The Shins

After only hearing the name of this band for a while, recently I was introduced to The Shins. It was my brother who showed them to me and I absolutely love them. They are probably my favorite band at the moment. They have an indie sound, if you ask me, and as far as I know, are only semi-popular. I'm almost glad that they aren't huge because I feel like once a band reaches the point where they're absolutely famous, their music has changed too much and they usually don't make as good quality of songs. This could just be my opinion though.

I absolutely love this song called 40 Mark Strasse. It's hard for me to put a finger on what I specifically like about it, but it's just an amazing song. I also love the story that it tells. It's actually about a young German boy who is in love with a German prostitute. He sees her "play in the street at night" and she sleeps with American tourists. The name comes from the German word for street, which is straße, and a street in Germany where I believe you used to be able to get a prostitute for 40 Marks. I guess the story just seems different to me, as far as a song telling one like it.

This song called New Slang is possibly one of their more well known ones. It is pretty calm sounding, but I love it. I don't know what it is about because I can hardly understand a word he says. There isn't much to say about it other than it's great. I do love the way that The Shins arrange their use of instruments. I love the bass guitar in this and the singing. I suppose it's just that everything blends together really well. I will probably write another post about The Shins just because they're so great and I couldn't possibly cover all of their good songs in one blog.