The Shins - you heard of them?

“You gotta hear this one song; it’ll change your life, I swear.”

If you were between 15 and 18 in 2004, you’ll know what I’m talking about.



My boss was listening to The Shins today (I know… cool boss) and I sent her this clip in response. I love The Shins (though I haven’t listened to them in a while) and I love Garden State… oh, and I also love Natalie Portman, and Zach Braff’s aight, too… anyway, so I consider this clip pretty fantastic.

But it occurred to me while reminiscing on the first time I saw Garden State, in the theatre with my sister Sarah, and “New Slang” and the movie as a whole sort of did change my life… and least in terms of music.

The amalgam of songs on the Garden State soundtrack sort of opened up this whole new world of music for me. There were all of these songs available to me once I tapped in to this underground network of subversives and hipsters. The Internet was still sort of a new-ish pastime at that point, so realizing it had the capability to introduce me to what seemed like an infinite amount of new music was this huge revelation. I started spending all of my time figuring out what else was out there that I would enjoy.

It just so happened that I started getting into “The O.C.” at that time. It was in its 2nd season and it turned out that it, too, was a platform for up and coming musicians. Thanks to the character Seth Cohen, an outcast with impeccable music taste, the gang went to all sorts of concerts with bands from Modest Mouse to Death Cab for Cutie, if I remember correctly. Oh, and Rooney, too.

Obviously “The O.C.” was a huge and extremely popular show, but somehow we (if you’ll allow me to include you in this) felt like a part of this secret club because we had Belle & Sebastian, The Dandy Warhols, Alexi Murdoch, and the Eels on our $400 iPod Minis. Can you believe a device with 4gb cost that much? Well it did...

I don’t hunt for music like I used to… it’s just not the same, involved process of writing out lists and waiting for your 5-song limit to finish downloading on LimeWire, so it doesn’t feel like such a mission every time. I also don’t really listen to the same stuff I used to, but my adolescence, and now adulthood, wouldn’t have been the same without it, and I thank Zach Braff for that.