The Shins – Simple Song
2012 · Directed by Daniels
192K Likes
Best comments
1.“For those who don't know, this video was directed by Daniels, who went on to be nominated for a shit-ton of Oscars for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Edit: Yeah, they won everything.”
More comments
- 2.“The other son's cake said 'Happy Belated Birthday.' Me as a parent, honestly.”
- 3.“In 2017, I was at a Shins concert in Portland, Maine, with my girlfriend. It started pouring so badly they had to cut the show short and play one last song – this was it. I had no ring and no intention of proposing that night, but suddenly I knew with my whole spirit it was time. We were soaked, cold and shivering... and happier than we'd ever been. We're still together.”
The story
Years before Everything Everywhere All at Once, before Swiss Army Man and the Turn Down for What video, the directing duo Daniels made this funeral comedy for The Shins. James Mercer plays a dead dad. His grown kids gather to watch his videotaped will, where he explains he couldn't pick which of them should get the house, so he hid the deed and it goes to whoever finds it first.
Cue the treasure hunt. The siblings tear the place apart while flashbacks show a younger, scruffier Mercer and the chaotic family life he left behind, and Mercer keeps popping up singing from his coffin. The kids are played by his touring band at the time – Richard Swift, Joe Plummer, Yuuki Matthews and Jessica Dobson – who also play the band, though none of them are on the record. They find the deed. Then the punchline: Dad was kidding. He'd already sold the house and booked the wrecking ball for that afternoon. Everybody scrambles out covered in debris, happier than they've looked all video.
Simple Song was the first single from Port of Morrow and the band's first new single in over five years. It reached number 10 on Billboard's alternative chart. Only a dad would leave his kids a scavenger hunt and a wrecking ball and call it closure.
