James Mercer from The Shins has passed on, but his last will and testament, shown on video to his less than grieving family, shows he’s still able to have some fun and games with them in the highly anticipated video for Simple Song directed by DANIELS – Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinart.

And like their vids for Manchester Orchestra, Battles, Foster The People, and more, its another brilliant virtuoso display from the Dans, taking a classic scenario and making something new. With a knuckleride-fast narrative, multi-characterisation and more of Daniels trademark orchestrated chaos, they smash together past and present, keeping an assured grip on proceedings – and manage to incorporate a band performance of the song too. In other words, another DANIELS stonker.

The Shins
Simple Song (Columbia)
Director: DANIELS
Prod co: PrettyBird
EP: Candice Ouaknine
Producer: Jonathan Wang
DoP: Larkin Seiple
Production Designer: Jason Kisvarday
Rep: Doomsday Ent.
Starring:
The Band: James Mercer, Richard Swift, Jessica Dobson, Joe Plummer, Yuuki Matthews
The Kids: Niko Jacobson, Natalie Shershaw, Anthony Chow, Lea Claire Zawada, Emma Smith
Mother: Tonetta Weaver
Jessica’s Husband: Nich Ealy-Elder
Girl Next Door: Emily Matthews

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