It turns out The Shins are still alive after all... or sort of. While we may not be getting LP5 until some time next year after the release date was pushed back to secure a more favorable position on Coachella's lineup, Columbia Records threw fans a bone today with "Dead Alive," a new music video fronted by a skeleton James Mercer and some classic dream sequence trickery.
Appropriately spooky for the Halloween season, it's their first release since 2014's contribution to Zach Braff's Wish I Was Here, "So Now What," and signals a proper followup to 2012's Port of Morrow. There's some white in Mercer's beard now (!) but the indie mainstays still exude a youthful energy (and wear checkerboard vans) on the new single as they play around with various illusory effects and horror film tropes set to wistful melodies and glowing vocals.
