Sydney

The Shins influence on modern indie music is immense - a key gateway band in a genius sphere of songwriting who celebrate the possibilities of what songcraft can do for the soul. An important band, who we were honoured to release their third album “Wincing the Night Away” with our friends at Sub Pop. 

As part of this campaign, we sought to bring the band over to the UK and Europe, and introduce them to a new audience in a way that we would all of our acts - with love, care, attention and an abundance of unique 7” singles. 

One of which saw an exclusive b-side - a cover of The Magnetic Fields, another legendary songwriting force from the USA, which we offer to you today for free download.

FREE DOWNLOAD

The Shins - Strange Powers (The Magnetic Fields Cover)

Music & lyrics by Dean Valentino 
Recorded & produced by Michael Belsar 
Mixed by Geoffrey O'Connor 
Mastered by David Walker 
Artwork by William Devereux

Drums hit by John Philip

In Limbo

falling asleep 
in the backseat 
of your car

honey coloured sun 
on my eyelashes

soft skin
red mouths

quiet cream walls
warm arms engulfing
hazy afternoon

1997

Today’s episode features Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie and Low’s Alan Sparhawk—and it's the first to be curated by Talkhouse’s new Executive Editor Josh Modell, who joins me to introduce it. (Welcome, Josh!)

Ben and Alan’s talk goes all the way back to the earliest days of their bands, and up to the present with the fantastic LPs they each recently dropped. We hear about the formative teenage moments when seeing bands changed their lives; staying open to new sounds as "men of a certain age playing rock & roll;" Ben blatantly ripping off Low on his earliest Death Cab material; and how Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock spent a long time looking like he’d just crawled out of a dumpster.

Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Feel free to DM me to let me know which artist(s) you’d love to see appear on a future episode.

—Elia Einhorn, Talkhouse Podcast host and producer

This episode was recorded at Bad Animals in Seattle, by Maija Jenson at KUMD 103.3 FM Duluth Public Radio, and by Mark Yoshizumi at Hook and Fade Studios in Brooklyn. It was co-produced by Mark Yoshizumi.

The Talkhouse Podcast’s theme song was composed and performed by The Range.

I Don't Want To Get Over You (The Magnetic Fields)

Ochre Trash