![]() ![]() I remember one of the places that I put that song was on a website that a friend of mine had made for The Shins. What was the first moment or thing that made you realize there was going to be more life to the song? It must be nowadays! The A-side was that demo version of “New Slang.” Which I didn’t consider a demo - I was like, “This is the ultimate, best recording I could do at the time.” Then the B-side was “Sphagnum Esplanade.” Which is one of my favorites from back then. That 7” single has to be a rare item now. It’s not the one that ends up on the record. It’s the demo version of the song, actually, that’s on that single. They signed us just to be a part of their Single-of-the-Month club. They also initially signed you for a one-off single deal for “New Slang,” but then decided to sign the band overall, right? And Stuart told me that that was one of the reasons that they became more interested in us, was the fact that 30,000 kids had the record already on their computers. And it was really successful on Napster! Young college students were sharing it. ![]() I do remember Stuart Meyer, our A&R guy at Sub Pop, told me that shortly after that - because I’d given out a bunch of these CDs - somehow it ended up on Napster. That’s a pretty classic story that doesn’t really happen nowadays, in terms of a physical CD getting in the hands of a label exec. He gave that to Jonathan Poneman at Sub Pop. When we did that, I gave Isaac a burned CD that I had of this side project I was doing, The Shins. So we exchanged records, we traded, and a couple years later - it must have been ’98 - they hit us up again for Flake to come and open for them for three nights in Texas, because they knew we were from the Southwest. We opened up for them - literally at a sandwich shop in Chico, California. We had done a couple West Coast tours, and we developed a relationship with Modest Mouse. How did The Shins end up signing to Sub Pop? When you notice the things that are permanent parts of your personality, that you’ll forever deal with, was my thought. ![]() In the line “new slang when you notice the stripes,” what are the stripes? I had a new computer that I could use to increase the sound quality and so on - and it was from that year of work that “New Slang” came. So I made a deal with my parents that I would spend a year working on music. I don’t want to end up being destitute and playing gigs on the weekends.” I had spent my twenties there, kind of struggling as most musicians do - you’re in bands that don’t appear to really have a future, but as far as you know, you have no future otherwise anyway, so you keep doing it! Then by my late 20s, I started to have that gnawing anxiety about, “I’ve got to grow up. Right, if you’re from a small town, that’s a very relatable concept. Albuquerque became the symbol of my stagnant situation in life. I was in my late twenties by the time I got out of Albuquerque, so I was really chomping at the bit to find something new and experience something new as an adult. I have a lot of fondness for it, and my folks still live there and stuff, but yeah, everybody goes through a period of time - if you do live in that sort of smaller community - you kind of feel trapped. I hesitate to come across that I don’t like Albuquerque or something. Can you explain the mindset you were in when you wrote this song? This week, as Billboard pays tribute to the most iconic music to have emerged from 2001, Mercer spoke by phone about the journey “New Slang” took to become a stealth hit he also discussed his memories of Oh, Inverted World, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and about the possibility of an accompanying tour.Ī lot of the lyrics in “New Slang” are about Albuquerque. ![]()
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