On last night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Aimee Mann served as musical guest, and she didn't come alone. She and Shins frontman James Mercer duetted on "Living A Lie," an expertly crafted…   Read Story »

On his often-great WTF podcast, comedian Marc Maron has rambling, fascinating conversations with two guests a week -- usually fellow stand-up comics or sketch-comic types. Lately, though, he's…   Read Story »

We had a peek at the Shins' Nintendo 3DS-premiered, 3-D video for Port Of Morrow single "The Rifle's Spiral," and now James Mercer and Nintendo Corp have allowed the internet to enjoy the creepy,…   Read Story »

We've already heard a bunch of songs from the new Shins comeback album Port Of Morrow: "Simple Song," "The Rifle's Spiral," an acoustic version of "It's Only Life," and, most relevant to this post,…   Read Story »

Right now, the Shins -- at least in their James Mercer-plus-whoever incarnation -- are preparing to return to the world with the new album Port Of Morrow. The new joints "Simple Song" and "September"…   Read Story »

Portlandia's already been good for unexpected cameos (Aimee Mann, Steve Buscemi, Aubrey Plaza, plus many others). And it looks lik Portlandia is upping the number of musical cameos. Next week Colin…   Read Story »

This Broken Bells video is in 3D! Maybe now their music will take some shape? Broken Bells -- the better-on-paper team-up of James Mercer, a man otherwise capable of mainlining melodies into my…   Read Story »

Last week we mentioned Dirty Projectors's Dylan cover as part of the Levi's Pioneer Sessions. The Shins's James Mercer stopped by Levi's to produce this cover of Squeeze's "Goodbye Girl" (from their…   Read Story »

Christina Hendricks (star of this Everclear video and Joan on Mad Men) stars in this sci-fi video for "Ghost Inside," while the band make a short cameo at the end. James Mercer and Brian Burton are…   Read Story »

We saw a bunch of bands this past week. Not every set was memorable, but there were more than enough highlights to make the stiff necks and barking feet worth it. Here's Wednesday, Thursday,…   Read Story »