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august 30, 2014
Simple Song
The Shins, bridge clubs, having fun, and Frindle
i’ve been yellowcarding “Simple Song” since i saw The Shins a few weeks ago.
OK, technically before- i had peeked at the prior nights’ setlists and saw it was a set ender for them (pre-encore, but still ) and like… yeah. yeah it is. it’s the best!
truthfully, i was yellowcarding “Simple Song” the day it came out. over and over and over. i’ve got some obsessive energy when it comes to most things i enjoy, but it’s still so invigorating when a song pulls me in that hard and doesn’t let go. i remember hearing it for the first time, and the second, and the seventeeth - it was one of the first days of class of my sixth semester in college and it made me feel like things were gonna be OK.
the build, the squealing guitars, the driving beat. it’s an anthem. it felt triumphant and exciting. it was something i’d clearly only heard for the first time, but already familiar. and it’s corny when you break it down, because it IS simple. there’s nothing it does particularly out of the ordinary on the surface. it’s just an impressively perfected chunk of pop rock that hits your brain in the right spots. one of the best ones of those there is.
i have a bit of a back-pocket game i like to play where i talk about songs with all-timer bridges. there’s nothing better than a song with a bridge that maintains - or more ideally, recontextualizes - the energy the rest of the song brings. it can’t feel forced, and it can’t feel pasted in. i fucked up bigtime that night because i turned to Billy during the refrain and screamed in his ear:
“IT’S IN THE ALL-TIMER BRIDGE CLUB , TOO!”
Billy yelled back:
“IT’S PERFECT! IT’S JUST ANOTHER CHORUS!”
something he was technically literally correct about, and possibly just being normally correct about when you consider whether or not he could even make out what i was saying. it was in fact the second refrain of the song - the second time we’d heard it. but i’d like to think he was in the same place i was in thinking that it actually was just a great bridge whose neat trick was harnessing the energy of its own wonderful little refrain. and i think that’s part of the magic.
the refrain is leading. it’s got the segway energy of an all-timer bridge. there’s nothing different about the actual refrain that goes into the bridge. but it FEELS like it’s always leading. it’s a song built to not wear out.
kudos where it’s due - the actual bridge still earns “Simple Song” a spot in the All-Timer Bridge Club. it’s nothing more than it needs to be. it starts with a contemplative little instrumental guitar vs fuzzy bass noodle that lasts all of maybe 20 seconds? overstaying one’s welcome is one of the worst things any piece of art/living thing can do, so that’s a gold star right off the bat. it’s also nothing you haven’t heard from the rest of the song already, but it’s recontextualized into a mysterious and contemplative little back-and-forth that still hits me the same way it did 10 years ago. and - banger alert - the rest of the bridge IS JUST THE FIRST FUCKING VERSE AGAIN! your guts know it sounds different, but still familiar. neat trick, James! you think you’re so tough. fuck you!
The Shins concert on September 10, 2022 was weird - eventually good, even great. they played Oh, Inverted World front-to-back along with a smattering of back catalogue highlights. it was the first/only -The Shins- show i’ve attended. i like The Shins a lot! also: i will never think about The Shins without recalling reading a Pitchfork article in 2009 that felt like some hella drama at the time. they had reported that James did some kinda big shake-up within “the band” and fired all the usual players. and then a week later they reported that the drummer was opening a taco truck. good for him! i love tacos.
and speaking of drumming: the show’s was… sloppy. hard to put it any other way. i can’t drum for shit so i’m not going to pretend like i could have done any better, but tempos were neither consistent nor dialed in. “New Slang” had some intense funeral procession energy. it’s the Oh, Inverted World Anniversary Tour , my dudes! how do you do your big song wrong like that?! “New Slang” is not a slow trot - it’s got energy. this did not. it didn’t seem like anyone on stage was enjoying playing it. it’s tough to convey how disappointing it was. i saw Sufjan (Stevens, specifically) play a strange version of “Chicago” at Eaux Claires in 2015, and as i was listening to “New Slang”, it’s all i could think about. yes - it was weird, but everyone on stage was having fun! and if you’re having fun, i’m probably having a lot of fun! or at the very least having a lot of fun watching you have fun.
then the speakers cut out and things got weird and fun! the band goofed around on “Walk This Way”, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, some other song i didn’t recognize, and “The Sweater Song” while waiting for the venue to make the speakers go bwoww woww again. it was pretty rad being in a room with a bunch of dorks screaming Weezer back to The Shins (or the backing band, that is - James was just sorta watching, which was funny and strange in its own way). i saw Weezer live at Riot Fest a couple years ago, and in contrast to that show and the majority of the show The Shins had put on so far, this was finally giving some good energy. yes! more of this, please!
the speakers eventually came back on and the set resumed. they played a song or two i didn’t recognize. and then “Simple Song”. it was the exact right tempo. they were on top of it. the energy was palpable. the audience was into it. it’s a march! it’s a celebration! the whole song is this amazing build up that keeps paying off. it’s not trying to be anything more than it is. song fucking goes.
i like to consider myself someone that knows the lyrics to many of my favorite artists, but James Mercer’s lyrics have always evaded me. when i mentioned this that night, Billy screamed-laughed back:
“I JUST DO THE SHAPES OF THE WORDS!”
so it sounds like i’m not alone. to this day i don’t really know what the song is about. and i’m not going to look up the lyrics. i don’t care. it’s always felt triumphant but melancholy like all of the best Shins/Broken Bells songs, and also by the way it’s a love song or something. who cares? “New Slang” might be their most iconic song, but it’s never given me the pep in my step that “Simple Song” does every time i play it.
and look - the encore was dandy. but it certainly wasn’t necessary at that point. i don’t have the time or energy to unpack my anti-encore stance right now, but i would have been thrilled to go out into the night with “Simple Song” ringing in my ears (because i forgot my earplugs).
one of my best friends had never even heard of Frindle. don’t embarass me, nerd! almost everyone else i know read it in middle school. it’s about a kid who calls his pen a frindle and then it catches on and calling your pen a frindle becomes a weird craze that takes over the whole fucking world or something very silly like that. he gets on the news! the cover is the hero of our story who looks a lot like the kid from the Magic School Bus holding one of those Bic pens you had in your trapper keeper. it made every kid just fucking psyched about the idea of what words can mean and do and also the general idea of “going viral” before that was something we craved or feared.
yellowcarding - in this context, right now, for me - is active fixation. when i can’t stop thinking about / processing / consuming a song. or an album. or a movie? art. content. an idea. a problem. a frustration. no matter what, i’m buckled up for the ride. i don’t want off the ride. “again”, i think. listening to “Ocean Avenue” over and over and over. i can’t get enough. i’m not sure i ever will.
i’ve been yellowcarding “Simple Song” this whole time and it still feels fresh. that’s the stuff!
best,
C D