The Shins - New Slang

What this video is

Released in February 2001 on Sub Pop Records, 'New Slang' arrived at the moment indie rock was transitioning from 1990s underground insularity toward wider cultural visibility. The video's album-cover re-enactment concept encodes a deliberate indie-genealogical statement — positioning The Shins as heirs to Hüsker Dü, The Replacements, Slint, and Minutemen. Shot in Albuquerque and Portland, the video's geography…

Why it matters

A landmark artifact of early 2000s indie folk-pop and Sub Pop's second commercial wave. The video's album-cover re-enactment format is among the most cited examples of indie-rock self-referentiality in music video history, functioning simultaneously as fan document, genealogy, and aesthetic…

The director

Lance Bangs (born September 4, 1972, Sacramento, CA) is an American filmmaker and music video director. He founded the Flicker Film Festival in Athens, Georgia in 1990 and developed his craft in that city's indie music scene. He is known for directing videos…