Broken Bells
You gotta hear this one song. It’ll change your life I swear.
WWJD? Even if The Shins’ tune was infused with subliminal messages insisting the listener commit suicide, turning down Natalie Portman’s imperative would be next to impossible. Thus the Garden State soundtrack cornerstone “New Slang” entered our collective musical vocabulary.
Broken Bells, a collaboration between Shins’ singer James Mercer and aural harlot Danger Mouse, breaks its Mile High cherry tonight–May 29–at The Gothic Theatre. Best known as one half of Gnarls Barkley, DM–born Brian Burton–is easily one of the most in-demand producers in the industry. The left field is his field of expertise, though, as evidenced by his track record: Beck, The Black Keys, Gorillaz, Sparklehorse and Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up masterpiece The Grey Album. Grey is arguably one of Burton’s single greatest achievements, but the stunt he and British street artist Banksy played on Paris Hilton, replacing 500 copies of her manufactured pop platter with airhead heiress sound-bytes, belongs in a Prank Hall of Fame somewhere.