Broken Bells: Danger Mouse & James Mercer Indie Rock Project L.A. Showcase

via the Los Angeles Times

Broken Bells, the hotly anticipated new project between Danger Mouse and the Shins' James Mercer, had a coming-out-party Friday night (Feb. 19), performing at the intimate Bootleg Theater for industry pals and those lucky enough to score some of the tickets that went on sale Friday morning. With a capacity of about 200, tickets didn't last long, and Pop & Hiss was forced to head home to watch some Olympic ice dancing instead.

Nevertheless, plenty of amateur videographers were in attendance, and YouTube continues to help bring some context to rock 'n' roll myth-making. Above, Mercer and Danger Mouse, performing as part of what we're told was a six-piece band, dig into lead-off track "The High Road," from the act's upcoming March 9 release of its self-titled effort.

With Mercer tapping his falsetto, and the slow, trippy introduction of background harmonies, Broken Bells manages to sound familiar yet contemporary, like the uncovering of a vintage album given some modern electronic flourishes. Or, to use a musical reference point, a more soulful take on the folksy-electro sound used to great effect by the Beta Band.

Broken Bells, which will appear at the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, pulled out some rock-crit-approved covers, including the Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" and Tommy James and the Shondells' "Crimson & Clover."

Danger Mouse & The Shins' Frontman James Mercer Form Broken Bells

via Reuters

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Observed over Stellas in the lounge at the Soho Grand, Danger Mouse and James Mercer make an unlikely pair.

Mister Mouse -- whose birth name is Brian Burton -- has a neatly trimmed Afro and goatee; he could be the founder of some startup that combines social networking, crowd-sourcing and, say, cats. Mercer, best known for fronting the indie rock act the Shins, looks like Kevin Spacey. Burton represents his home base of Los Angeles -- he's a multiracial genre-crossing musician whose iPhone screensaver is a picture of ferrets dressed as characters from "The Wizard of Oz." Mercer lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, who owns an organic bedding company, and two kids. He worries about public schools and his backyard compost pile.

But when one half of Gnarls Barkley and the man behind Natalie Portman's favorite band met at a festival in 2004, things clicked. They kept in touch, hung out at other fests and finally tied the knot in 2008 and formed Broken Bells. Now, almost two years later, the pair is about to release a self-titled album, due March 9 on Columbia.

"It was good timing for both of us," Mercer says. "I was trying to figure stuff out and I wanted to do something different. I tossed around the idea of a solo record, but in the end, I'm glad Brian was looking for someone to work with, because it would have been crazy for me to do it on my own."

The album the pair created is multilayered and almost psychedelic, tethered by Mercer's steady vocals -- and it manages to sound almost nothing like the Shins or Gnarls Barkley.

Mercer is quick to add that the new project doesn't mean that the Shins are defunct. Burton says that Gnarls Barkley is on hiatus while he works on Broken Bells and Cee-Lo records a solo album, but notes that the future is unpredictable. "I never feel like I have to do anything," he says. From his pioneering Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up "The Grey Album" to his production work on Beck records, Burton's career has been built on anything but predictability.

Read the rest of the full article here:
Reuters - Danger Mouse, James Mercer ring in Broken Bells