The Shins - Phantom Limb

What this video is

Released in November 2006, 'Phantom Limb' arrived at a pivotal moment for The Shins: two years after their 'Garden State' cultural breakthrough and on the cusp of 'Wincing the Night Away,' their most commercially successful album to date. The song, described by James Mercer as a fictional account of a young lesbian couple navigating small-town hostility, is wrapped in the video's historically displaced symbolism —…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in mid-2000s American indie rock visual culture. The video demonstrates the genre's embrace of concept-driven, literary storytelling over performance or spectacle, reflecting the intellectual and cinematic ambitions of the Sub Pop/indie-blog ecosystem. Its use of historical…

The director

Patrick Daughters (born 1976, Berkeley, CA) is an American music video and commercial director. A graduate of NYU film school, he began directing music videos in 2003 after three award-winning short films attracted attention from indie bands. His debut video…