The Shins

When I Goose Step, The Gloating Sun b/w New Slang (When You Notice the Stripes)

scum stats: limited to 1000 copies, green vinyl

I’m kinda embarrassed that the Sub Pop Singles Club has been active since April and I have yet to write about (let alone LISTEN to) any of the singles they’ve spat out. Shit. Piles. Up.

Unexpectedly, the Shins is the release that’s jumped out to me most from this round of the club. But I’ll be damned if it’s WAY too confusing to find any info out about these songs.

Not being a die-hard Shins acolyte, I at the very least recognize the titles. But with no context on the packaging, could not tell the provenance of the recordings.

After rooting around on the internet, I find some rumblings that these are remastered versions of songs originally released on a tour-only CD EP in 1999, which apparently, no one has ever bothered to put on Discogs?

Additionally, “Goose Step” and “Gloating” were later put on a 7-inch single by Omnibus Records that same year.

Luckily, that HAS been put on Discogs. But when I click on the embedded YouTube video for “Goose Step” it is an ENTIRELY different version than the one on the Sub Pop single I’m currently holding in my cold dead hands.

Discogs nor streaming nor incessant Googling provides an easy accurate answer as to where this OTHER version of “Goose” lives or came from. Apparently there’s a take on the “Wicker Park” soundtrack, but I can’t really tell which one that is.

HELP ME.

Anyway, the version on this single is alright, but I tend to prefer the more sparse, almost “demo” version found in the depths of YouTube. “Gloating Sun” is whatever.

I imagine most people will be most moved by “New Slang” as made ubiquitous by Natalie Portman and “Garden State.” It’s the moneymaker and with understandable good reason. Shit’s good.

I remember visiting the Sub Pop offices right around the time that was starting to hit and there was a stack of boxes, up to my shoulder, filled with promo CDs of just “New Slang” that were being sent out as part of a promotional radio campaign. Even the folks there seemed unsure as to what was really going on, thems caught unaware of the huge crush of excitement about the band that was about to hit. What a time to be alive…makes me feel just a little bit special crossing paths.

It all feels heartwarming. And while I may be a bit unhappy of the strategy of using the Singles Club as an avenue for reissue (of which I think this is the first ever instance), I’m always a fan of big bands taking part in the spectacle. I’ve been a subscriber since the 2nd iteration and am PROUD of it. There’s more than a little bit of inspiration taken from the subscription model popularized by the Singles Club and spun into this Third Man Vault world, so in some weird way, we might not even be here were it not for the idea Sub Pop had back in 1988. Oh, and to make it all the more cyclical the Singles Club Vol. 4 were all pressed at Third Man Pressing in Detroit. How badass? So proud. Sign yourselves up for round 5.