videology

The Shins’ ‘Simple Song’ Video: Old James Mercer Hates His Kids

Today, over on iTunes, James Mercer and his new bandmates debuted the visuals for “Simple Song,” the pleasant first single off Port of Morrow. Watching it requires a fair amount of persistence and Apple-password-remembering, but once you make it through, you will be rewarded with a twisted mini-movie starring Mercer as an old dead guy and the rest of the Shins as the kids who made his life hell back in the day. Without spoiling too much, we’ll just note that Old James gets his vengeance, and also that he vaguely resembles Walter White in the videotaped will. There are some bonus baby versions of all the new Shins members, too, if you like watching small evil children smash piñatas and vomit all over the play rug. Moral of the story: Be nice to your indie-band-front-man dad. Or he will crush you. Literally. 

Watch the video on iTunes. (Trailer below.)

The Shins’ ‘Simple Song’ Video: Old James Mercer Hates His Kids