New Slang

Post date: May 21, 2011 3:42:12 PM

There's a scene in "Garden State" when Natalie Portman turns to Zach Braff and says "You gotta hear this one song, it'll change your life I swear."

What's interesting about this is that her compulsively-lying character is actually telling the truth for once... it's the perfect song.  It also was the first "indie" song that I had heard in the post 2000s era, kicking off a huge change in the music industry (which saw Pitchfork.com and new media taking over from Rolling Stone and the physical media generation).

The song is New Slang by The Shins.  I had originally planned to record the guitar and vocal and then overdub a couple electric tracks to get closer to the original... but I haven't gotten around to doing that yet (and doubt I will soon).  It may be easier to just re-record it with everyone else live...

The vocals are difficult on this song... I think he does a lot of processing in the studio.  If you even listen to him (James Mercer) live the vocal sounds very different.  I've added a touch of reverb to hide my vocal inadequacies.

New Slang (MP3)