremely informative psychic/astrological reading.

Brownstein’s music and culture blog for NPR, Monitor Mix, featured a video interview this week with Andy Gehrz, an astrologer and pyschic who offered up her predictions on what kind of havoc 2009 would wreak on the music world. Other than the fact that this kind of stuff is just funny, because she seems to really believe what she’s saying, Andy seems to think some pretty serious business is going to go down in the next 12 months.

Among other things, Pitchfork is going to buy Rolling Stone, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco will have a mid-life crisis, Arcade Fire is apparently going synth, and The Shins have some sort of cultural responsibility to live out that involves finding lesser-known bands and taking them on tour. Very noble. Beth Ditto and some unnamed girl from Georgia with a lot of tattoos will both enjoy lots of success, and in case you were wondering, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is some breed of super Taurus.

But probably the most shocking predicition Andy made — she said other stuff about Lil Wayne getting a DUI and Kanye West making a political statement, but we said shocking — was when she suggested that Kris Novoselic and Dave Grohl will reunite Nirvana with a rotating cast of lead singers. As a tribute. Uh huh.

Check out the video for more very important predictions about The Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Vampire Weekend and others. And maybe it’s just us, but there is something quite entertaining about a 30-something, red-headed, glasses-wearing, white, female astrologer saying, “I have something to say about Lil Wayne.”

Andy Gehrz, Astrological Detective
Monitor Mix