Monday 19/04/04 The Shins, The Stills, Dios @ Hop & Grape, Manchester

You would have thought that hailing from South Central LA would inject some sort of urgency into your music.  Dios however, seem to have gone completely the other way, and treated into their slacker shells with copies of ‘Pet Sounds’ and Eels ‘Daisies of the Galaxy’ for company.  Somewhat shambolic, occasionally they’ll chance upon a stoned, sun kissed groove a’ la Granddaddy, where all those good ideas gel, but its clear that there’s still some way to go before they realise their Rolling Stone betrothed ‘hotly tipped’ tag.

Looking at the success of The Strokes over here before they broke big stateside, Canada’s The Stills are the latest band to be given the big UK record company push.  Loaded with impressive credentials (recorded in a Williamsburg studio, cool 80’s references) debut ‘Logic Will Break Your Heart’ was both epic and intimate in equal measures, striking a chord with the listener who feels disenfranchised from life’s predictable path.  It’s a bit of a shame then that despite some real highlights - ‘Lola Stars & Stripes’ & the Franz like ‘Still in Love Song’ - the tendencies towards mid 80’s U2 bombast seems to be pushing bolshily to the fore.  A little more of the down beat soul searching then please. Oh, and closing the set with the drummer on vocals being spanked by the bass guitar does not a good ending make! (doesn't it?!?!? - ed)

Cult Indie icons?  Sub Pop’s most likely since Nirvana? Corporate sell outs? (James Mercer wrote the music for a recent Gap add starring Aston Kucher). There’s a lot of inherent contradictions with Albuquerque’s The Shins (they even sound check their own gear), but what is blindingly undisputable is that in Mercer you’re in the presence of a unique song writing talent and performer. A modern day Paul Simon if you will, that is crying out to be heard beyond these confines.

Veering from uncomplicated, breezy indie-pop - ‘Fighting in a Sack’ - to the warm and complex melodies of ‘Saint Simon’, The Shins are just one of those bands whom, despite the references; refuse to sound anything but unique.  And perhaps that’s why a true breakthrough to the mainstream will never happen, because they are so joyously unpredictable.  Country, west coast pop, college rock, its all there, so that by the time ‘So Says I’ surges by, the crowd are visibly ecstatic at being part of a musical journey.