Like the Beta Band before them, The Shins were catapulted into the spotlight after one brief, if not monumentally important, name check.

In the film High Fidelity, Rob Gordon (John Cusack) owns a struggling, independent record store. One afternoon the shop is packed, and Cussack’s character whispers 

to one of his employee’s that he “will now sell three copies of the Beta Band,” at which point the Beta’s song “Dry The Rain” begins to play, heads bob, and we are left to 

presume that Beta albums were sold.

In real life, that promise was made good, the Beta Band saw a sharp spike in popularity, and albums were shifted. Unfortunately, that band is now defunct.

Flash forward to the film Garden State. In it, Sam (Natalie Portman) says to Andrew (Zach Braff), “You have to listen to this one song. It will change your life, I swear.” Then a few bars of the Shins track, “New Slang” starts to play after Andrew slides on Sam’s headphones. Well, as it turned out, after she uttered those words, life indeed changed — for The Shins.

“There was so much enthusiasm for the band,” explains Shins keyboardist, Marty Crandall, of their mention in the film and inclusion on the resulting soundtrack. “It was almost like the soundtrack was a new release for us that we had to tour for.” So they did – all over the world in both Hemispheres.

As a result, this little Indie-Rock band has sold a combined total of over one million copies worldwide of both Chutes Too Narrow, and their stunning debut, Oh! Inverted World.

Now they’re revving things up once again. This past January they released their third full-length album, Wincing The Night Away (Sub Pop), and Crandall is proud of the results.

“We were very excited to get back to work,” he admits. “A lot of ideas had been floating around in our minds — different producers, different directions. It felt great to finally know that people were anticipating the record, not necessarily ‘expecting’ the record. So we went at our pace, and a diverse explosion of textures and sounds was the result.” To aid in reproducing this added dimension of sound, Eric Johnson, formerly of the Fruit Bats, was added just recently on slide guitar, backing vocals, and is sharing some of the keyboard duties as a full-fledged member of the group.

In the three years since the release of their sophomore album, Chutes Too Narrow, singer/songwriter, James Mercer; drummer, Jesse Sandoval; Crandall, and guitarist Dave Hernandez have all relocated to Portland, OR, from the sun-scorched desert plain of Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

Albuquerque is a place of vast contrasts — urban development set against a backdrop of wide-open sky. The outlying desert area that surrounds the city is filled with a resilient beauty forged in mile upon mile of trees and scrub brush that bear the brown, faded evidence of long hours in the rugged heat. It’s all crisp blues that pop overhead, and muted browns that dictate your path underfoot, similar to The Shins.

At times their material is unfettered hook laden pop, yet nothing is altogether predictable. There is an underpinning of folk that permeates even The Shins most audacious pop songs. Their music has a high lonesome gait indicative of the American West that masterfully counterbalances the group’s ornate pop — a captivating mix of Brian Wilson with just a twinge of Gram Parsons underneath.

Wincing The Night Away continues in this direction, but not without trying to experiment and push themselves in new directions. In fact, one track, “Sea Legs” is completely constructed over a hip-hop beat with guitars and vocals swirling overtop.

“We did attempt some loopy, beat driven textures this time around,” Crandall says. “It just sounded like fun. I think the result is awesome. [Sea Legs] does not sound like your typical Shins song, yet at the same time [it] is undeniably us. We felt comfortable and inspired by new sounds and directions, which I think comes across very strongly on the record. It’s a Shins record, but it [has] been possessed by a time traveling ghost from another planet.”